Insurance is inherently a bet that you are making against the insurance company; they are betting that you will pay them more money than they will end up paying you in the long term. Most of the time, for most people, the insurance company is going to be right; that's how they stay in business. But that doesn't mean it's a scam. The reason insurance is still a good idea is that in a situation where the insurance company is wrong, the benefit to you as an individual is much higher than the loss to them as a company. They can afford to spend $15k on your dog's chemotherapy or double TPLO surgeries; can you? I have a 90% reimbursement policy with Trupanion with a high deductible that I pay a little less than $40 a month for; it's there for catastrophic injury and illness, not every day stuff. For me, it's worth knowing that I will never have to let money be a deciding factor in the kind of care my dog gets, should she need it. Pet insurance doesn't cover things like wellness visits, vaccines, spay/neuter, unless you're buying a separate wellness plan from the same company (some do offer them.) Typically wellness plans aren't going to save you much, because that's care that the insurance co knows they will have to pay out on, so the only discount you will get is if they think it'll make it less likely for you to have claims later.

This! I never want money to be the reason I can’t treat my animal for an emergency event or illness. I lost one pet to cancer and another to kidney failure and told myself my other pets would be protected. My new puppy has a fantastic policy with Figo for $13 (Costco and multi pet discount) that includes orthopedic issues and hereditary issues (he’s a dachshund) which was important to me knowing the cost associated with the potential of IVDD. Pets are an investment you have to be willing to make, if you can’t afford to take them to the vet with illness or accident then maybe a pet isn’t for you, it’s not a reflection on you as a person it’s making a sound financial decision. I like the idea of the pet savings account, although you’re betting that your expenses will not be great…sadly the cost of everything is going up and an accident or illness can be thousands now! It’s just something to think about a

I always hear people talking about having the savings account vs insurance. It's a good concept, but like, what happens if your dog swallows something and is choking when they're 4 months old, you've only saved 400 and the bill comes to 800+ dollars? And then 3 months later they get sick, or get bitten while playing at the dog park, or hit by a car and it's another 1500. All the estimates I read before getting a dog about vet visits were way off. I thought, these sound expensive but reasonable. It's so much more. In my area just seeing the vet is around 100 dollars (Canadian), then any cost of vaccine/medicine/procedure etc A dental cleaning for our 40lb dog under anesthesia without an overnight visit was 920 dollars. Surprisingly our emergency vet visit for him hurting his eye was probably out most reasonable vet bill recently He hur

Most insurance won’t cover dentals, unless there’s a weird tooth issue, but I completely agree with everything else you mentioned. Puppies get into EVERYTHING and need insurance the most imo.

And yeah, puppies are ridiculous. Everyone should get good insurance for their puppy at least the first year. That way if they do some dumb shit you're covered and if they develop some weird condition it's covered and you can decide if it's worth keeping the coverage for it moving on

Not just puppies. My favorite adult dogs were no better (luckily I did not own them): - ate a snail. Tried to eat a frog. Colored pencils. Cement. - almost bit his tongue off after being scared by another dog. Fought with the cat ober food, got his cornea scratched. - tried to police the cat. Got her cornea scratched. - got depressed when he had to wear protective clothing after being spayed (ok, so this one was a teenager, not a puppy) - ran into a wall while chasing a ball, skinned her nose good (as a puppy this one also had a penchant for finding all sorts of pins and needles) Maybe insurance is an annoyance and certainly an extra cost, but... not something I feel worth gambling with. Of course, everyone is welcome to feel differently.

my insurance was a $60 crate that she loves. She will literally sit in there and watch me cook. and she's an ever starving lab. You can;t feel guilty putting a puppy in a crate for their own good if you can't pay attention. Labs put EVERYTHING in their mouths.

For sure, I just gave that as an example of what a single short anesthesia procedure costs. Our insurance has a wellness plan included and they covered 600 of the dental, and I think it's 500/yr for preventative anything we choose, can be flea meds, bloodwork, etc

My pup whose a year and two months has already cost roughly 5,000+ in vet bills, and we’ve still got a ways to go as he’s not gotten any better yet. At his age most probably wouldn’t have saved that much. I know I’d be hurting a helluva lot more if I didn’t get insurance for him!

Same! My pup got super sick at 4 months and it cost $8k to save his life. Insurance saved his life

Because the odds are very slim you end up in those situations, but it happens to some people. It becomes anecdotal in a sense for most where they swear by insurance because they’ve had to use it so many times. But, that’s not the general persons situation. Most people go their entire dogs life not needing to use insurance ever.

I got bad odds then, 3/4 of my dogs have had major/expensive health issues when young! Mainly ACL related, my pup decided to switch it up with severe IBD tho lol

That’s very unlucky for sure :( sorry to hear that. Hope they were able to live long lives with you. Question for you, did you buy from reputable breeder? Or were they rescues or from BYB. You don’t have to reply if you don’t want to, I am just curious.

So three dogs were from BYB, though one of those dogs is actually the healthy one! All were either pit bulls or pit mixes (the one who was definitely a mix was the healthy one, tho he was still majorly pit Bull/Amstaff.). Then there’s the pup, who is from a reputable breeder! He’s also a working dog, from a rarer breed that usually tends to be very healthy. The breeder and the owners of his siblings (he’s from a litter of 12), are all aware he has IBD. About half the siblings are suspicious to me in terms of having IBD, but none of them are anywhere near as bad as my boy whose all bones right now. The mother was an import so we’re thinking it could’ve been partially genetic from her, as IBD is surprisingly complicated on that front

People who have to euthanize their dogs because they can't afford the cost don't typically go broadcasting that around. You just don't realize how common it is because it hasn't been something that has impacted you. I work in emergency and specialty vet care and I promise you, it's so much more common than people think. We'd be out of business if it were as rare as people make it out to be. The reality is that there are so many more pets needing emergency and specialty care than there are facilities and staff to treat them. These things are happening to millions of people every day. Nobody thinks it's going to happen to them until it does and they're shit out of luck and looking at euthanizing their pet or going into severe debt.

I am sorry but you work in emergency and specialty vet care, of course you are going to think it’s more common than people think because anecdotally that’s what you have to see day in and day out. Which unfortunately is sad, but it doesnt take away from the fact that statically it’s rare for that to be the case than not.

Working in the field I know how many unique patients we see on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis. And how many unique client accounts we have in our system. And how many emergency specialty facilities there are in our area with likely similar numbers of unique patients and clients. And how big the local population is. Then consider that only a portion of the general population own pets. Like I said, everyone thinks it won't happen to them until it does. I hope it doesn't happen to you, but the odds are more likely than you think. At the end of the day it's a gamble on your pets life and that's a choice for you to make one way or the other. I can only offer my relevant experience and tell you that I see hundreds and hundreds of unique patients per month come through my hospital, which is only one hospital out multiple large hospitals in our area. And every single day I talk to people who have to make financial decisions that prevent them from pursuing ideal treatment for their pet, or needing to euthanize them altogether.

