# Is having a dog insurance good?



## Pkay (May 13, 2016)

Do you think taking a dog insurance is good? 
Or the premium we pay itself would cover the vet bills for the year? 
(Around 500$ a year)

I am first time pet mom. I have a 4 month healthy puppy. He puked once last night. I wish to give the best care I can, But instead I started worrying about Vet bills I might incur. 
Felt bad in a way and looked for insurance.

Any reference for a good pet insurance? 
AKC, Embrace, Petsbest .....


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## puddles everywhere (May 13, 2016)

I do not have insurance but starting to rethink the idea. I have never had to pay full price for vet care as I always used the vet I worked for. We both retired so facing reality this year.

I lost my last golden at the 1st of this year and it was $2000. for just the one week of care, it came on so quickly. I have a new puppy and she has cost me almost as much in vet bills since picking her up in April and she is not well yet and will still need to be spayed. Reading this forum I realize I have been lucky, many people have had much worse problems than a marathon UTI. 

You just never no what might be in your future, it might be worth it. I have been watching the forum for input on this subject, glad you asked the question. I will be watching to see the feedback you get.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

You need a "neutral" option.


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## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

I don't look at pet insurance as something to cover regular vet bills. I think annual exams, vaccines, minor things (like torn nail or paw pad) are all just part of having a dog.

I have pet insurance for a catastrophic illness or accident. My last dog had cancer. She only lived about 2-3 months from her diagnosis. But what I will pay in monthly insurance for my new dog over the course of a 12 year life, won't approach what I paid for my first dog's cancer surgeries and treatment. So I consider it well worth it. I recommend insurance that has no illness or annual cap on pay outs. Having a cap at $5000 probably won't get you through a cancer diagnosis. 

The earlier in your pup's life you get insurance, the more will be covered. And the more affordable it will be.


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## Kalhayd (May 4, 2016)

We have it now for our 4-month old. And boy do we wish we had it prior to her getting ill. It is worth its weight in gold. We only do accident/illness(cancer coverage included). All regular check-ups, and minor sick visits, would be covered by us.


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

My last Golden barely had a day's illness in her life - until she was diagnosed with cardiac hemangiosarcoma at age 8. What she had was untreatable, but in the few days that she lived after becoming sick, I still paid out much more in vet's fees than the total amount of insurance premiums I would have paid in her lifetime. Had we been able to treat her, the cost would have been well into five figures.

A dog belonging to a friend of mine tore his ACL a few months ago: $5,000. A friend who got a new pup at about the same time as me just paid more than that for an operation to remove an intestinal blockage, followed by emergency treatment when the recovery didn't go as planned. Neither had insurance.

When we got our new pup earlier this year, the first thing I did was to take out insurance for him. We chose Trupanion: there's no cap on payments and I was able to choose my own level of deductible to keep the premium lower. This company gets good reviews. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

A tip: If you are considering insurance, get it as soon as your pup comes home. Any treatment the pup receives before the policy is in force is considered as a pre-existing condition and won't be covered. For example, if your pup has a UTI before you take out insurance, treatment for all future UTIs will be excluded from your policy.

Also, note that insurance doesn't cover routine or elective treatments: spaying, yearly check-ups, heartworm and tick medication, annual vaccines, etc. None of these are covered.

I find it comforting to know that if my dog gets a catastrophic illness, cost won't be a factor in deciding how to treat him.


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## G-bear (Oct 6, 2015)

We have insurance also. Like Sweet Girl we did not get it to cover regular vet bills. Our insurance does not. We got it to cover illness and injury. I have had a dog that developed diabetes at the age of 9. Over the next 4 years our costs for treatment were close to $10,000. I also lost a golden to cancer. Again a very expensive disease to treat. Yes, the premiums are expensive. I pay roughly $450 a year. That having been said one bottle of insulin (which had to be the human type as the canine insulin did not work for Maggie) cost me $225. And it lasted 2 months. Maggie's insulin alone cost me about $1,350 a year and that did not include the constant bloodwork, test strips, etc. Now I have insurance. I hope I don't need to use the pet insurance but knowing I have it allows me to rest a little easier. It's a tough decision to make until you need it. Then you wish you had purchased it.


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## Prism Goldens (May 27, 2011)

I have extremely healthy and low-Health Care maintenence dogs. 
I spend a small fortune on vet care, but I do a lot of things most pet people don't do so like echo heart clearances and yearly eye exams and 
I use a repro specialist for most of my breedings since I am fond of OLD dogs or dead dogs whose progeny is proven safe and healthy (so that's why I spend so little on 'upkeep care'....
That said, after we had a catastrophic illness last year, which ran us with my daughter's vet school discount over 13k for the 10 days, I decided future keepers would get insurance. Just for the 'oddball' stuff like we had last year... non-predictable, super expensive. I've enrolled my latest puppy (Trupanion if you're interested) and paid for first year in advance so I don't feel like it's a bill per say. 
I'll let you know in about 12 years if it paid off....


I tell puppy people that if they find a policy that covers things like vaccines and well-care, they should invest in it. Even if it goes to %ages of investment if you get a devastating diagnosis, it's still a good thing to not have to pay the whole shebang and it'd keep one from coloring the choices based solely on money.


