OT - Pet Insurance?

Ozzie_Isaac · January 13

Does anyone have Pet Insurance or first hand experience with it? Can’t tell if it’s a good idea or better to just put “premium” in an account to use in case of something severe?

fishlessman · January 13

Ozzie_Isaac said:

Does anyone have Pet Insurance or first hand experience with it? Can’t tell if it’s a good idea or better to just put “premium” in an account to use in case of something severe?

never had it, so far out of all of them one died at 10.5 years with bad kidneys and a hole in his cardinal heart sack. (he was a gonner after eating some duck jerky treats made by purina and insurance would not have helped). they get raw marrow bones and beef back bones for snacks now.

newest pup is 2.5 years old and has had a half dozen seizures over the last year. less than a minute in length and mostly early mornings. vet wants a video as seizures dont normally happen at 4 in the morning with the hunting breeds. cant say if the insurance will cost more than the meds as they look fairly cheap on line

my older britt is currently 14.5 and my gsd made 18 yo without incidence

Ozzie_Isaac · January 13

I’ve had many dogs, largest bills were $1800 for a rattlesnake bite, $400 for eating an oven mitt, and probably $1500/dog for two that came down with valley fever. I’m not sure on how it works for emergency treatment, checkups, etc. My view of insurance is they wouldn’t offer it if they didn’t make money - house always wins. However, as costs keep rising and my ability to drop $ks without thinking has changed I’m thinking of options.

On your seizures front, I had a Jack Russel who had seizures, it was related to low blood sugar. After working hard I would give her a bowl of sugar water. It solved her seizures.

fishlessman · January 13

Ozzie_Isaac said:

I’ve had many dogs, largest bills were $1800 for a rattlesnake bite, $400 for eating an oven mitt, and probably $1500/dog for two that came down with valley fever. I’m not sure on how it works for emergency treatment, checkups, etc. My view of insurance is they wouldn’t offer it if they didn’t make money - house always wins. However, as costs keep rising and my ability to drop $ks without thinking has changed I’m thinking of options.

On your seizures front, I had a Jack Russel who had seizures, it was related to low blood sugar. After working hard I would give her a bowl of sugar water. It solved her seizures.

not sure yet whats going on with this one, britts usually drop after intense feild work in the afternoon, not in the early morning hours. she wants a 4 am urine sample and my britts never been on leash. going to be fun trying this in the dark zero degree morning hours.

fishlessman · January 13

fishlessman said:

Ozzie_Isaac said:

I’ve had many dogs, largest bills were $1800 for a rattlesnake bite, $400 for eating an oven mitt, and probably $1500/dog for two that came down with valley fever. I’m not sure on how it works for emergency treatment, checkups, etc. My view of insurance is they wouldn’t offer it if they didn’t make money - house always wins. However, as costs keep rising and my ability to drop $ks without thinking has changed I’m thinking of options.

On your seizures front, I had a Jack Russel who had seizures, it was related to low blood sugar. After working hard I would give her a bowl of sugar water. It solved her seizures.

not sure yet whats going on with this one, britts usually drop after intense feild work in the afternoon, not in the early morning hours. she wants a 4 am urine sample and my britts never been on leash. going to be fun trying this in the dark zero degree morning hours.

the other side of this is that with more people opting to pay ins, the costs look to be increasing. 1 small stitch on a dogs forehead costs a grand

Ozzie_Isaac · January 13

fishlessman said:

fishlessman said:

Ozzie_Isaac said:

I’ve had many dogs, largest bills were $1800 for a rattlesnake bite, $400 for eating an oven mitt, and probably $1500/dog for two that came down with valley fever. I’m not sure on how it works for emergency treatment, checkups, etc. My view of insurance is they wouldn’t offer it if they didn’t make money - house always wins. However, as costs keep rising and my ability to drop $ks without thinking has changed I’m thinking of options.