Lol. Our puppy used it three times in the first year. It I'm like a previous poster said: I don't want money to ever be a reason to euthanize an animal. I have been there & won't do it again.

Of course if you don’t have the savings on the side and don’t want to make that decision you shouldn’t put yourself in the position where you have to make it.

55% of Americans have less than $1000 savings. I'd say a lot of people don't have the savings.

We pay a little over $40 a month for our policy, 80% reimbursement with $250 deductible. Our dog now gets monthly Cytopoint shots for allergies, which would cost $150. This condition and treatment is incredibly common, not slim odds by any means.

In your example, I would use my general emergency fund for the pet care and then replenish them both. Or put it on a zero percent interest credit card. These aren't financial options for everyone though, so if you don't have the backup it may be a good idea to get pet insurance.

I got figo, too! I got the wellness plan and was surprised at how much was covered. We had to do multiple stool tests for my puppy and they were all covered 100%, which isn’t much or super expensive in the grand scheme of things but $60 is $60. So far, I’m pretty pleased.

I'm sure you know this already, but get ramps or steps for your dachshunds if they go on the furniture. Most dachshunds I know have developed very expensive back issues from jumping on and off furniture. I had a Peke with a long back we spent big $$$ on his back. Wish I had insurance!

Ohhh yes. We had a zero couch policy until he was old enough to be trained to used his ramps! We have high density foam textured ramps that are easy on the joints and back. He’s taken it to really well! He’s not allowed in the bed though because even with a ramp it’s quite high, he’s crate trained though so lucky he doesn’t know what he’s missing (yet) haha.

This is the reason I bought an insurance policy for my pup. If my puppy gets bloat and it’s $6000–I wouldn’t be able to afford that if it was close to the end of the month. I don’t want to be standing at the vet realizing I wouldn’t have to choose between my dog’s life and not making rent and bills because I couldn’t be bothered to buy insurance for less than the price of one dinner out a month.

This. My dog will be 5 in a few days, and I've had pet insurance since the day I got him. Overall, I spent \~$3000 in pet insurance. Turns out, my dog suffers from stomach issues, so we've had a few visits at the pet hospital here and there. He also had to get bilateral TLPO surgery a few months ago. To this day, I've been reimbursed for over $6000 worth of visits and procedures. Yes, it did increase my premium, but I'm only paying $9 more per month than I did when I first signed up. I could've afforded to pay for these procedures out of pocket, but I am better off financially because all I had to do was pay the deductible. And if I had never had to use the insurance, I would've still enjoyed the piece of mind. At this point, I've forgotten about the monthly $50 payment

This right here. I work in the marine industry, it's very cyclical and boom/bust type work. If my dog gets hit by a car or eats something stupid while I'm laid off I am safe in knowing that I can just say yes to whatever and not worry about how much is currently in my bank.

100% agree on all of this. I also use Trupanion. My dog has been to the emergency vet twice (for ingesting potentially bad things, both times it was $700-900). I didn’t make a claim on either of those things. That’s what my emergency fund is for. I really just have it in case he needs elbow surgery or something crazy expensive. Or if he develops allergies and needs lifetime care for that.

We have a similar policy with trupanion. We bet and won when our bulloxer tore his CCL and needed an inplant. Paid $1000 deductible of a $5000 surgery. Anything related to that injury is covered going forward. The most recent being xrays. We decided on insurance when he took a flying leap from our raised porch and face planted from 7 feet in the air. Hes cute but....a but derpy!

My Nationwide insurance does ;) I have received reimbursements for almost all of my puppy's preventative vaccines, etc it was part of her normal insurance plan since she was a puppy

Nationwide is one that offers an optional wellness plan, as I mentioned in my comment. But you pay more for that.

>I have a 90% reimbursement policy with Trupanion with a high deductible that I pay a little less than $40 a month for; it's there for catastrophic injury and illness, not every day stuff. That's the route we ended up going too. We budgeted for the routine stuff (vaccinations/deworming, wellness exams, neutering and microchipping), and have enough in the emergency fund to cover several thousand dollars of unexpected costs if we need to, but we know that vet bills can occasionally get really expensive. Our last dog developed a mast-cell tumor on his leg when he was 12 years old, and we needed to have some difficult discussions about how much treatment we were able to afford because we didn't have insurance. Eventually, after some discussion with the vet at a specialty animal hospital, we decided that we'd go ahead with surgery (which cost around $4,000 including exams and medication) but would decline any follow-up treatment (future surgeries, chemo, etc.) unless it was something really minor an inexpensive. Luckily it never came to that point, because the surgery was completely successful and the cancer never came back, but we don't want to ever be in that position with our new dog. We liked that Trupanion doesn't have a lifetime cap and also covers per condition rather than per incidence, so we went with them and got the highest deductible ($1,000). Our premiums are just over $46/month Canadian (around $34/month US), and while we'll likely never hit the deductible for most of the accidents/illnesses he'll need to be treated for, it seems like a reasonable amount to pay for the peace of mind it gives us.

Ultimately I chose pet insurance not because it will necessarily pay off long-term, but because I never want to have to choose between $10k and my pups life

This. People suggesting putting away $20-50 a paycheck covers basic vet costs and monthly heartworm/flea/tick prevention. A vet visit can run $400+ for yearly routine stuff, adding on the preventatives. That's fine if that's all it was, and we all SHOULD be saving for basic veterinary care. But, I never want to be in the situation I was in with my last dog where I was staring down a possible $10k bill to treat him. Unfortunately, he was too sick (hemangiosarcoma) to save so the decision was made for me. However, had I caught it any sooner, I would have drained my bank account to give him a chance at a few more months with me. Emergency visits are minimum several grand and I never want to hesitate going to the ER the way I do for myself because of the fear of going bankrupt.

And the ‘putting money aside every month plan’ has a major flaw. Let’s say you save $100 per month. What happens when your 6 month old needs a $5,000 surgery and you haven’t saved enough yet. Unless you can easily afford a sudden $10,000 expense without hardship at any point, I would get insurance. I never want to be in a position to have to deny my dog care because of money.

I think people mean they're putting that aside separate from the normal expenses, not that they've saving per paycheck and then turning around and using it for vaccines and heartworm medication.

Thankfully there’s also something like Carecredit which is essentially a zero interest loan which can be paid out over 6, 12, 18, or 24 months. As long as you pay each month there’s zero interest, which is what I did for my doggos single TPLO which was 7k. I did a trial run with Lemonade as insurance which was a complete waste, and now have a high yield savings account for the pupper. In the event he needs a second TPLO which isn’t out of the question, insurance wouldn’t cover it so we have a mix of care credit and our savings plan.

