Pet Insurance

[quasi]

I've always been someone who's said pet insurance is not worth it, and honestly up until the last few years that has been true for me with multiple dogs.

Last year one of my dogs ended up with a staph infection from scratching his belly and legs (allergies), long story short he had to have surgery and ended up with a fist size open wound that took about 4 months to close, basically all summer last year. If you can imagine what a pain in the ass it is to have a dog with a massive wound on his knee that is wide open, I'm talking muscles exposed it's nasty AF (I can post pictures if you guys have a strong stomach), it's hard to keep clean this mofo would go outside and rub dirt in it. I was at the vet on average at least once a week for 4 months I spent probably $4,000 to $5,000 with this issue that doesn't include his $140 a month for allergy medication and the ear issues both my dogs have had.

My other dog, about a month ago he started having bloody stool, thought it was a parasite or something made 4 vet trips totalling around $1,000 through two weeks and eventually had to take him to the animal hospital another $3,000 for 1 night of tests. Turns out he's terminal with cancer, he might have 2-3 months, his medication is about $100 a week to keep him comfortable.

Other dog has had more ear issues, been to the vet as well 3 times in the last 2 weeks hundreds of dollars there.

Anyway, I just wanted to say I was wrong. Sometimes insurance is worth it. It's obviously too late now as both these dogs have way too many preexisting conditions but if you're getting a new pup consider the insurance lol.

[Acura604]

I've had my lhasa apso for 4yrs now - no pet insurance.

So far, aside from the typical shots ....he ran into 1 issue that cost me $800.

this was in winter...i'm not sure what it was...but it was either he got sick from road salt OR a boston pizza meatball.

however - I may get pet insurance next year.

[westopher]

I've spent close to 10k in insurance premiums over 10 years with my dog. Mid last year he came down with two types of cancer, and was given a very low survival rate with the suggestion of either putting him down, or more testing to decide treatment. We are about 30k worth of tests and surgeries later that cost me about 4-5k out of pocket and he is now about 10 months since that and has good prognosis for living a natural lifespan instead of the suggestion of euthanasia. It's well worth it, as it made it easy to make the decision to pursue treatment further. At this point, if the cancer comes back I would choose not to put him through the trauma of more surgeries and assess, but I'm so thankful to have this extra time with him, especially with the birth of our daughter in the middle of all this. I'll definitely do the same with our next dog. It was worth 10k just to not have to face that decision with the regret of wondering if we could have done more. His energy levels are great and he's enjoying life with the new addition to the family and shows it every day.

[whitev70r]

I think if you wait just a bit longer ... Jagmeet and the NDP will make make pet care health insurance available to all regardless of income.

[westopher]

You mean if your household income is below 90k

[sonick]

I have had pet insurance for my dogs the past few years at around $500 to $700 per year each, but this year my premium on one of the dogs more than doubled to nearly $1600 and so we decided to stop the policy on one of them and just use our savings should anything come up.

Will see if we regret it later on.

[unit]

i put like $30 per month aside per cat, so $60 per month.
i don't dip into it for stuff like checkups or relatively cheap vet visits (under $200), but its nice to keep it aside in case something big happens like a tooth extraction or something more serious eventually.
of course i'm a degen so i invest their money into an etf. my cats own stocks!

[FN-2199]

What company have you all insured with? Any recommendations?

[westopher]

I’m on trupanion. It’s never been cheap, but payouts have been hassle free, and most Vets do direct billing with them. It’s made all this shit pretty problem free on the payment end.

[sonick]

I was on petplan (now Fetch), and was very happy with them.

[quasi]

Bumping this, another tick in the long list of reasons I should have got insurance on this dog lol.

He tore his ACL last week, with Xray's and surgery another $5,000 bill.

[donk.]

I think dog insurance "may" be more worth it than cat insurance.

I don't know a single person that has not had a large dog bill, regardless of age.

But cats just seem to do their own thing

My cat is pushing 20 years, and in the last year I've probably spent 2000$ in vet visits. She's going full senile.
Before that, she has never been to the vet, other than typical shots when she was small.
Same goes for most of my families cats over the years, I don't think a single one has been to the vet

[SkinnyPupp]

After what I just went through with Jett, a $10K USD bill, in addition to the $12K we spent on his gall bladder surgery 3 years ago (and other minor visits due to other accidents he's had including knocking his teeth out).. Yeah I'd say pet insurance is probably worth it, even if it lowers the price just a little.

But if he lives for another - I can't even put any time on it, anything is a bonus now and we appreciate every minute of him being around - it's worth it.

Sometimes you get lucky and your cat lives for decades without issues, sometimes you get an accident prone cat like we did and go broke

[quasi]

I actually think there is a decent chance he tore the other knee well healing the leg he had surgery on. At this point I'm beyond wanting to puke and I just have to laugh at the situation because this fucking dog is a bigger money pit than an exotic car.

Hopefully it's just a strain and works itself out but I don't think I'm lucky.

[SkinnyPupp]

Oh damn he must be putting more pressure on the good knee and either tore it or strained it.. Get better soon!