Pet insurance vs no pet insurance

CookieMonster.x

We were thinking of getting pet insurance for our dog. He's a 5/6 year old Golden Retriever and is a big large (working on it) and because he is overweight he is more prone to disease etc so we decided we would probably get it.
However, we are quite sure he has Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (has not been diagnosed but we have a doctor in the family so it is similar) and we are going to bring him to the vet. We were going to get the pet insurance before bringing him to the vet to put it on the insurance (I have researched it and because he only gets seizures maybe once or twice a year he probably wouldn't be put on medication) but we have heard from a few people that a lot of vets will do whatever on the animal, even if unnecessary, because they have insurance.
We love our dog and we do have the money for operations, medication etc without insurance so the money isn't really a problem, we were wondering whether we should get it or not.
Also if anyone has had experience with a particular company that is good I'd appreciate it too.
Thank you.

toadfly

If you can afford the treatment without then I dont think I'd bother. I have insurance for our three, costs €50/month but its essential as I wouldnt have a hope of covering any high vet bills. People think I am crazy that I have insurance for the dogs and not ourselves!

I do think the vets recommend tests etc more if you have insurance than without. We had our youngest dog at the vet a few times over the last month or so. She had problems with her legs and they were talking about knocking her out and doing tests. Once I said I had insurance they said I might as well, told them I didnt want tests done on her that werent essential and would they recommend doing them if I didnt have insurance. Havent had them done yet but might do in future if it flairs up again.

piperh

CookieMonster.x wrote: »

We were thinking of getting pet insurance for our dog. He's a 5/6 year old Golden Retriever and is a big large (working on it) and because he is overweight he is more prone to disease etc so we decided we would probably get it.
However, we are quite sure he has Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (has not been diagnosed but we have a doctor in the family so it is similar) and we are going to bring him to the vet. We were going to get the pet insurance before bringing him to the vet to put it on the insurance (I have researched it and because he only gets seizures maybe once or twice a year he probably wouldn't be put on medication) but we have heard from a few people that a lot of vets will do whatever on the animal, even if unnecessary, because they have insurance.
We love our dog and we do have the money for operations, medication etc without insurance so the money isn't really a problem, we were wondering whether we should get it or not.
Also if anyone has had experience with a particular company that is good I'd appreciate it too.
Thank you.

Hi, i'd normally advocate getting insurance as in a lot of cases it does take the strain off any issues that might arise but there are a couple of things that you might find making a difference before you decide.

Because your dog is 5/6 it might be more difficult to get insurance and premiums are probably going to be higher. Some insurances stop insuring as young as 8 so there might not be much benefit. Anything that is pre existing then no insurance will cover for, so as you've mentioned disease anything he's had before won't be covered.

As the owner you always have the final say on what the vet does so there should be no need for them to do the unnecessary but thats not to say a few might not try it on.

If you can save the money you'd pay on insurance every month and meet anything that arose unexpectedly then perhaps in your case that might be the route i'd consider.