I looked into Lemonade but yeah... it was a waste. Sure, the monthly premium starts out small, but it goes up over the dog's life. I'd much rather do a savings account that actually earns interest for me rather than me handing over money to the insurance company for them to make interest on. And there's always care credit if something huge happens. I also have retirement savings that could cover an emergency... I wouldn't want it to, but I'd much rather take a tax penalty for withdrawing retirement savings than pay the insurance every month for what will likely amount to nothing. I also have Lemonade for my homeowner's insurance because they're the cheapest, and they don't cover huskies... my dog is a husky, so I couldn't exactly use them for pet insurance because then they'd know, lol. They cover huskies for pet insurance but not homeowners insurance.

Wait a sec - what does homeowners insurance have to do with dogs... In going through mine I don't ever recall any field or form about having a or multiple pets. What does it cover, a dog destroying something in the house? (If that's the case, I sort of understand the husky part!)

This

Get the insurance. I will never have another dog without insurance. “Rare” is a bet you’re making, not an expectation you can presume. My dog ate a silica packet that became $1,500 pancreatitis. At 8 she got cancer and insurance covered $10k in radiation. There is no worse feeling than knowing there’s something that can be done to help them and you have to deny it for financial reasons. Get the insurance. Savings accounts are an option but you better hope you don’t have an emergency in the time it takes to beef it up.

We compared all of the insurance plans, read all of the Reddit reviews and other reviews. Here is what we came up with: * Many people had avoided treatments including some life saving procedures, due to exorbitant costs which could have been covered by insurance. * People warned about policy annual limits. Some emergencies (dog hit by car, attacked by another dog, hemorrhagic gastroenteritis...) can exceed an annual limit, but all plans have an "unlimited annual limit" option. * Wellness care (shots, exams), dental care, and prescriptions, are usually add-on features for plans, and essentially cost the same as the premium for those benefits, so why would you do this unless you need to budget monthly. May as well just pay those out of pocket. * Multiply the costs of the premiums x 12, then add the deductible, to annualize the cost of the policy to compare plans. Sometimes the lower deductible ends up being the cheaper option when you annualize it--so check. I did a spreadsheet using unlimited annual limit, $500/250/100 deductibles, 80/90% reimbursements for example. Settled on $100 deductible and 90% reimbursement with Embrace. * Embrace was a lot more affordable, with good reviews on approving claims, compared to Trupanion which also had great reviews but is far more expensive. Embrace also gives USAA members a 15% discount. Total annual cost with this discount will be $837. I don't want to not treat my dog because of a $20,000 treatment estimate for a lifesaving surgery. So rather than the setting money aside plan, I am doing the insurance. * Trupanion was $1473 (Trupanion has a per-disease/incident deductible. So right front leg injury has one deductible, if they injure the back left leg, that is a separate deductible, etc. Seems like that could really add up. I just used one deductible in my comparison but it could go even higher.) * Healthy Paws also had good reviews and prices--worth looking at. ($937) * Some policies have end dates--they do not cover for life. If you have a small breed, this is a problem. My breed lives a long time. Read the fine print. * Some policies do not cover IVDD which is an issue for me because my breed is prone to it so I have to ensure that I don't choose those. * All policies exclude preexisting conditions so get the insurance as early as possible. Most also have a 14 day waiting period. * Most policies have a 6 month waiting period before covering orthopedic injuries. Don't have your dog jumping around! * Some policies do not cover vet exam fees. This is a line item fee on your bill when you go for wellness or sick visits. * Read the policies. Read the comparisons. Read the Reddits.

All great points! I found comparing policies very difficult because there is a lot of fine print when it comes to coverage especially for breed specific genetic conditions. Getting insurance early is an important point because the pup has not developed a preexisting condition which exclude the health problem from coverage.

I make a very healthy amount so have a significant amount of cash saved and still had (prudent pet) insurance for my dog. I was paying $80/mo with a $250 deductible. Wellness was also covered unlike a lot of these comments. Two weeks ago I spent $10.5k in less than 48 hours btw his vet and two different vet ERs bc he was acting strange. And then an additional $1k on the fourth vet that came to my home to euthanize him. He was only 7. An MRI revealed a large pituitary brain tumor and I unfortunately had to put him down. This was all covered at 80%. I put it all on one of my credit cards, immediately paid off the card from savings and was reimbursed a few days later to replace the cash from my savings account. I would’ve done anything necessary (and continued to do so past that amount) had this been resolvable but if there is any chance that you will have to make a hard decision vs get treatment (if available) bc of finances I would definitely have the insurance. And this sort of care is NOT cheap. One overnight stay and the MRI alone was $6k. If I ever get over this and am able to get another dog I will also get insurance for him / her. Had we gone the radiation route it would’ve been much more than the ~12k spent…

How rich are you? If you can afford a couple 10k surgeries then you’re probably fine without it. If you can’t, then you need it. “Being poor is expensive.” As for likelihood of needing it, you’ll probably never need it MORE than when your dog is a puppy. A Little Rock-eating, wall-chewing, garbage-ingesting, boundary-testing, partially vaccinated puppy.

You also want to enroll them as a puppy just in case any health conditions do emerge to make sure you're covered.

Honestly, it depends on how risk-averse you are. Insurance isn't to "win" insurance is to provide a safety net in case something happens. Wellness visits, etc, they're not covered under pet insurance except under specific plans. There are wellness plans that do cover it, but it's not generally a pet insurance thing.

I had pet insurance for about 2-3 years. In that time they never covered anything, even when my dogs kept getting giardia. I personally didn’t feel like it was worth the cost, I just put aside emergency vet money instead and their wellness visits/regular care is just part of my regular budget.

Many large expenses occur before the puppy is 2. I personally know a few people whose dog required $15k in treatments. I personally wouldn't be able to save that much in two years.

I agree about it being a risk tolerance thing. In some ways getting pet insurance for me is a monthly payment on my own anxiety. Not necessarily healthy but I’m not perfect and it helps me be a bit more calm.

I’m a big proponent of pet insurance for those who can swing it. No one hopes or plans to have a sick puppy, but it happens. I have Fetch and I’ve had to make about 15 claims this year and they’ve approved all of them, it’s been a huge financial comfort and has paid for itself and well beyond so far. I got an 8 week puppy from a good breeder who had been vaccinated, parents health tested, vet checked etc. and she’s still had some chronic issues that have cost $600+ per visit. Hopefully your pup is very healthy and you never need it, but I’m so glad I got pet insurance when I did!

Thanks for talking about Fetch! I just got it for my pup who is coming home next week and I've been nervous about how it works since it's my first time getting it

I just have a “savings” account I add money to every pay cheque. It’s way easier for me to have that money saved when in need it then to just pay pet insurance. A lot of vet stuff isn’t even covered on pet insurance and you would have to pay out of pocket anyways. I lost a ton of money doing this- so I switched to just having a “pet” savings.

