Tiggersmom

I took Buddybear to the vet today for a wellness check and his anxiety about riding in the car. She suggested Lecithin, 1/4 tsp per day. When I told her about looking into pet insurance she replied "the best insurance is that you love him and he loves you."
Their office policy is you pay all the costs then send the bill to the insurance for reimbursement.

Luv Quilts and Cats

Compare policies and ask your regular vet if they can recommend and insurance and do they accept any insurances. There are so many new ways now to treat animals that did not exist even 20 years ago. Of course, they are expensive treatments. My brother's two dogs has cancer and they got chemotherapy! The dogs did get well and lived pretty good after that, but still the treatment was a huge cost. And surgeries can be very costly, especially on an emergent basis. We have two ER vet hospitals in our area and they have a charge just to walk in the door. I think pet insurance is a good thing, if you can afford it. Also, your dog is still very young, so you would probably get a lower rate than you would if you were trying to insure a senior dog.

gramma nancy

We have insurance on our two dogs. No, it doesn't cover a very high percentage of routine care, but it does cover some. That, however, is not why we have it.

It's for the potential big-ticket items such as cancer and other disasters that can befall a pup.

Years ago, I had a wonderful cat (and no insurance.) The cat became very ill and I couldn't imagine destroying him, so I paid about $2000 to get him back on his feet. A few years later, I had to do the same again. I called him the IRA cat (IRA contributions were then limited to $2000 per year.) He repaid the expense by lighting up my life for quite a few more healthy years. Wish I had insurance. Such problems are what it's for IMHO.

If you can afford it, go for it.

feline fanatic

I try to budget aside money for vet expenses. If something catastrophic happens insurance is great to have but if your pet is overall healthy the insurance will never pay for itself. Additionally the longer you wait to insure the pet the higher the premiums are. I looked into it when I first got my Shiloh and opted against it.

Here are some good links regarding the cost/benefit of pet insurance.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2...cost/index.htm

http://www.preventivevet.com/dogs/is...rance-worth-it

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/43916934/n.../#.VhUWAPlVhBc

romanojg

I don't have insurance but I do have a medical credit card that is for pets and humans. Most cases as long as it is paid on time and within the time frame its finance charge free. Its from Care Credit. I like it because it isn't just for the dogs or cats but me too. this was a life saver when my Akita got bloat and had to have emergency surgery or he woundn't have made it thru the night. The vets finished his surgery about 3am and then called me to say he did great. If I hadn't of had this card he would have died. That was over 7 yrs ago and even though he's getting old he's still going strong.

Here you can have the SPCA put your dog to sleep. I don't know how much it is now but years ago it was 12 for that and creamation.

mjhaess

I need insurance. I just had a dog with torn ACL fixed an it cost 4000.00 for the surgery and 600.00 for the therapy follow her surgery...

cashs_mom

I have never had mostly because of the restrictions on it. I've had dachshunds for many years and they are very prone to back problems. I've had several that had problems, only one that we had to operate on. We also had to operate on the same dog for cancer. She came to be called the "Million Dollar Dog". I've always just kept one credit card that I don't use. If I need it for an emergency, it's there. I'm not big on insurance because they are in business to make money, not for your good. Meaning that if you take the monthly money and put it in an account, you probably come out better. We did this years ago with a classic car. I figured it out one day and if we had insured the car for all of this time we would have paid more than the value of the car. As it is, we now have a nice healthy money market account with the money deposited to cover the car.

Quiltedhorse

I bought health insurance for my Lhasa Apso when he was 4 years old. Three months later he had a grand mal seizure. The insurance paid an arm and a leg for multiple tests with a doggie neurologist. Then he got skin cancer that they paid to remove. Then he blew both ACLs, and they paid $2300 for the two surgeries.