Vet plan for puppy

Gemma1982

Would appreciate advice on whether it is worthwhile signing up to one of the vet plans for a new pup. Our vet offers a plan at €20 per month to include vaccinations, two vet consultations, a years with of flea and worming medication, annual bloods and urine check and nail clippings along with a discount on neutering. You have to sign up for a minimum of a year direct debit. Any thoughts on whether this is reasonable for a new pup would be appreciated. Thanks

littlevillage

Gemma1982 wrote: »

Would appreciate advice on whether it is worthwhile signing up to one of the vet plans for a new pup. Our vet offers a plan at €20 per month to include vaccinations, two vet consultations, a years with of flea and worming medication, annual bloods and urine check and nail clippings along with a discount on neutering. You have to sign up for a minimum of a year direct debit. Any thoughts on whether this is reasonable for a new pup would be appreciated. Thanks

In one word. No.

More detailed answer : Was an article about this on RTE Radio 1 about a month ago. A few callers telling of their experiences etc. Needless to say, they were all bad.

Its basically pet insurance that the vet is selling onto you. (At a commission, naturally).

Read the fine print very carefully to see what exactly is covered for your €240 / yr.

My advice, forget it ....or if you are that worried about your pets bills just buy pet insurance from an insurance company.

misschoo

I have this and I think it is worth it especially if you have an older dog. When you say 2 vet consultations - do you mean a month? I have up to 12 consults a year with my vet. I do also have insurance but this covers things that the insurance doesn’t such as the consults which my dog currently has to have so I don’t need to worry about the €45 each time. Weigh it up - if you have a younger dog I would get the pet insurance but this is definitely worth looking into as your dog gets older.

Gemma1982

misschoo wrote: »

I have this and I think it is worth it especially if you have an older dog. When you say 2 vet consultations - do you mean a month? I have up to 12 consults a year with my vet. I do also have insurance but this covers things that the insurance doesn’t such as the consults which my dog currently has to have so I don’t need to worry about the €45 each time. Weigh it up - if you have a younger dog I would get the pet insurance but this is definitely worth looking into as your dog gets older.

Thanks for the replies. It’s only two consultations over the course of the year included with my vet. Your plan sounds better value. I will be getting insurance anyway - this was something I was considering in addition.

JustAThought

I had pet insurance with Alliance - best decision I ever made. For my pet it cost about e250 a year - for this I could claim up to (back then) about 5k in vets fees and treatments if something went weong. This was a few years agai so the terms may be changed now. For a big ( lab sized) dog to have them knocked out was about e180 PLUS vets visit fee of about e40 plus xray of about e40 - thats before you set a broken bone or pay for an operation etc. I’d say the e20 a month for the vet could be money well invested as its not much and gets you in the habbit of going to the vet BUt for treatment or accidents or any emergency that might happen (& there are a million things) then good pet insurance is far better. Bear in mind it also covers costs like surgery, x-rays, anaesthetic, stitching up, repeat visits for the same condition, etc And for the one I HAD YOUR VET WOULD HAVE THE REASSURANCE THAT THEY wouod be paid - which I think their e20 a month plan is trying to offset but offers a far less god plan for the customer should anything go wrong.

eg:
Swallowed foreign object that needs to be x -rayed and surgically removed
Ran and tripped onto glass and cut tendon that needs to be surgically resolved & anaesthetic
Hit by car speeding and needs to be x-rayed and surgical intervention & meds/painkillers
Ate some foul smelling guck and has the trots and needs repeat visits for injections
etc

All of these are very common and costly and none would ve covered by your vets suggestion plan. You are far better off to get good reliable pet insurance such as Alliance.


OP - how much does your vet charge for vacs and flea treatment - the bloods wouldn’t be necessary if s/he was happy and healthy - should be easy enough to work out.

mp3guy

misschoo wrote: »

I have this and I think it is worth it especially if you have an older dog. When you say 2 vet consultations - do you mean a month? I have up to 12 consults a year with my vet. I do also have insurance but this covers things that the insurance doesn’t such as the consults which my dog currently has to have so I don’t need to worry about the €45 each time. Weigh it up - if you have a younger dog I would get the pet insurance but this is definitely worth looking into as your dog gets older.