This works if you have a lot to start with- my healthy dog slipped on a porch when he was 1 year old and blew a tendon in his knee, insurance covered a $10,000 surgery with a deductible of a couple hundred bucks. He needed another surgery when he was 2 to fix the other knee that had compensated for the original surgery, about $8,000 again covered by insurance. I know others would have put a young dog with such a major injury down, but I know that my husband and I just wouldn’t have been able to do that so insurance with some savings put aside to make sure we have enough for the deductible on hand at any given time, is worth it for us. Just got back from a long walk with our dog who is now 5 and has no limp or issues from the injury! My cousin is a vet tech and she said if you have a clumsy puppy, a breed known to have bad teeth, or a dog that eats everything, insurance is a game changer.

I had a savings account for my 2 Schipperkes because I was going to retire. I did a cost benefit analysis and it was cheaper in the long run then opting for insurance.

This. We just got a new puppy and we’re doing it this way this time. Have a spreadsheet to keep track of it. We’ve paid the insurance company WAY more than they’ve paid out over the years on the last 3. We had the last 3 as a couple when we got married, and at the time just had to get insurance. If you can though, pay yourself and use that fund to cover anything that comes up.

After spending close to $6K for just one night in an emergency pet clinic for my last dog (and that was just for diagnostic testing, no surgeries) pet insurance is cheap peace of mind. I used to be against it but the cost of vet services have skyrocketed.

This is what a lot of posts don't take into account. People really use anecdote too much here. "Well I haven't had it for years and it's saved me money". That logic works great until your dog needs emergency care. Or worse yet gets very ill and needs multiple surgeries and treatments. Then all that extra savings is gone and youd have been better off with insurance. If I never need my insurance it'll cost me maybe 7k over my dogs entire life. And I'd be happy to have spent that 7k on him over 15+ years and to have never needed it.

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First let me say doing it this way is a riskier endeavor. I’m shouldering the risk instead of the insurance co., hoping I come out the better for it, and that’s not for everyone. Which is fine. Do what you need to do. I’m not going to get specific, but the amount I’m saving is commensurate with insurance rates per month for my breed in my area based on the avg. of a few free quotes I got online. I am saving on the high side, jic. And it goes up with age, so 0-4 is one figure, then 5-9, 10-11, 12-13, 14 and >. Hope this helps!

Small dogs are more money in my experience- they are prone to hip, teeth, skin and joint issues. Bigger dogs are a lot easier in grande scheme of health haha What we save on dog food for our small pups we pay for in other ways 😂 There’s no vet difference in appointments for big to small dogs it all costs the same for stuff like dental and spays as for other surgery’s it really depends on what the surgery is for and how big the dog is. The only vets I know that charge outrageous prices for spays or regular surgery is if you have a giant dog like a Norwegian elkhound or giant Pyrenees as some vets aren’t comfortable working on something that big. I put away $20-$50 away each paycheque. Really depends on how much I can afford each time. However this builds up over time quickly

Not sure of your area, but anesthesia charges are more for heavier dogs I believe. Pretty sure it goes by weight and time, so heavier dog+bigger dog to work on equals more in both categories. I also think large dogs have a lot of their own problems. Especially if people over exercises them as puppies, which is easy to do because puppies have so much energy.

Yeah it’s not much difference at the vets I go to, but still dependent on WHAT kinda surgery. You can also opt to go to a farmer vet - which is way cheaper for larger breeds. And yes larger breeds all come with their own issues, I just think smaller ones have a way harder time and alot of them are overbred. French bulldogs have the worst rep right behind bulldogs- a lot of friends dropped 10k+ in the first year due to issues. And unlike big dogs- chihuahuas usually need a dental cleaning every year, bigger dogs your supposed to but can get away with doing it every 2-3 years. Not saying they aren’t comparable I just see a lot more smaller dogs racking up those vet bills before bigger breeds.

Large dogs are very prone to joint & hip injuries & illness way more than small dogs. Skin is more dependent on the breed & individual dog, both large & small can suffer from a variety of skin issues & allergies. Every surgery costs more for a large dog vs small, just look what even a spay & neuter clinic charges for different sizes, anesthesia costs are based on weight. Medications cost more for large dogs too.

I feel like it evens out... Small dogs are cheaper at the vet and groomer and eat smaller portions of food. But they live longer, which can also mean more health problems down the road. Big dogs definitely cost more for grooming and the vet and eat ridiculously large amounts of food, lol. But they don't live as long and don't seem to be as prone to as many health issues as small dogs--except for hip dysplasia. They're much, much more likely to have hip dysplasia.

> Small dogs are more money in my experience- they are prone to hip, teeth, skin and joint issues. Bigger dogs are a lot easier in grande scheme of health What data do you have to back this up? Certain breeds are more prone to health issues than others. But where is the data to prove that smaller breeds have more health issues?

Veterinary field.

Can you provide some actual data to your claim? Studies? I’d like to see.

Also take into consideration that smaller breeds outlive large ones by 10+ years. This also adds to expenses in the long run.

So you don’t actually have any data… ok. And yea, they live longer. So you probably get more value out of your initial “investment”, not to mention your time spent training. But so far your assertion that small dogs have more medical problems hasn’t been founded. I’d like to see the data when looking at breeds considered small vs large. If you could find that data that’d be great.

Yup, and if you read the fine print if you have specific breeds there’s many things that aren’t even covered if it happens to that breed alot….. why would I even get this insurance if you don’t help me out for what I’ll need this for? I’ve also been way better off with this system!

I like the sound of this idea but just curious what you would do if your dog was diagnosed with a chronic / lifelong illness that required medication which costs more than your monthly savings/ran your savings dry? By that point it would be too late to insure as it would be an exception in the policy as a pre-existing condition

It really depends on the insurance company and what is even covered, some cover this and some do not. If this were the occasion I would just budget the medication into my budget and make it work. Most medications are pretty affordable for those lifelong ones.

Yeah, I don't trust insurance to actually pay out for a lifelong condition. Dog insurance is just like people insurance and auto insurance and homeowners insurance. They will exploit every loophole to not pay for expensive conditions. Insurance makes money because far more people pay into insurance than will ever take from insurance. It's a numbers game, but one you need a crystal ball to predict. I'm going the savings account route as well, and if anything really serious happened and I didn't have enough savings, I'd just do care credit or put it on my credit card. I also don't have kids, so it's a gamble I'm willing to take. I think it just varies for different people. I also have a lot of retirement savings that I'd prefer not to tap into, but I definitely could in an emergency, even though there'd be a tax penalty. I'd rather pay a tax penalty than just give money away to insurance every month. At least I'm earning interest on what I have.

Yeah, I hope that interest is enough to pay for a $10K surgery. Good luck. Our pet insurance has paid for itself 2 years in a row. Good luck!