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## Panama Rob (Nov 26, 2015)

I had a friend who's dog developed a very bad condition. He was working away on an assignment but rushed home (500 miles). The vet told him that they could treat it but the treatment was very pricey. My friend told the vet to do it. The vet said, "I didn't tell you how pricey". My friend replied, "Did I {Expletive} stutter? TREAT IT!!!" 

I have insurance for the same reason. Dakota is my child and I could not bear to have to make a life or death health decision based upon finances. I have had to pay for ACL surgery before and my ex gf had a dog bitten by a cottonmouth during a hike and we had to have emergency anti venom treatment which was thousands.


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## LittleRedDawg (Oct 5, 2011)

I have insurance... give me another month and I'll tell you what I think. I got it just for catastrophic conditions... in 24 hours I recently acquired a $3700 bill at one clinic. If PetPlan pays like they advertise, it'll be one of the better financial decisions I've made in a long time. 

If not, I will be switching carriers.


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## CnCFusion (Feb 15, 2016)

I have Healthy Paws for Mochi. I had gotten it less than a week after he came home, but in between the waiting period he developed colitis, so therefore they will never cover any treatment for colitis for the rest of his life (pre-existing condition). Therefore it's very important to get it as early as possible...

Our insurance covers accidents/illnesses but not doctor's visits (well or ill), and no routine (vaccines). I consider those to be the investment you have to make if you want a dog.... but it will pay for meds, MRI, Xrays, any treatment (cancer + hip dysplasia included).

I have a $250 deductible (per year... some insurances have deductible per incident or per "illness" so research on that), and we chose our coverage to be 90%. MOchi is 7 months and so far I'm paying $44 a month roughly.

I had a previous dog who was healthy all throughout but his last day with us cost me $4000 in lab work and other exams to rule out different DX (didn't even include treatment because his prognosis was so slim and he was 14.5yo, and the vet thinks he had a ruptured tumor in his abdomen)... if I had insurance back then it would have been worth almost all the premiums I would have paid for him.....

God forbid Mochi was to develop one of those illnesses I don't want to be making the one weighing pros and cons.


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## Ozzy666 (Oct 18, 2016)

I have never bought it, but we may buy it when we get our new puppy due to extensive vet bills in the past.


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## mjbaker84 (Jan 9, 2014)

who do you guys recommend for insurance?


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## danoon58 (Jul 1, 2015)

I have Healthy Paws for Seamus and Sonny. I purchased it on Seamus the week he came home lest something happen that would then be a pre-existing condition. I was looking at surgery on Seamus (didn't need it thankfully) and a colonoscopy on Sonny (didn't need it either YAY) so it was going to pay off big. 

I would not be without insurance any longer. I think of a case like Kalhayd's Dory with the Parvo and think OMG insurance would have helped so much! 

The other think is there are so many conditions that Golden's can get, I feel that if I take the expense aspect out of it I can make a better informed Dog mom decision.


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## Jaxmommy (Oct 21, 2017)

I recently got a new kitten and after researching tons of insurers and plans, I got Healthy Paws for him. I did the one with a $250 yearly deductible with 80% coverage - unlimited, but doesn't cover wellness exams, reproductive surgeries and office visits, but does treat cancer, accidents, illnesses, meds, etc. I figure I will wait and possibly apply the 90% in a year or so. I don't know why I had never thought to check out pet insurance before. My in-laws had gotten it for their dogs year and years ago, and I remember they said it wasn't great but was better than nothing. Well, it is MUCH better now than it was 20 plus years ago. My kitten came with a one month insurance plan with the option to renew and that's what got me searching. I found another insurer and plan I liked better. 

Unfortunately my beautiful golden Jax started having medical issues the day after I brought the kitten home, so I was never able to put insurance on him like I was planning to, and he succumbed to hemangiosarcoma 4 days ago. We spent thousands already on him and that didn't involve anything major, as there was nothing they could really do for him.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

I'm a big fan of Embrace. I have a very healthy dog, but in sport related injuries they've sure paid out more than I've paid in.


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## Luv2liv (Oct 8, 2018)

Poll is closed but for future owners YES, and from puppyhood onwards! We had petplan- i would shiver quietly as the bill went up each year, but they followed through fully and promptly on all our claims, provided we sent records. It was worth it to us given we had some surgery, and certainly for mental sanity. I never worried about money when we walked into the emergency vet, so could focus 100% on my pup. 

My thoughts: Our Golden was family- for me, i would never have a family member without medical insurance. We bought FULL insurance because folk can typically afford preventative care, but its the real emergencies that need insurance. We never wanted to be in a situation where we had to choose "treat or euthanize", just because of financial considerations. Thankfully we never were.


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## Emmdenn (Jun 5, 2018)

We are bringing home our puppy (finally!!) on November 10th. We are thinking of going with FIGO for pet insurance. One thing that we liked is that FIGO has an app that you can download on your phone to view claims and complete history of your dogs treatments, vet visits and things like that. You can see once the claim has been accepted and when they have reimbursed you. The reimbursement can then be transferred straight into your bank account. We looked into trupanion and healthy paws as well, but just liked FIGO better.

We will probably go with the 90%. I know it does not cover routine visits (although you can customize your policy to cover more). We are going to get it ASAP when our pup comes home.


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