Pet insurance

[divingbiker]

Smilingcat, I agree with you in theory. But my last three dogs had many $2000/month vet bills, not $2000/year, and while I can "afford" it, it's at the expense of bolstering my savings and retirement accounts. I'm spending over $150/month for EACH of my current dogs' medicines.

If Sammy follows the health path of my previous dogs, I'll come out ahead paying insurance premiums. But it's a crapshoot, and I'm not a big fan of insurance in general.

Thanks for all the thoughts. I'm leaning away from routine coverage, because as I read more about it, I found the max it will cover is $400/year. It's the big expenses I want to have covered, I think.

I'd love to hear about other folks' experience and ideas. Thanks again!

[Kalidurga]

In my case, hindsight is 20/20. If I'd known two years ago what I was headed for at the end of 2007 and all through 2008, I would have insured my cats in a heartbeat. I spent almost $6k for the older cat who had renal failure and ended up euthanized, over $3k for one kitten that I adopted who got an almost fatal infection and spent three weeks going back and forth to the vet, then almost another $3k on the other kitten who had trench mouth that took a year to clear up. I'm still trying to pay off my credit card from all of those vet bills.

Of course, now that the kittens are entering adulthood and seem to be healthy, I'm less inclined to shell out a monthly premium. It's a tough choice, because you just don't know when something's going to come up.

[GLC1968]

I almost bought insurance with my previous dog when she was young (I think it was VPI, too) but opted not too. Funny thing was, I'd first learned of if when she was already in the hospital having surgery for swallowing a needle! I figured that was my $$$ payout for this dog, so chances of it happening again were slim. She really didn't cost me much (except preventative care) until she was diagnosed with Lymphoma when she was MUCH older, so I'd made the right choice.

When we adopted a new young puppy from the shelter, we thought about insurance again but opted against it. So far, it's paid off... It was really strange to go from basically weekly vet visits with the old dog to once a year visits with the puppy! I started to miss all the people at the vet! Honestly, our two dogs don't even have a vet yet here in OR. They are happy, healthy dogs. Ahhh, youth! Insurance would have been a serious waste of money for us.

[snapdragen]

At one point I added up the "well dog care" and compared it to what VPI would pay vs. what I'd paid VPI -- the preventative coverage wasn't worth it. They were lifesavers when my first corgi, Rikki, had lymphoma. I had opted to buy the Cancer Rider a couple of years before, it really came in handy, and I didn't go bankrupt.

Chloe is covered too, thankfully I haven't had to use it a lot. They covered all of her specialist visits when she had corneal ulcers, and the different xrays she's had over the years.

[kermit]

Don't forget your Home Again chip. That is money well spent!

[divingbiker]

Don't forget your Home Again chip. That is money well spent!

You know, I've been irritated by the fact that you have to pay $15/year to keep the Home Again active. Two of my previous dogs were microchipped at a charity event to benefit a rescue, and it was a one-shot fee and registration. So I'm not sure I want to go with Home Again, just on principle.

Is there a reason to go with Home Again over Avid?

[kermit]

Not familiar with Avid, I know from my dog trainer friends and vets, alot of Home again dogs have been located and returned home successfully. Yeah, it is a little expensive, I learned the hard way that my guy's had expired. Now I am more careful to keep track and renew. I have had nightmares about losing my dogs, that chip gives me piece of mind that if they get lost, I can find them.