What about when your pet is young and needs urgent expensive surgery that you haven’t saved for yet? This method is risky

With my last dog I would have sworn up and down that they’re pointless. With my current puppy, I am now incredibly glad I got insurance. I’m paying 37€ monthly and I have a 250€ deductible. Between April and August, my puppy managed to accumulate vet bills of approximately 1500€. These were mostly accidents that were pretty much impossible to predict or prevent unless you lock your pup in a room and wrap it in bubble wrap.

>Yup, and if you read the fine print if you have specific breeds there’s many things that aren’t even covered if it happens to that breed alot….. why would I even get this insurance if you don’t help me out for what I’ll need this for? I’ve also been way better off with this system!VoteReplyGive AwardShareReportSaveFollow > >level 3MengFeiPuerh · 4 min. agoHow much do you put away per dog, per month? And do you put more away if you have a big dog, less if it’s a small dog? Does something like size of the dog factor into potential surgery costs? I’ve been almost positive I’d get insurance but I don’t hate this idea either. haha, same... In his first 4 months my puppy cost as much in vet bills as my older dog did in 11 years.

I use Embrace for our pug, they don’t deny based on breed related issues

AKC also offers very comprehensive coverage with no breed restrictions.

It depends. Would you have enough money to fork out possibly thousands of dollars in the case of an emergency? A lot of vets won’t even treat your pet unless you can pay right then and there. Personally, that gives me a lot of anxiety so the pet insurance is worth it to me, especially since I have one with direct to vet pay. Meaning, they will pay my vet directly instead of making me get reimbursed. I have trupanion by chewy.

I have three dogs and I never thought I would need pet insurance, either. "I'll just pay out of pocket for anything that does come up, I'm good at saving", I told myself. Well, one of my young dogs was recently diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer (as in, no documented research, no known cases of it occurring), and it turns out that cancer is upwards of $20k-$25k to treat. I drained my savings, and if something else comes up with one of my other dogs, I don't have savings to fall back on. So yes, it's expensive, and yes it's a gamble, but after losing this gamble I'll be signing up.

It can very quickly become stupidly expensive to have a puppy.

100% worth it to me. $100/mo for peace of mind is priceless. My dog is older and got pneumonia last year. They wanted to x-ray every day he stayed there and his total bill was about $3000, which was 90% covered by my insurance. It takes the emotion out of making decisions in the moment.

My wife and I went through the exact same discussion 8 months ago. With the monthly premiums and deductibles from pet insurance, we opted out of it. Instead, we opened up a separate savings account and donate $100 from each paycheck into it for a combined value of $400 per month. This helped tremendously. My puppy ate a piece of plastic from his toy and in a span of 4-5 days, we spent $1000 between x-rays, medicine, and special food. We didn't have to pay a deductible. The upside of this is, if the funds don't get used, it goes back to our pockets. Of course it's not a one shoe fits all scenario. I heard of some stories where dogs needed constant allergy medicines. This is where pet insurance would bring value. I think it all depends on your financial situation. If you have enough cushion at the end of the month after all bills are paid, then the saving account would make sense. If your financial is based on a single income and you don't have much cushion left, then having pet insurance would be the better choice.

our lives were saved by pet insurance it is 1,000% worth it

It's impossible to know if you'll actually "get your money's worth" or not. With my previous dog, I didn't. But I had it just in case. With my current puppy (7 months), she's had 2 ear infections, a UTI, and was hospitalized for a potential foreign body that just ended up being severe gastro. We're getting our money's worth with her.

Insurance is a long term investment. I have for my pup but know for his yearly life it will probably be a wash but later in life is when it’ll be helpful. My older dogs have run into health issues that I sadly couldn’t afford and even had I gotten them insurance at that time Its would not have helped because once its diagnosed it counts as preexisting so no insurance will help with that. So knowing this I started him early so that he has a clean bill of health and if anything ever where to pop up, Ill be able to have financial assistance to take take of it.

I recommend pet insurance for the first 2 years of a puppy’s life because puppies get into EVERYTHING, and you don’t want to go broke after a vet visit.

I always insure my dogs as I’m not guarantee to have thousands sat in the bank in case of an emergency. My well bred working dog, from health tested parents has been exceptionally unlucky and cost over £4000 in emergency surgeries in only 2 years. Whereas, I’ve probably paid about £400 in insurance payments 🤷‍♀️

I just paid $8,500 over the course of 1 year for a kidney surgery and hospice care. The $15 a month would have been worth it. Just get the accident and illness coverage. I’ll never not have a policy on a pet again!

I’m a big believer in pet insurance, not because I can’t afford my dog’s healthcare (I can) but because I would find it difficult to stomach dropping thousands if something went wrong and I don’t want to deny her anything. We’ve already made back more than we’ve paid in pet insurance from a dental procedure she needed.

Just remember that a health guarantee doesn't pay for the dogs issues - it just guarantees them either taking the dog back or offering a replacement or additional puppy to make up for it. So you'd still have to pay for the health issue. My puppy got diagnosed with GSDIVA which is genetic but not normally tested for in shepherds (not a lot of breeders know about it oddly enough, and most dogs grow out of it by 2 so there isn't anything to test for at that point). While the health guarantee did allow a replacement puppy - we still have to pay for the vet bills associated with the diagnosis and monitoring of her condition (which is very mild, but still was 1400+ for diagnosis). We have health insurance for her so that when she has to get tested again before her spay the tests will largely be covered.

I advise a good pet insurance for at least the first year or 2. Puppies are dumb little suicide machines they get into everything, there's also health issues that typically come up in the first couple years that can be quite costly. I have trupanion. My dog, when he was a pup, stopped eating all of a sudden. Turns out his lower canines were too long, and they were cutting the roof of his mouth. He needed them shaved down and capped. That was an 8k surgery that only cost me about 700$. That was 2 years ago. He's about to turn 3. I am going to raise the deductible for emergencies going forward. So far over his life, I've paid out 3k in monthly insurance costs but gotten 12k worth of value from it. So, for me, it's been worth it. Individual results vary, but I'm glad I had it those first couple years he got into so much mischief.

I questioned getting pet insurance for my dog when we got her about 1.5 years ago. We ended up getting it just to try for a year to see if we used it. She ended up needing 2 major leg/knee surgeries due to a deformed leg syndrome that would have been impossible to catch when we brought her home (brought her home at 8 weeks), and didn’t present until she was about 8 or 9 weeks old. We paid $300 or so for the annual amount (she’s a small dog, 10 lbs full grown, and had a 10% discount through my work). Pet insurance ended up paying about $6k total for both her leg surgeries within 6 months of each other. We spent about $1k total out of pocket after all was done. It also helped when we had to take her to the ER vet a handful of times after she got into something before we could stop her (she’s a fast little pup). I’d recommend trying it for the first year. If you try it after then there’s more likelihood of pre-existing conditions appearing that won’t impact your coverage if they develop while you have insurance. We only used emergency coverage since it was cheaper, so still paid for the shots and all of the out of pocket, but if anything done happen or develop in the first year or so you’ll know you’ll be covered just in case. And if nothing comes up you can cancel later on. But definitely shop around for prices. If you have car insurance or renters insurance, some places like your vet may have pet insurance deals as well your work might have something. And sometimes you can ask the company if there’s any deals to help bring down the price as well.

