Pet Insurance. Do the Math!

helsonwheels

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We get asked often what pet insurance is the best. I personally have a credit card for my 2 dogs as I believe itā€™s the way to go. Especially if you start off your puppy on a healthy diet n healthy treats, you shouldnā€™t be using insurances or credit card for a very long time. If you buy a dog from a puppy mill youā€™re risk in a perfect healthy dog is very low. Anyhooo great store below. Btw this is a Canadian store so bare in mind our insurances are much higher.

https://globalnews.ca/news/6591289/...0-in-pet-insurance-but-only-reimbursed-15-60/
 

Dollys Owner

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I agree, with one exception, maybe it pays for a French Bulldog since they are highly prone to IVDD, as long as the insurance doesn't exclude genetic predisposition.
I self insure my rescue dog, I had insurance for one month until they sent me letter with exclusions after they received my dog's records from vet, then I cancelled.

I think the same way for private health insurance for humans in Canada since we have OHIP or equivalent provincial coverage for hospital and physician visits. If you are retired and your workplace doesn't continue any coverage, it doesn't pay to take out private coverage. The fees are high and payouts are limited to quite low yearly limits, plus you have the hassle of submitting claims. For someone like you who is self employed, it makes sense to set up a Private Health Services Plan (PHSP) with a company such as Brock Health, where you get charged 5% above cost of benefits claimed, but get 100% tax deduction. https://www.brockhealth.ca/
 

Cbrugs

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I agree, with one exception, maybe it pays for a French Bulldog since they are highly prone to IVDD, as long as the insurance doesn't exclude genetic predisposition.
I self insure my rescue dog, I had insurance for one month until they sent me letter with exclusions after they received my dog's records from vet, then I cancelled.

I think the same way for private health insurance for humans in Canada since we have OHIP or equivalent provincial coverage for hospital and physician visits. If you are retired and your workplace doesn't continue any coverage, it doesn't pay to take out private coverage. The fees are high and payouts are limited to quite low yearly limits, plus you have the hassle of submitting claims. For someone like you who is self employed, it makes sense to set up a Private Health Services Plan (PHSP) with a company such as Brock Health, where you get charged 5% above cost of benefits claimed, but get 100% tax deduction. https://www.brockhealth.ca/

I was going to say...depends on the breed! Jax has IVDD and has had 3 surgeries and if I did not have the insurance, I would not have been able to do the surgeries. Yes I have credit cards but each surgery was almost $9,000 which included the MRI each time, etc. and I sure wouldn't want to have needed to charge that much money on a credit card.

Louie on the other hand? Well bred and very healthy and while I do have a minimal insurance plan for him, I have only had to use it one time and that was for the biopsy on what turned out to be an inflamed hystiocytoma. If Jax's insurance goes up again at renewal, I will probably cancel Louie's to help offset the cost as Jax needs the insurance at this point.
 

ddnene

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Many of you already KNOW my story w/insurance... Trupanion pre-approved a surgery that they refused to pay for after my dog passed. They decided to contact the vet's office and get a full-complete copy of his file (AFTER the surgery was approved) and claimed that the vet "mentioned" that he had a pre-existing condition. It wasn't worth my time to get a lawyer and go after them... I just blasted them on social media (everywhere that I could) and I canceled the insurance.

We decided to keep about 5K in an emergency savings account for our babies...

I will NEVER EVER have pet insurance again... TOTAL rip off IMO!!!
 
OP
helsonwheels

helsonwheels

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Totally agree with [MENTION=9157]ddnene[/MENTION]. But yes it is very hard to predict if youā€™re going to have an unhealthy dog. No one knows. Iā€™m a big believer in maintenance n definitely food is fuel as we all know. If you have a puppy, start them off on a raw diet, have a diffuser going in your house with proper essential oils, have NuStock, bag balm, wash beddings only with fragrance free detergents, vinegar, etc etc....

I rather keep a credit card for my dogs as if I do the math, Nyala is over 4years old n Jake is 3. So far so good. Now I need to knock on wood. That would be a lot of dishing out monthly payments in my case with using any of it.
 

