hi, we pick up our black lab boy Jake on 1/4/16 when he will be 8 weeks old. Any recommendations on insurers, and what is a realistic level of cover? I'm assuming lifetime cover is best? (We have had cats for years and insure them but not sure what sort of cost surgery is in a Labrador).
What sort of cover amount should I be looking for? Pet plan do £4000 for £35 a month lifetime. Do John Lewis pay the vet directly?
I'm with petplan, they have been very good. In terms of cover to choose, it depends what you are most concerned about. If you want to cover general vet bills, choose a low excess and a lowish level of cover, and lifetime cover isn't so very important. I decided that I really wanted to insure against 'the big stuff' and so I took lifetime cover, a very high level of cover and a high excess (to make the premiums affordable). My excess is £500, so I can't claim for minor things. It turned out to be a great decision - very unfortunately, my dog ruptured his cruciate ligaments, and I had £24,000 worth of cover. And I spent a lot of it!
My dog's last cruciate operation, which was complicated (I won't bore you) and ended up with him being referred to Cambridge vet school, ended up costing close to £7k. And that's before the cost of follow up x-rays, extra CT scans, physios, hydro etc. Goodness knows how much something worse could cost - vet's bills can reach an astronomical amount, extremely quickly.
It was £7k per leg....by the way. He did both cruciates. It was, no doubt, due to an inherited disease - a weakness in his cruciate ligaments (there is not genetic test for it in the parents, as yet). He is fine now, yes. Everything went smoothly, he recovered well, and he is back enjoying life.
Glad he is ok. I'm now panicking slightly at things dogs seem to do involving vet visits more than cats. Maybe I shouldn't have asked all my friends about vets and insurance. Blockages and broken legs have been mentioned as expensive. However, at least I now have a realistic view of how much dog procedures cost!
We're with PetPlan too and I'd definitely go with them again if I was choosing from scratch. Had no problem with claims, and I've found them to be good on the phone. Although we've made claims, our premiums have basically stayed the same (maybe gone up by $10 per year or something small like that).
I am also with Pet Plan have been with them for over 30 years and have been pleased. If your pup has free insurance for the first 6 weeks or so, make sure you overlap the insurances by two weeks as the new insurance won't insure you for the first two weeks. You could instead, have a separate savings account and put the money away monthly, but that will not cover something like @JulieT had!
I'm with Direct Line and in honesty they have been brilliant. Harley had pyometra when she was one, the bill was settled directly with the vets. We also had loads of tests around her sensitive tummy over a period of 6 months and again they paid out no problem and our premiums only went up by £5 a month last year. They haven't put exclusions on against her tummy when we renewed in the past 2 years which I understand a lot of insurance companies would.
Sam is insured with Tesco , I was reasonably happy with them until last September . Sam got really ill , wouldn't eat or drink , some sort of nasty bacterial infection , he had to have blood tests as his lymph glands were all swollen and so the bill was around £285 , not a massive amount really as our Vet is a long term friend as well as our Vet . Tesco took three weeks to pay and then , despite the fact that this has been my only claim in almost five years, put the premiums up by quite a hike . I shant be renewing with them . Our rescue mongrelly type isn't insured as she was a former stray with no history , and an older girlie , I was quoted £100 month but would rather just make sure we have a " Millie pot "
After being left in the lurch when AXA pulled out of pet insurance I would now only trust a company specializing in it. So I have put my Lab with Petplan and my Pointer who was too old for Petplan is now with Lifetime Pet Cover who are a new company, but seem very reasonable and paid out within a week for a recent claim.
