How much is your pet worth?

lol It's pierced that's why

 

So tell me about pet insurance.

Who do you use.

And I mean have actually used, not just paid a monthly fee to and how did it work out?

 

Totally agree.
Right where it should be, on top of the dog pile.



For my two cats, I'd probably sell a lot of stuff to make sure they were ok.

 

I use Embrace. I think it's like $500 or 600/yr for insurance. $200 deductible maximum so once you reach $200 it's no more money out of your pocket. $10k max they will pay out. 80% reimbursement rate

When I had Maisy spayed they also tacked her stomach to her chest wall to reduce the chance of bloat happening. So that was all covered by the insurance.

The insurance has been worth every penny because when she ate the sock with all the x-rays and lab work that vet bill was over $800

 

Can't remember the name of the company, but insurance worked out well for our Dachshund (Reggie) when she took a nasty tumble at age five and required back surgery. She ended up making it to 17 years and three weeks. We decided against insurance with our next Dachshund, instead putting aside the quoted amount of a policy for him. It had a lifetime cap of $13k and my reasoning was that since our experience with the previous dogs had shown us that other than an accident, most health issues come later, we'd just build up a stash of cash to deal with a problem if/when it came. I figured it would be a wash, provided he is able to avoid an accident. Almost seven years in with TJ now and all has been well. There's a strong "vet" account on standby and to be honest, I truly don't know if I would be willing to go beyond it in the scenario where the outcome probability weren't better than 50-50 and he was on the plus side thirteen years.

 

The $10k max is annually, so when the policy renews you start back at $0

 

My debit card. I really need to look into though because as I said I won't bat an eye under $10k if my dog needed something. Mind you she's only 2.

 

pet insurance is $50-100/mo up here. There is no way I can pay that on top of the 2 mortgages we are currently shelling out for the kid's care.

That being said, we have spent a few thousand dollars on our doofus between neutering him and having a cancerous tumor on his ear removed. Not to mention his princess diet.

Almost had to call it quits after he ate a diaper - there was no way we could afford having it removed from his stomach. Luckily he puked it up after I force fed him some diluted hydrogen peroxide. If it would have hit his intestines, we would have lost him.

I do care for my pets - we just could never afford major surgery on the animal. He would have to be put down.

 

That's just plain fucked up.

 

I can try to answer questions the best I can....I have it and I have used it

 

I lived the exact same scenario as op, and made the same choice. 8k later he was healing up. Rehab was tough and took awhile. Good news is he's still running happily (with my ex) and has lived a long and happy life. I'd do it again without question. Now my current dog has insurance at 60 a month.

 

MMI was Orlando, Jan '99 - Apr/May(?) '00, through Kawasaki and Suzuki.
Followed up in Phoenix for Honda and Yamaha...
...and a $30K shattered wrist.
I'm crackin' up on the affectionate pet names...they never end.

As for Jacko, initial emergency services at a dedicated emergency center, about $800 for the weekend. Then local vet we'd used for years fucked that up the week following.
Ended up goin' to NYC, the boy was in bad shape and dying, was told about $2300 a day.
It didn't occur to me that it would take a week to bring him back. If I had thought about it, I don't know what I would have done. Once treatment started, well, we're kinda committed at that point.
This, for a rescued barn kitty...still makes me cry thinking about it.

 

Well, my dog is famous. She met the president and bit Kevin on the foot.

 

Fred,
Thank you for the clarification on which MMI. Odd coincidence, but there is a very good prep school in a crappy part of the northeast PA coal region with the same name. Since you and your significant other are in/ from that part of the world, I had to ask.

 

We went through almost identical situation with our Sidney (frankendog) that we adopted only 9 months earlier. She went from fine to paralyzed in 24 hours. We had surgery the following day and after several weeks of physical therapy, she is fully mobile. She isn't quite the same as pre-surgery, but she gets around great, can jump onto the sofa and loves playing with her sister. The family she was with previously never would have been able to afford to have the surgery done. I figure it was fate that she ended up with us and we were willing to have the surgery. Not everyone can afford that kind of care for their pets, and I would never judge them for it. Fortunately we can, and after two TPLO surgeries on our adopted pit, a full hemilaminectomy on Sidney, and a hip replacement on the pointer we lost a few years ago, the vet hospital will be naming a wing after us someday.

Believe me, if you put the time into the recovery (exercises and physical therapy) you will never regret the decision to have the surgery. Sid has been kicking ass ever since and the chances of a repeat are super low. Totally worth every penny IMO. Its only money...you will make more. I hope he recovers well.

 

I pay $10 a month through my employer for Nationwide pet insurance. It covers the unexpected. Unfortunately we got it after Etta's first torn ACL, so it didn't cover her second one (pre-existing condition), but when she ate a piece of a tennis ball and had to have it removed, it saved us about $2500 in out of pocket expenses.

 

Shoulda been the other way around...

Oh, right. I get confused every time I see an ad for that. It's as if they expect us to know what they specialize in cuz, until I just looked it up, I had no idea.

 

Same thing happens with CIA. Depending on who I am talking to it is eithe a security apparatus or a cooking school. And the cooking school existed first. MMI in Pa has been around over 100 years,mouth has much smaller graduating classes, I am sure (31 last year).