1Chumly

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We dropped the insurance on our dachshund after 3 years of rising premiums and very little return. I guess we were lucky as he was healthy but it was 3 years of premiums out of the window! Monty was 4 when we got him so pre-existing conditions would have come into play. We self insure. Money goes into a savings account every month for any vet expenses and even with Monty's big bills over Christmas, we are still ahead of the game. We also have an unused credit card if necessary.
 

2BullyMama

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Agree... credit card just for pups


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Cbrugs

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Agree... credit card just for pups


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Totally agree with [MENTION=9157]ddnene[/MENTION]. But yes it is very hard to predict if youā€™re going to have an unhealthy dog. No one knows. Iā€™m a big believer in maintenance n definitely food is fuel as we all know. If you have a puppy, start them off on a raw diet, have a diffuser going in your house with proper essential oils, have NuStock, bag balm, wash beddings only with fragrance free detergents, vinegar, etc etc....

I rather keep a credit card for my dogs as if I do the math, Nyala is over 4years old n Jake is 3. So far so good. Now I need to knock on wood. That would be a lot of dishing out monthly payments in my case with using any of it.

Many of you already KNOW my story w/insurance... Trupanion pre-approved a surgery that they refused to pay for after my dog passed. They decided to contact the vet's office and get a full-complete copy of his file (AFTER the surgery was approved) and claimed that the vet "mentioned" that he had a pre-existing condition. It wasn't worth my time to get a lawyer and go after them... I just blasted them on social media (everywhere that I could) and I canceled the insurance.

We decided to keep about 5K in an emergency savings account for our babies...

I will NEVER EVER have pet insurance again... TOTAL rip off IMO!!!


Just out of curiosity for the credit card people...if you had Jax and the 3 surgeries...what would you do? Charge each surgery for a total of about $22,000? That is a lot of money to pay off. Not do the surgeries? I am just wondering.
 

2BullyMama

I'm not OCD....now who moved my bulldog?
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Just out of curiosity for the credit card people...if you had Jax and the 3 surgeries...what would you do? Charge each surgery for a total of about $22,000? That is a lot of money to pay off. Not do the surgeries? I am just wondering.

I'd be in deep debit cause if it came to it my baby gets what he needs
 
OP
helsonwheels

helsonwheels

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Just out of curiosity for the credit card people...if you had Jax and the 3 surgeries...what would you do? Charge each surgery for a total of about $22,000? That is a lot of money to pay off. Not do the surgeries? I am just wondering.

Thatā€™s definitely a lot of pesos. Would have to say Jax was/is a special case. Sadly Frenchieā€™s are prone to spinal issues. This all started when Jax was 3ish? How much are your payments per month? That being said, yes like Christine said sometimes are hands are tied n you do what you can for your babies. I always wanted a Frenchie but I hesitate on on getting one cause of their health issues. Well mind you even EB. They are a tad better but.....If we are going to go towards them breeds, itā€™s a 50/50 chance we are toying with. Like Russian Roulette them breeds...
 

Cbrugs

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Thatā€™s definitely a lot of pesos. Would have to say Jax was/is a special case. Sadly Frenchieā€™s are prone to spinal issues. This all started when Jax was 3ish? How much are your payments per month? That being said, yes like Christine said sometimes are hands are tied n you do what you can for your babies. I always wanted a Frenchie but I hesitate on on getting one cause of their health issues. Well mind you even EB. They are a tad better but.....If we are going to go towards them breeds, itā€™s a 50/50 chance we are toying with. Like Russian Roulette them breeds...

Jax was 4 when he got diagnosed, will be 7 in April. I am part of an IVDD Frenchie group on Facebook so I see A LOT of Frenchies that have IVDD and a lot of them are paralyzed and incontinent. So far Jax has been lucky and still has movement but he could become paralyzed at any time, no way around it. IVDD is a horrible and incurable disease and sadly certain breeds are just prone to it. Because of what I/Jax has gone through and because of how many I see with this disease, I can say that Jax is my first Frenchie and he will be my last. Like you say, Russian Roulette and I am not willing to take the risk again.
 