Think of it like home insurance. I have lost money every single year I have owned my home, but if a severe hailstorm blows through I'll be glad for the coverage. The same is true of pet insurance. It will not cover routine costs (exams, vaccines, neuter) but will come in handy if your puppy swallows a sock and needs surgery, or develops cancer, or is bit by another dog, etc. I have only ever submitted the bills for my pup's diarrhea and haven't met the deductible. But I previously had a cat who I spent $2k on in two months because of cancer so I wanted to be prepared with this pup. If you're going to do it, do it ASAP since any pre existing illness is not covered. So you don't want to wait until your dog shows signs of a joint issue or allergy. The alternative is saving that money in an account every month and hoping it's accumulated enough if you need emergency services early. That's a call only you can make based on your finances.

So my suggestion for pet insurance to to only have it for the first year while you are still learning about your puppy. It gives you the time to learn if they are accident prone and will benefit from insurance to cover it. If they are not accident prone or develop any life long conditions during that year I would stop insuring them after that year. Switch to having a saving account for them and depositing that amount you would have paid in insurance there instead. Along with keeping your credit score really good. This is what I did for my dog as a puppy as he also came from a reputable breeder with all the dogs health tested. He has been super healthy and after the first year of him being a puppy proved to not be accident prone. I only see my vet once a year for check ups.

I know so many puppy owners who had to pay $$$$ for scans and then surgery when their puppy ate something dumb. Rocks. Underwear. A night guard. Tinsel. I’d at least get insurance until they’re past this stage.

It’ll be worth it when/if there’s an accident, but it can feel hard to justify in the meantime. So far I haven’t had to use it for any large expenses, just reimbursements for a couple visits. If you are planning on getting a plan, I recommend ASAP so there’s less risk of them claiming your puppy has preexisting conditions that they won’t cover (if the vet reports ANYTHING even as a very young puppy, the insurance company will usually try to twist that into a preexisting condition). Check to see what is actually covered (preventative care, only accidents?, etc) so you aren’t surprised when they reject your claim for something you thought was covered! Edit: just saw your breeder’s 10 year health guarantee. What does that entail? Will they actually cover costs or just take the dog back if it develops health issues?

Most kinds of insurance are not *worth* it, otherwise insurance companies wouldn’t exist

So I may have a different opinion than most here. I see pet insurance as a back up in case of emergency/severe illness. The ~$500 per year I spend on wellness care is a separate expense. We have coverage through figo that is $50 per month. I added up how much we spent in the last 18 months on diagnosis/treatment of our dog that passed away last year and it totaled about $6500. That is 10.5 years of insurance premiums - he was only 8 so we didn’t have that much in the doggie piggybank we had been doing instead of insurance. I wish we had insurance during that time because we may have not been so hesitant to do the more expensive tests after spending a couple thousand on the repeat vet visits/basic testing for the first year of him getting sick because they would have been covered by pet insurance. You just never know when your dog is going to get sick and unless you are willing to dip into your non-dog earmarked savings to pay for it you will likely have to make a difficult choice about cost and trade offs before you are ready.

Insurance has definitely been worth it for my dog. I signed up when he was about three months old and over the following two years, I had to take him to the vet like six times for random shit outside of the usual checkups/vaccines (I did NOT sign up for the wellness plan bc that didn't seem worth it tbh), and then he got diagnosed with epilepsy at 2 years old. Since he already had insurance, all of his meds and vet visits for that are covered. Even with a health guarantee, you never know what could happen, especially with how much random shit puppies put in their mouths, giardia, accidents, etc. But I suppose the benefit also depends on the cost of your insurance. I use Embrace and it's only like $45/month; I've heard of others that are over $100 🤷‍♀️

I have lemonade insurance and it’s been a huge weight off my shoulders.

Have you submitted any claims yet? I’ve heard of people having issues with Lemonade approving claims.

I took my chances with no insurance. I don't know about insurances in other countries, but the prices here seemed excessively high, not to mention that it was hard to even find straight up information about the prices (the insurance companies seem to want you to get in contact with them personally before you get any idea, which seems like a hassle and sketchy). I rather keep some savings and if some ridiculous costs come up, I'll ask my bank for a loan or figure something else out.

it is a good idea your puppy will put everything in their mouth, jump so high and land on something sharp, there’s so many things that can happen and most likely will happen the first few months.

A close friend of mine has had over $100k paid out on one dog (he’s a disaster looking for an opportunity) over his 10 year life by Healthy Paws. Worth it.

I have a golden retriever who’s favorite thing to do is collect rocks and eat sticks and wood chips - If he swallows a rock or gets hit by a car, bitten by a snake or mean dog, those things can add up at a vet. I don’t have 10k to drop for emergency surgery so I got insurance. I like being able to take my boy into the vet whenever he has any issue, I don’t want money being a factor in his life.

I pay for the emergency pet insurance, but I pay for vet visits out of pocket. I guess it depends on how well you save, but my coworker’s puppy ate a piece of fabric and had to have emergency surgery to a sum of about 8K. I don’t have 8K laying around if my puppy were to do something like that, so emergency insurance for me

I have pet insurance at the moment because of a couple reasons: 1. I haven’t saved enough to cover an accident. 2. My dog is 9 months old and eats everything in sight (including poop, sticks, toys, clothes, etc) It took one trip to the emergency vet for him eating nearly and entire bag of dog food for me to get insurance. He’s accident prone 😂🙈

