Pet insurance

cyfan21

Well-Known Member
Aug 24, 2010
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Davenport
I’ve taken my new pup (black lab - female) to her first vet appointments and they have been promoting Trupanion pet insurance.

It sounds like they only cover medically necessary care and non pre-existing conditions.

The vet told me that the minimum charge for an emergency clinic surgery is $3000.

I plan to send her to puppy gun dog and hunting boot camp with the goal of getting into field trials and hunting dog contests.

Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated.

(See attached for puctures)DC0613E1-0BC0-4B2F-BD82-6F760952BD41.jpegFA9FF0AE-B56E-4BD4-859D-539C4EC9508E.jpeg
 
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I had embrace pet insurance for a while. You just got reimbursed after you paid for everything. It was a pretty smooth process.
 
How much does it cost? When we had to have xrays and blood tests, plus some meds, it came out to 350~, but it's also the only time in 5 years it's been necessary.
 
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I’ve taken my new pup (black lab - female) to her first vet appointments and they have been promoting Trupanion pet insurance.

It sounds like they only cover medically necessary care and non pre-existing conditions.

The vet told me that the minimum charge for an emergency clinic surgery is $3000.

I plan to send her to puppy gun dog and hunting boot camp with the goal of getting into field trials and hunting dog contests.

Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated.

(See attached for puctures)View attachment 109655View attachment 109656

Don't know boo about pet insurance but that's one good looking pup. Congrats!
 
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We got pet insurance for our latest puppy mostly because he's a large breed (Newfoundland, 160lbs) and everything is more expensive with bigger dogs. He's done his part in eating one dog toy and one toddler toy that caused impactions and required surgery. We are money ahead. My wife asked if anyone has ever been dropped from their pet insurer... Probably wouldn't have been worth it for any of our other pets.
 
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No idea on insurance but if your goal is to make her a working dog with that kind of schooling/ competitions I’m guessing you will have around 5-10k invested. It’s probably a no brainer.
 
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We have Pets Best for our two. Got it around the time our 3rd (that we just lost) was diagnosed with lymphoma (too late for her to be covered, unfortunately). We've had a rough go with our pups in the past and spent a whole bunch of money keeping them healthy.

The rates are reasonable, and if something happens, it will definitely be worth it to us.
 
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Healthy paws and trupanion won’t raise rates as they age, but cost more up front. Lot of choices out there right now with slightly different models.
 
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We have had Nationwide Pet since ours started having seizures when she was a pup. We only went with major medical since we knew a majority of our wellness expenses would likely come from extra screening for her epilepsy and wouldn’t be covered due to pre-existing. Have not had to use it a ton until the last couple of months and thankfully we did have it, otherwise there’s no way we would have been able to get full diagnostics to find out she has lymphoma. Diagnostics and 2 days of ICU/hospital care alone came out to $5k. Unfortunately it is progressed to the point that we will not be able to get it removed, but the insurance is also covering chemo to help her feel better and hopefully give us a few more months with her.

Highly recommend Nationwide as the claim process and reimbursements have been extremely smooth. I would also recommend full coverage (both wellness and major medical) assuming no pre-existing conditions.
 
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For dogs or any outdoor pets I'd at least consider it. For my indoor cats it never crossed my mind. The check ups every few years end up being like $150 max combined for the 2.
 
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I’ve taken my new pup (black lab - female) to her first vet appointments and they have been promoting Trupanion pet insurance.

It sounds like they only cover medically necessary care and non pre-existing conditions.

The vet told me that the minimum charge for an emergency clinic surgery is $3000.

I plan to send her to puppy gun dog and hunting boot camp with the goal of getting into field trials and hunting dog contests.

Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated.

(See attached for puctures)View attachment 109655View attachment 109656
Is she from field trial stock? They're really hard charging and focused, running through a fence or going too hard on a warm day is kinda SOP. Pet insurance could be a very wise investment, especially considering how much you can easily get invested in training expenditures
 
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We have had Nationwide Pet since ours started having seizures when she was a pup. We only went with major medical since we knew a majority of our wellness expenses would likely come from extra screening for her epilepsy and wouldn’t be covered due to pre-existing. Have not had to use it a ton until the last couple of months and thankfully we did have it, otherwise there’s no way we would have been able to get full diagnostics to find out she has lymphoma. Diagnostics and 2 days of ICU/hospital care alone came out to $5k. Unfortunately it is progressed to the point that we will not be able to get it removed, but the insurance is also covering chemo to help her feel better and hopefully give us a few more months with her.

Highly recommend Nationwide as the claim process and reimbursements have been extremely smooth. I would also recommend full coverage (both wellness and major medical) assuming no pre-existing conditions.
have your nationwide premiums just skyrocketed over the last couple years and since your pup became sick? I paid $62 a month the first year I had him. Went up to $71 the second year, and then my pup was diagnosed with a heart condition that requires one $500 echocardiogram annually and about $45 in meds every three months. At the next renewal the premium jumped up to $123 per month, and this year I just got the statement that says it’s going up to $148 per month. He’s five years old and he’s actually at a point where we’re weaning him off of the medication and his veterinary cardiologist said they were going to go to every two years for his echocardiogram. The 90% reimbursement after $100 deductible has been nice but I am weighing if it’s worth to keep paying this increasing premium cost or to set that money aside and at least earn some interest on it in case there’s other future expenses unrelated to his heart condition.

Only other major expense was emergent surgery on a toe after he separated a nail from the quick and then it got infected. Which that total including the emergency co-pay was like 450 or 500, so to the original poster the quote of minimum 3000 for any emergent surgery should be a red flag IMO. And I live in a fairly high cost of living area (Denver)
 
have your nationwide premiums just skyrocketed over the last couple years and since your pup became sick? I paid $62 a month the first year I had him. Went up to $71 the second year, and then my pup was diagnosed with a heart condition that requires one $500 echocardiogram annually and about $45 in meds every three months. At the next renewal the premium jumped up to $123 per month, and this year I just got the statement that says it’s going up to $148 per month. He’s five years old and he’s actually at a point where we’re weaning him off of the medication and his veterinary cardiologist said they were going to go to every two years for his echocardiogram. The 90% reimbursement after $100 deductible has been nice but I am weighing if it’s worth to keep paying this increasing premium cost or to set that money aside and at least earn some interest on it in case there’s other future expenses unrelated to his heart condition.

Only other major expense was emergent surgery on a toe after he separated a nail from the quick and then it got infected. Which that total including the emergency co-pay was like 450 or 500, so to the original poster the quote of minimum 3000 for any emergent surgery should be a red flag IMO. And I live in a fairly high cost of living area (Denver)
No, but like I said we only have major medical. Since we didn’t pick it up until after the seizures started. I believe when we got it 4-4.5 years ago it was $27/month and is now $37/month. We have used it a handful of times over the years for a few bills that were $400+, but nothing crazy until now, so that would probably explain why it hasn’t jacked up. I’m sure their policies for rate adjustments for full coverage and only major medical are a little different as well. I don’t think we will likely get to the point of a rate readjustment to start next year before we lose her either, so we likely won’t find out the answer to that. I’m just thankful we have it, always figured if we had to use it for a major event like this it would be due to an emergency surgery, never would’ve thought we’d have a 5 year old dog with terminal cancer.
 

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