Dog insurance 2010 : HOW much???

[bunn]

 Just got Mollydog's medical insurance renewal reminder.  Last year it was £312 : this year she was 11 years old in September - and it's £622.10!   That's more than my car insurance!  

Comments

[crazyscot]

Might your household contents insurance already cover you for liability? Worth checking the fine print.

[bunn]

Yes, I'll have to check that. If not, then I believe 3rd party liability is pretty cheap.

[helflaed]

Difficult- after all, they do cost a lot to fix, but on the other hand £622.10 is an insane amount of money.

Could you adjust the cover levels/policy excess? That might bring it down.

[bunn]

Yes, I shall have to investigate that, but the letter said that they were now setting a standard excess of £75, so I don't know if I'm allowed to vary that any more (used to be able to...)

[inzilbeth_liz]

I've never insured any individual animal, be it horse or dog as the premiums are so outrageous. I tend to think most vet bills would be covered by a few years of paying insurance anyway. The only thing worth having is third party. I was very glad to have that this year when my lambs went walkies and wrecked a brand new solar powered swimming pool cover!

[bunn]

You have robust collies though - sighthounds are insanely fragile by comparison: they break easily and are difficult and expensive to patch up!

I think I'm actually just ahead on the insurance company on Mollydog's premiums over her lifetime - which is no doubt why the premium has gone up so much!

Az hasn't had a crash recently, but when he was younger he several times managed to tear exciting holes in himself which had to be stapled, and on one occasion he managed to deglove a back leg on a Sunday night: that was rather pricy (and a remarkable piece of needlework by the surgeon...)

I've never bothered insuring the cats, but not insuring 35mph dogs that are made of tissue paper and sticks is a bit more of a risk... Of course, they are slowing down and not quite so reckless nowadays!

[inzilbeth_liz]

I can see how you could run up the expenses very quickly with your hounds.

[helflaed]

I'm sure that I'm up on Mikka's insurance- especially as he used to have a nasty habit of coming down with cystitis out of hours or on holidays. Including Christmas.

[lil_shepherd]

Trouble is, of course, that you've also got to have third party cover, which you don't with the cats. Our eight cats, all except three over six years old cost us a total of £1200 last year (which we pay in instalments, but we have had all of that back for the last three years...

I expect when our appalling terrier gets to that age he will cost us that much, and we will pay it in case he kills or bites someone or something. (We're with Pet Plan and have never had any hassle with them.)

[bunn]

If you just want third party it's a lot cheaper : it's often included in house insurance. It's the medical insurance that is the pricy bit.

[lil_shepherd]

Yeah, but the difference is often third party - which is certainly not on our household insurance. It's bad enough having a hundred thousand contents on the basis of the electronics, books, CDs, DVDs and artwork. That's just replacement.

[bunn]

If third party dog cover is not on your house insurance, then join the Dogs Trust. 20 quid a year for 'third party insurance - up to £1,000,000 cover per claim if your dog causes damage or injury to another person their property or pets.'

There are other cheap third party liability only policies out there, but that one is pretty good and benefits a worthy cause.

Petplan are an excellent provider, but I wouldnt' buy a medical insurance policy if all I wanted was third party.

[puddleshark]

I had the same problem with my last dog - after he had two cruciate repairs, his premiums rocketed. I went for the option of ending the policy and putting aside money into a special Building Society account... but he was a doddery 12-year old Springer, not a sighthound. He did have a lot of health problems in his last years - tumours and vestibular syndrome amongst other more minor problems - but luckily the bills from the vet were still cheaper than the insurance.

[bunn]

Ack, vestibular can be a git I understand...

I'm kind of thinking that having had the whole thing with the leg not healing for months last year, that there's a limit to what I'd want to put her through and that for a lot of stuff I'd probably go with management rather than treatment now.

But that said, last week she was running the legs off Duke the Doop, so more exciting ligament/tendon issues or a broken leg are not off the cards yet.