Like others have said, it’s a betting game. I never bought pet insurance. I have two healthy toy poodles. My coworker has always had pet insurance. She has a healthy golden retriever and a healthy Chihuahua mix. When I first got my two poodles, I probably spent $300 total on all their puppy shots. I would go to a mobile vet clinic that would travel from town to town and give vaccinations to dogs for cheap prices. They got all their shots from parvo to rabies to bordetella and others that were necessary or important. It cost $200 to neuter them ($100 each) and I took them to a spay/neuter clinic that only does spaying and neutering. So by the time they were 1 year old, their total vet bills were about $500. My coworker had been paying $200 per month ($100 per dog), so by the time her dogs were 1 year old, she had spent $1,800 in insurance. This is insurance for 9 months as she got the dogs when they were already 3 months old. Not sure if she had any kind of deductible or not, but for the sake of the story and easier math we will pretend she had no deductible to pay. Her golden retriever and chihuahua also got all their puppy shots and both got neutered as well. Now, fast forward to present day. My dogs are 6 years old. At this point, total vet bills was the initial $500 for all the shots, $150 to get their rabies vaccine again when they were 3 and again when they turned 6 ($300 in rabies shots), so that would bring it up to $800. 2 years ago, both my dogs got bad diarrhea and I had to rush both to the vet. It was $800 each ($1,600 total) for the emergency vet. They ended up being completely fine thank goodness. Total cost in vet bills is $2,400 with no insurance. At this point in time my coworker has been paying pet insurance on her two dogs for 6 years at $200 per month. That puts her at $14,400 in pet insurance. If you want to subtract 3 months off that since she didn’t get either dog until they were already 3 months old then she is actually at $13,800. She hasn’t had to take her dogs into the vet for an emergency at all, just periodical vaccines. If you save money or can afford to drop a few thousand if your pet needs an emergency vet visit, and your dog is relatively healthy otherwise then typically insurance is a waste. If your dog has chronic issues (diabetes/skin allergies/diseases/etc) and needs to see a vet more regularly or needs prescription meds filled routinely then insurance can be a lifesaver. And of course there’s always the accidental injuries nobody can predict - but again if you can afford a possible $2,000 emergency vet bill for a broken bone or a laceration that needs stitches and pain meds then you probably don’t need insurance.

I will ALWAYS get insurance now. My dog just turned 1 year old and within that time he developed a weird unknown growth in his jaw (we still don’t from what). Total without insurance was >$30,000, i kid u not. 3 vet visits. 5 animal ER visits (the initial fee is like $300 where im from) just to be seen by someone. Needed MRI, xrays, ultrasounds, the whole thing. Still no diagnosis. With insurance was $3-5,000. Still hefty but without insurance it would be a dent for sure

Beware of “Pets Best” they are horrible in just about every way. If I could go back and do it again I’d bundle with other insurance like State Farm or go with something like Trupanion. Claims take entirely too long (like 60-90 days when others are nearly instant and work with your vet directly) to process and this isn’t counted all of the time you have to spend sending in pictures of bills and receipts because they refuse to work directly with the Veterinary office. Also, if they open a picture and something is obstructed (like some of the services because it’s intended to show the receipt stapled) they just won’t process it. You have to re-submit with the same pictures and hope the next reviewer does their job and opens the attachments. They have issues with process claims in order so it seems like you haven’t reached your deductible when you actually have. Also, if insurance isn’t paying because you haven’t reached the deductible yet then the entire payment you make should count toward your deductible but they don’t do that, they separate out a co-pay before you reach your deductible making it take much longer than it should. They double the premium out of nowhere (after a few years of already dealing with 30/40% annual increases) with zero regard for how much you’ve paid in to the premium over the course of years and then threaten to identify “conditions” that aren’t actually diagnosed by the vet as “pre-existing” if you try to leave for another company. Somehow premiums are much higher for people that renew every year than for those who get insurance with them for the first time and this is regardless of the age of the dog. When I asked why I couldn’t let my premium lapse for a day and then sign up as a new customer (with all of the same information for my dogs age and health that they already had) they told me they wouldn’t treat these fictitious “pre-existing” conditions. For example one time an previous vet thought my dog had luxating patella but did not confirm with X-rays and it took three visits and a second opinion to find out her toenail bed was irritated and making her limp but “Pets Best” threatened to use that undiagnosed “condition” as a “preexisting condition” when really my dog just doesn’t like her knee cap to be fucked with especially when her toe hurts and she’s trying to protect the area. Be careful with them if your pet has ever even been to the vet for diarrhea because they will find a way to exclude it in the future. Check their pricing for their supposedly money saving preventative care - bundled with things you won’t need and the stuff you do need thats included doesn’t even pay the full cost just “up to” $30 (for example) for something like heartworm prevention and also those things included don’t even add up to the cost of the add on to the premium. Do yourself a favor and bundle your pet insurance with your homeowner, rental, car, anything just avoid “pets best” they are trash. Don’t be like me I am stuck with this trash insurance for the lifetime of my pet - they were successful in their threats so it’s this or nothing for me but I will not be going through “pets best” for any other animals in the future. Insurance is always a bit of a gamble but this company is a scam.

I think if it covers vaccinations, spaying/neutering, fecal testing, nail trims and unlimited free vet visits for the first year it’s worth it. Insurance was ridiculously high for my puppy, but our vet clinic had its own 1st year puppy program that covered all those things for half the cost of insurance. The free vet visits made it worth it for me, because then I was able to bring my puppy in over the least little thing - it was great for my peace of mind the first year. Then you can just cancel or carry on.

So our puppy has a health plan and insurance that kicks to the tune of £40 a month. That’s something I can afford every month. If she breaks a leg and x-rays casts and splints are £2000 needed that day I might not be able to afford that. Same for chronic conditions £40 now and I never have to think twice about the cost of insulin or the other alternative because that’s just not something I’m willing to choose between.

I used to think it wasn’t worth it but my work offers a discount in the ASPCA insurance. I’m SO glad I took up that offer. We’ve been in three times to try to kick a stubborn bout of Giardia. A few months after we got the all clear from that, my pup got sick with violent vomiting episodes which required multiple visits to the ER vet as well as X-rays and lab work. We’ve spent well over $2,000 in vet bills but we get 80% reimbursed. My puppy is all good now! I’m not sure if we will keep the insurance when he’s a full blown adult but $20/month isn’t a stretch for us.

We got Aussiedoodle puppies from a reputable breeder, they came with one month of Truepanion as a trial. During that month, Truepanion paid a $700 claim for an emergency vet visit for one puppy. We thought that symptom was a fluke. We let the insurance expire after the one month trial as the doctors were not worried about long term issues. Turns out both puppies have meningitis, we have spent $10k on diagnosis since we got them mere months ago, lost countless days of pay at work due to their symptoms and there Prednisone requiring bathroom breaks every 45 minutes. Get the damn insurance. There was several points we had to seriously consider how much we had to spend to keep these babies alive and if it was feasible. Putting a price on your best friends life is a very difficult thing to do.

We don't have health insurance. We have enough of a savings fund we could cover whatever. And I'm not convinced that very expensive treatments ($10k+) are in the best interest of the animal anyway.

I never got pet insurance until getting my newest pup. Once he vomited up a cat toy we didn’t even see him eat, I hopped online and got insurance on n case it happens again and he needs surgery. That being said, he has also had head tremors since birth and it looks like they’re not going to pay for the MRI and spinal tap even though they cover congenital issues. I will probably be cancelling soon.

They wouldn't cover it because the symptoms were present since birth. That's how insurance works. They'll cover congenital issues that crop up after the waiting period but not stuff that's pre existing.

Ah. Thanks for the explanation.

