Anyone have Health Insurance for their pets?

Luis Caffesse

Luis Caffesse

Admin
So last night my wife and I came home to find one of our dogs had vomitted in her crate.
For anyone that has a dog... or a child... you probably know that isn't a totally rare thing.

But when we let her out we noticed she wasn't responding much at all.
Then we noticed she was shaking.... and I don't mean just trembling...I mean shaking.

So we got her in the car and went straight to the emergency clinic.
Long story short - they think she ate something toxic (I have no idea how or where).
They kept her overnight... we were supposed to pick her up this morning, and when I called they told me she'd thrown up again and they wanted to keep her until 3 or 4. When I called at 3 they told me she seemed fine, but they wanted to keep her until 9 or 10 tonight, and possibly overnight again if she didn't improve.

ANYHOW - all this has me thinking that maybe pet health insurance isn't as bad of an idea as I originally thought it may have been. The visit last night alone cost us about $500.
Ouch.

So - does anyone here have any specific advice about pet insurance policies?
Any companies you can recommend that you have experience with?
Any companies to stay away from?

Thanks for any advice.


(While typing this I got a call from the clinic - apparently she's doing okay and we can go pick her up right now... we'll see what the vet has to say)
 
Good to hear your dog's doing better. :)

I'm not sure about dog insurance... I don't think my family has it, but we do have our horses insured. Those things are huge and have ironically fragile legs and horse vets are mucho expensive.
 
The AKC has some policies that I've heard good things about, but know very little. We have 5 dogs and the annual vet bill ranges from 1000 - 10,000. I hate dealing with my own insurance so much we just eat the costs and move on, although in a bad year I could see it being very advantageous and worth it. Now that I'm typing this I guess I'll go look into it... I'll let you know if I find out anything fantastic. Part of the problem is carrying 5 policies on 5 dogs is going to get expensive. My Aunt has 20 right now and only a few of hers a year need major medical attention, so carrying policies on all of them isnt worth it, but carrying on just a few is kinda like roulette. Don't you just have 2 dogs? Unless they are really insane or dumb like a couple of mine (2 of mine account for 75% of the bills) I wouldnt do insurance probably unless its just really cheap - or they constantly need stomachs pumped, tails set, xrays for broken bones, stitches in ears, etc. If you've got one that does like to get into things and eat them to find out what they are (i've got one that consistently eats enough of his own **** to make himself sick, he's a gem), you might ought to look into it, but this could be a once in a lifetime thing.

I'd also get yourself a list of things that are poisonous to dogs if you havent already. There are quite a few things like raisins, onions, poinsettias that I always forget about in addition to the normal chocalate and household cleaners, pesticides, antifreeze.

poison list - http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pro_apcc_poisonsafe

Glad the pup is doing better! Post back if you learn anything good about insurance.
 
Last time I was at HEB on Parmer & Metric I saw some flyers for pet insurance through them, been meaning to look into it for my german shepherd because the larger the dog the more expensive it is when they are sick. He was on an antibiotic for a skin allergy that was over $50 for a 10 day supply and he has been put on it several times, not to mention the vet fees on top of that.
 
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