Pet Insurance

[blackpowderhunter]

Who has pet insurance on their dogs?  Any good and or bad recommendations of who to go with or who to stay away from?
We have a 4 year old lab, who has been very healthy except for the occasional issues.
Last winter we had a really bad case of pneumonia which lead to emergency overnight hospitalization, and it wasn't cheap.  Anyways, shes very active and still quite a pup, so looking for the long term now.
Any recommendations appreciated.
Thanks

[actionshooter]

We have pet insurance on our 2 dogs, a lab and a Greater Swiss. The swissy is about the clumsiest dog alive and has been to the vet twice in the last year so the insurance has worked well for her. The last visit, the *censored* ate a sock and got stuck in her intestines, the bill was $2k and we paid $200. Never had a problem with the lab. It's $45 per dog per month with Nationwide.

My daughter is a vet tech and they recommend Nationwide because of their coverage and ease to work with. We decided to get the insurance because of some of the high vet bill horror stories we have heard. Might never use the insurance with the lab, but I think the insurance company is going to loose money on the dumb swissy.. 

[Buck Rub Jr]

We just canceled ours through nationwide on our 2 dogs. Our lab had a bad reaction to his shots once when he was a puppy when he wasn’t covered yet so nationwide basically won’t cover anything for him that is real are to his stomach in any way now saying the it stems from those shots from when he was a puppy. They gave us $25 last time out of the $450

[fishngamereaper]

We are looking right now to...

We've spent 5k on er visits the last 6 months between our two dogs ..we figure once we get insurance the dog issues will stop 

[rasbo]

Don't use nationwide,my dog got a cut on the 3rd eyelid,developed  infection then glaucoma as a result. Not covered,until I had insurance for a year. WHAT? Cost me a lot of money

[Heiny]

We use Petplan on our Griffon and lab. Griffon broke his jaw as a pup before we had insurance, spendy fix $$$$. Then I ran over the lab as a pup. Was glad we had it to cover that surgery, two months in a crate. But he’s doing awesome now can’t even tell. Seems like any surgery is a easy $5k or more.

[blackpowderhunter]

interesting replies so far...
yeah the pneumonia thing cost us close to 5k due to the emergency overnight stay for IVs, tons of meds, multiple check up x rays etc. 

[actionshooter]

interesting replies so far...
yeah the pneumonia thing cost us close to 5k due to the emergency overnight stay for IVs, tons of meds, multiple check up x rays etc. 

It's insane how much it costs....
Call a couple vets and ask who they recommend.

[Heiny]

Oh boy, it’s kinda pay a little over time with insurance or all at once if something happens. Told the wife we didn’t need insurance after it was suggested by the vet since the Griffon was going to be a hunting dog. Ate crow on that one! Now all the hunting dogs have it.

[fishngamereaper]

One of our friends wife is a vet and she recommended Lemonade...but we are still on the shopping phase...allot of them require insurance for up to a year before they start to cover anything... which is crooked business if you ask me.

[Taco280AI]

I thought about it but am going without. If it is $45/mo then that's $540 a year. Over a 12 year period that's basically $6500 you're out and maybe the cover an issue, maybe not. Maybe there is no issue the whole time. Money is gone anyway.

Or invest that $45 a month and using 7% as an example it becomes $9761. Some years you may see waaaay more than 7%, others you might take a hit, but it's still your money. If the dog needs care dip into it as needed.

[Bullkllr]

I thought about it but am going without. If it is $45/mo then that's $540 a year. Over a 12 year period that's basically $6500 you're out and maybe the cover an issue, maybe not. Maybe there is no issue the whole time. Money is gone anyway.

Or invest that $45 a month and using 7% as an example it becomes $9761. Some years you may see waaaay more than 7%, others you might take a hit, but it's still your money. If the dog needs care dip into it as needed.

Oh, you mean, like, be your own insurance company? 
Sorry, I just don't like them. If they weren't making solid profits at $45/mo they would quickly raise those rates.

One of our friends wife is a vet and she recommended Lemonade...but we are still on the shopping phase...allot of them require insurance for up to a year before they start to cover anything... which is crooked business if you ask me.

Well, it is insurance after all...

[huntnfmly]

I got my new French Brittany on Trupanion
There was only a 5day waiting period for emergencies and 30 day for illness
I went with the 90% coverage.They will pay our vet direct a lot of companies make you pay the whole bill then reimburse you.
Say your dog gets a ear infection you pay the office visit and they pay 90% of the rest and say down the road he gets another ear infection same thing there is no limit
Some companies would call the second ear infection the same incident and cap you at what they pay
Hope that example made sense
By the way price is $87 per month but they have some policies that are less but you pay a higher percentage also price depends on breed

[blackpowderhunter]

I got my new French Brittany on Trupanion
There was only a 5day waiting period for emergencies and 30 day for illness
I went with the 90% coverage.They will pay our vet direct a lot of companies make you pay the whole bill then reimburse you.
Say your dog gets a ear infection you pay the office visit and they pay 90% of the rest and say down the road he gets another ear infection same thing there is no limit
Some companies would call the second ear infection the same incident and cap you at what they pay
Hope that example made sense
By the way price is $87 per month but they have some policies that are less but you pay a higher percentage also price depends on breed

trupanion quoted about 180 for my lab, lemonade was quite a bit less.
just need to compare coverages

[pianoman9701]

Oh boy, it’s kinda pay a little over time with insurance or all at once if something happens. Told the wife we didn’t need insurance after it was suggested by the vet since the Griffon was going to be a hunting dog. Ate crow on that one! Now all the hunting dogs have it.

When I looked, pet insurance seemed a lot like dental insurance - The benefit is basically the annual payments.