On your seizures front, I had a Jack Russel who had seizures, it was related to low blood sugar. After working hard I would give her a bowl of sugar water. It solved her seizures.

not sure yet whats going on with this one, britts usually drop after intense feild work in the afternoon, not in the early morning hours. she wants a 4 am urine sample and my britts never been on leash. going to be fun trying this in the dark zero degree morning hours.

the other side of this is that with more people opting to pay ins, the costs look to be increasing. 1 small stitch on a dogs forehead costs a grand

That is why I usually use my large animal vet (old school rodeo vet) for my dogs. He would stitch them up and barely charge anything. He was also very pragmatic and never asked if I wanted a million scans/blood tests. Unfortunately, I’ve moved pretty far away from him now. He used to be just down the road.

fishlessman · January 13

i try and barter. made 20 bkts for solar panels on a 30 plus foot sail boat, parts for her bee hives, fixed some warped all-clad pans etc. i dont even know how one warps all-clads. those emergency hospitals in maine are nuts on the weekend though especially when you just need something simple like antibiotics. dogs always seem to get hurt on weekends

ColbyLang · January 13

I spent close to 20k on my Weimaraner prior to having kids. He had CHF at 10 years old. Cardiologist at LSU, human heart meds. Pet insurance wouldn’t have covered half of it. My vet says the juice isn’t worth the squeeze

alaskanassasin · January 13

Bro. I love my dogs but dang.

WestAusEgg · January 14

Hi all, new to the forum and didn’t think my first post would be about pet insurance haha

I have two Dobermans and both have pet insurance. Roughly $2000 aud annually and that’s gives $20,000 cover.

Doberman 1 had life saving surgery resulting in an 8 day stay in ICU and a vet bill of $34,000. Pet insurance paid $20,000.

Doberman 2 (puppy) is a scavenger and eats anything and everything. He ended up with a fully blocked lower intestine requiring surgery to remove the blockage. That was $13,500. Pet insurance paid 80% which was $11,000 or so.

It’s definitely worth it in my opinion. Although, I’m not sure how much it costs in other countries.

Ozzie_Isaac · January 14

WestAusEgg said:

Hi all, new to the forum and didn’t think my first post would be about pet insurance haha

I have two Dobermans and both have pet insurance. Roughly $2000 aud annually and that’s gives $20,000 cover.

Doberman 1 had life saving surgery resulting in an 8 day stay in ICU and a vet bill of $34,000. Pet insurance paid $20,000.

Doberman 2 (puppy) is a scavenger and eats anything and everything. He ended up with a fully blocked lower intestine requiring surgery to remove the blockage. That was $13,500. Pet insurance paid 80% which was $11,000 or so.

It’s definitely worth it in my opinion. Although, I’m not sure how much it costs in other countries.

Welcome to the forum! You will find the breadth and depth of the forum is much more than BBQ. Thank you for your input. I have one dog who is a scavenger and loves to dig through the trash. That one worries me.

fishlessman · January 14

Ozzie_Isaac said:

WestAusEgg said:

Hi all, new to the forum and didn’t think my first post would be about pet insurance haha

I have two Dobermans and both have pet insurance. Roughly $2000 aud annually and that’s gives $20,000 cover.

Doberman 1 had life saving surgery resulting in an 8 day stay in ICU and a vet bill of $34,000. Pet insurance paid $20,000.

Doberman 2 (puppy) is a scavenger and eats anything and everything. He ended up with a fully blocked lower intestine requiring surgery to remove the blockage. That was $13,500. Pet insurance paid 80% which was $11,000 or so.

It’s definitely worth it in my opinion. Although, I’m not sure how much it costs in other countries.

Welcome to the forum! You will find the breadth and depth of the forum is much more than BBQ. Thank you for your input. I have one dog who is a scavenger and loves to dig through the trash. That one worries me.

aluminum beer can pieces all over the house a couple weeks ago from a trash basket run. didnt see them til after a long weekend away. no telling if he ate some but havent seen any problems so far. hopefully he just liked the sound of chewing on it

JohnInCarolina · January 14

I used to think people who paid thousands of dollars in vet bills to save their pups were nuts. These days… not so much.

Gulfcoastguy · January 15

I am ready to pay a good bit. Provided that there's a cure at the end of it. If it just drags it out and makes the dog miserable, then no.

fishlessman · January 15

JohnInCarolina said:

I used to think people who paid thousands of dollars in vet bills to save their pups were nuts. These days… not so much.

nowadays you can pay thousands for a dog bite infection. heart surgery costs more. my first britt had kidney failure, 3 iv bags a week on drip, easy to do that at home for a couple bucks a week, add no protien type foods for a diet and the dog loses interest in food but still doable. add a cardial sack hole to the heart and 500 for euthanasia makes for a happier dog.

when your dog gets a little older, buy him a puppy

OT - Pet Insurance?

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