Dollys Owner

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Honey
Totally agree with [MENTION=9157]ddnene[/MENTION]. But yes it is very hard to predict if youā€™re going to have an unhealthy dog. No one knows. Iā€™m a big believer in maintenance n definitely food is fuel as we all know. If you have a puppy, start them off on a raw diet, have a diffuser going in your house with proper essential oils, have NuStock, bag balm, wash beddings only with fragrance free detergents, vinegar, etc etc....

I rather keep a credit card for my dogs as if I do the math, Nyala is over 4years old n Jake is 3. So far so good. Now I need to knock on wood. That would be a lot of dishing out monthly payments in my case with using any of it.

I agree with you about the bag balm, I like it too. I've even put some on a cosmetic round and put some of Honey's vulvar area when I've noticed some clear discharge and it seemed to clear it up. I have NuStock but haven't used it yet. I'd also recommend keeping around house Zymox otic or EcoEars, ketoconazole/chlorhexidine shampoo ( eg. Curaseb or Ketohex shampoo ) , Vetricyn eye drops, electric clipper to shave hot spots, Kling Wrap, betadine spray, and witch hazel.

Supplements to keep in house : sea kelp ( eg Starwest Botanicals ), fish oil, organic turmeric, organic hemp seed oil, natural source Vitamin E if giving fish oil, organic virgin coconut oil.
 
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helsonwheels

helsonwheels

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Jax was 4 when he got diagnosed, will be 7 in April. I am part of an IVDD Frenchie group on Facebook so I see A LOT of Frenchies that have IVDD and a lot of them are paralyzed and incontinent. So far Jax has been lucky and still has movement but he could become paralyzed at any time, no way around it. IVDD is a horrible and incurable disease and sadly certain breeds are just prone to it. Because of what I/Jax has gone through and because of how many I see with this disease, I can say that Jax is my first Frenchie and he will be my last. Like you say, Russian Roulette and I am not willing to take the risk again.

I love the breed. Theyā€™re beauties. My breeder has one pup blue fawn with blue eyes. I would take him in a heartbeat. Even though she guarantees them 3 yrs n Iā€™ve seen older ones very healthy too, I just donā€™t want to go through all their issues if any. Iā€™m not saying they all ā€œwillā€ has issues but most do. Sheā€™s a very picky breeder. If one of her dogs has anything even if itā€™s tear stains in mom n dad, sheā€™ll never will breed them. She will only use clean track dogs. But my gut says no Frenchie. So like you, not going to go that route.
 

ddnene

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Jax was 4 when he got diagnosed, will be 7 in April. I am part of an IVDD Frenchie group on Facebook so I see A LOT of Frenchies that have IVDD and a lot of them are paralyzed and incontinent. So far Jax has been lucky and still has movement but he could become paralyzed at any time, no way around it. IVDD is a horrible and incurable disease and sadly certain breeds are just prone to it. Because of what I/Jax has gone through and because of how many I see with this disease, I can say that Jax is my first Frenchie and he will be my last. Like you say, Russian Roulette and I am not willing to take the risk again.

This makes me incredibly sad... we had planned to get a frenchie before Willow showed up on the scene, and my brother has one.
 

Cbrugs

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I love the breed. Theyā€™re beauties. My breeder has one pup blue fawn with blue eyes. I would take him in a heartbeat. Even though she guarantees them 3 yrs n Iā€™ve seen older ones very healthy too, I just donā€™t want to go through all their issues if any. Iā€™m not saying they all ā€œwillā€ has issues but most do. Sheā€™s a very picky breeder. If one of her dogs has anything even if itā€™s tear stains in mom n dad, sheā€™ll never will breed them. She will only use clean track dogs. But my gut says no Frenchie. So like you, not going to go that route.

Couple weeks ago out of nowhere his whole body was trembling which would indicate pain. I took no chances and he was on crate rest for a week and Gabapentin. Took him for acupuncture last weekend and vet said it was T10-T11 discs. I also rented the laser unit for the week.


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