Whatever about the policy mentioned by OP, you shouldn't wait on getting a pup insured. Down the line when it's older or already has a problem, it'll be more expensive or possibly even impossible to insure it. Or complications related to a problem it has already had wouldn't be covered as pre-existing.

Insuring a healthy pup from birth will cost the least in the long run.

Gemma1982

JustAThought wrote: »

I had pet insurance with Alliance - best decision I ever made. For my pet it cost about e250 a year - for this I could claim up to (back then) about 5k in vets fees and treatments if something went weong. This was a few years agai so the terms may be changed now. For a big ( lab sized) dog to have them knocked out was about e180 PLUS vets visit fee of about e40 plus xray of about e40 - thats before you set a broken bone or pay for an operation etc. I’d say the e20 a month for the vet could be money well invested as its not much and gets you in the habbit of going to the vet BUt for treatment or accidents or any emergency that might happen (& there are a million things) then good pet insurance is far better. Bear in mind it also covers costs like surgery, x-rays, anaesthetic, stitching up, repeat visits for the same condition, etc And for the one I HAD YOUR VET WOULD HAVE THE REASSURANCE THAT THEY wouod be paid - which I think their e20 a month plan is trying to offset but offers a far less god plan for the customer should anything go wrong.

eg:
Swallowed foreign object that needs to be x -rayed and surgically removed
Ran and tripped onto glass and cut tendon that needs to be surgically resolved & anaesthetic
Hit by car speeding and needs to be x-rayed and surgical intervention & meds/painkillers
Ate some foul smelling guck and has the trots and needs repeat visits for injections
etc

All of these are very common and costly and none would ve covered by your vets suggestion plan. You are far better off to get good reliable pet insurance such as Alliance.


OP - how much does your vet charge for vacs and flea treatment - the bloods wouldn’t be necessary if s/he was happy and healthy - should be easy enough to work out.

Thanks for the reply. The vet has quoted me €160 for flea and working treatment for the pups first year. It seems very expensive to me! Vaccinations are €50. So that’s €210 over the year anyway.

misschoo

mp3guy wrote: »

Whatever about the policy mentioned by OP, you shouldn't wait on getting a pup insured. Down the line when it's older or already has a problem, it'll be more expensive or possibly even impossible to insure it. Or complications related to a problem it has already had wouldn't be covered as pre-existing.

Insuring a healthy pup from birth will cost the least in the long run.

That’s what I was implying - to get a younger dog insured. My dog was a rescue and approximately 6-7 years old when I got her so first thing I did was insure her as well as take out the policy with my vet as from my experience with my last dog There were more general visits with my vet than insurance claims so this was worth it to me. Just my thoughts.

tiredblondie

Mine has been trying to get me to sign up to this despite the fact i pay around 400 a year for insurance for 11 year old.
I think it's 24 a month they are charging to include flea and worm, 2 visits a year and blood tests for certain things - of course, the type of health issues my girl has aren't actually included in their plan so i'd have to pay separate for that!!
No worth it imo - maybe if you didn't have insurance perhaps it would be, but for me, it's not worth it!

tk123

JustAThought wrote: »

the bloods wouldn’t be necessary if s/he was happy and healthy - should be easy enough to work out.

This I would disagree with. Once you have a pet that is diagnosed with something via a blood test ... you'll regret not getting that bloods test every year. I would get any dog I own tested at least once a year after loosing my 6 year old Her results were a shock to us and the vet staff because she seemed perfectly healthy.

As for flea/wormers OP - I haven't used them in years lol! A money spinner imo - depending on where you live and walk your dog of course but we've never had a flea or tick in 11 years. If/when we get one I'll treat it then.

And I agree with the other advice on insurance - you never know what's around the corner. When Lucy was sick we racked up almost €4000 in 6 months. At once stage her fluids were €140 a week.