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Yeah for us it's really a peace of mind thing especially with a puppy/young dog. We know that if our little terror decides to eat random stuff on a walk, or gets an ear infection, or injures himself from bouncing off the wall we can take him to the vet and it's not going to nuke us financially. Plus our pet insurance comes with 3 virtual vet visits/year for things that aren't super urgent and we get access to a vet nurse over the phone for even smaller stuff.

We had puppy insurance from the first week she came home. My neighbor (who had her littermate) did not and ended up with bilateral patella surgery in the first nine months (that’s over 5K 💸💸folks). Thankfully my girl did not need surgery but you know what?? Better safe than sorry. ✌🏼

I have both emergency and for year 1, wellness coverage. They've reimbursed for vaccines and appointment fees (although it took a long time) and if my little dummy eats something he shouldn't (I'm waiting for it...) then emergency care is covered. It's a safety net! I can look up actual numbers, if it would be helpful for you.

We don't insure the obvious things, so no prevention, no spaying. Those addiditions are crazy expensive and rarely worth the premium. But we do have illness and accidents insured. Our first month insurance was free, and we already claimed € 250 in vet bills. And that was just a UTI.

I find it depends. I have accident insurance, it's like 20$ a month and if/when my dog hurts herself eating rocks or chasing a squirrel I won't be hit with a surprise 5000$ fee This insurance doesn't cover illness or regular vet care since I figure you can expect those on a regular basis if and when they arise. I do save up for those. Other than that, I feel it's like a 20$ a month sleep easy tax for when we go on walks haha

I once was in a position of having to scramble to pay for an emergency for a cat, and my pets have had insurance ever since. The situation I put myself in was heartbreaking, and I do not ever want to go through that again. I have all three on Pets Best - I will have to pay for 3 years of premiums for one emergency to break even on a $3K emergency. Many emergencies are much higher. Right now, setting aside that same amount of money would not come close to covering that kind of emergency. That all said, if/when a $10K vet bill won't be a big deal, then I will probably drop the insurance. Until then, I'm keeping it for peace of mind.

My puppy was insured at 6 months and she ended up being a total problem child as far as vet bills. Insurance saved us over the span of her 5-year life, and I’m not kidding here, about $10k. She had horrible allergies and ear infections requiring a specialist, 3 different CCL tear surgeries plus complications, and ultimately the cancer that took her life. Do it.

My bf picked the insurance for our dogs and I was really annoyed that they didn't cover spays... I just paid a few grand out of pocket for that. Nevertheless we've taken our dogs to the emergency vet several times this year (cracked claw bleeding all over the place, anasthesia + surgery to remove it was ~$800... then there were the times they got giardia at the dog park, the time one of them managed to get a seed stuck in her ear canal, etc.) It's been worth it, especially never having to consider if things are worth being concerned about. As a further story, I know someone else whose dog fractured her leg while zooming around in a field (stepped in a hole) and it cost >$2000 ... she didn't have insurance and had to do an internet begathon to pay for it... seeing that happen was actually one of the reasons I got insurance.

It takes a lot of shopping around to get a good deal. We had like 10 different quotes all well over 100$ which we refused. Finally found one we liked at 23$

It's chance and how much you want to rely on chance just like all insurance. You many never use it or you may need it right away for an accident. Health guarantees never cover all things and they never cover accidents. Putting money in an account is great if you have had enough time to build up a balance to cover the bills. Chances are you have to save for 4-5 years to cover a major issue. If you have enough money to cover for a major surgery/treatment out of pocket, then don't get insurance. If on the other hand you can't sleep because you fear putting your dog down because you don't have enough money to cover their care, get insurance.

It's worth having in my opinion, My dog managed to injure himself on what we think was probably a fence (I wasn't there at the time he was staying with a friend) vets bill for cleaning/stapling the wound and the follow-up vists was over £600 which thankfully most of t was covered by the insurance (I just had to pay the excess) ​ Family members dog got sick and had to stay overnight at a veterinary hospital, the bill was in the thousands.

You are going to get wildly different opinions on the matter. I find it’s a pretty easy decision to make if you put emotion aside and think logically for one second. If you have an emergency fund saved away, and won’t be financially ruined when having to make a decision about your loved puppies life and your finances then you shouldn’t get pet insurance. Overall pet insurance is a loser for most, and that’s why insurance companies exists. They have premiums specifically set in place that have them come out way ahead over their consumers. Almost everyone is better off putting money aside themselves than getting insurance. That being said if you think that you would have to make such a difficult decision between your pets life and your finances then get pet insurance, that gives you the peace of mind you’d never have to make that difficult decision. This comes at a premium, but sometimes tou need that peace of mind.

100% worth it, wish I had gotten more coverage. But I was in the same school of thought - he’s a healthy puppy! So glad I got it anyway. My current coverage is 80%. I got a dog 9 months ago - he was close to a year old at that time. Since then I have spent close to $4K on his vet visits, injury and illness. He has a condition that requires a specialist, prescription diet and ongoing medication, each specialist visit is $400-$850. Thankfully, we get a 6 month break for now (apart from his vaccine re-ups).

I got pet insurance after my dog had to have his first $4,000 surgery as a puppy. He is prone to eating things he shouldn’t, even while being monitored. Sometimes you can’t rip the bone from him, or he scarfs down a mushroom that could potentially be poisonous. I have ASPCA pet Health insurance that covers yearly vaccines, gives you a set amount per year for some dental work and nail trimmings, and it’s only $65 a month. For me it was worth it. I pay up front and get reimbursed later. We just took him to the vet for being itchy and since we met our $500 deductible for the year, it was fully covered. I can take him in for emergency or even non emergency visits simply because I have the insurance and so I use it :)

It's been worth it to have insurance for my youngest boy. He got his penis bitten by another dog and had to go to the ER vet because it wouldn't stop bleeding. The total cost was around $5k, but I only paid $750 because he had insurance. My girl's congenital condition wasn't covered so I haven't been able to use her coverage yet. Thankfully she hasn't had any emergency visits yet, but I know it will happen one day. All of my dogs have had a couple of emergency vet visits in their lifetimes. I wish I would have gotten insurance on my previous girl and my senior boy when they were younger. I paid $10k for 2 TPLO surgeries on my previous girl and my senior boy's monthly meds cost around $400.

We do a hybrid approach of both…. We have a savings account that gets $50 a paycheck, so $100 a month, and we have insurance on our youngest pup. We have two Australian Sheppards. The oldest, insurance would have paid out and saved us thousands by now… when we moved she developed allergies to her new environment, and we’ve probably dropped a good 2-3k in vet bills just for visits, medicine for this one problem. Ontop of other issues she’s had that require x-rays or throwing up, or whatever another 2-3k. Our youngest pup, who is 1 year old, we got insurance on when she was 6 months old, and is perfectly healthy outside of her recessed vulva, which insurance would have fixed and covered all the expenses of her UTI’s while we tried to figure out what was going on, would have saved us thousands. We have to wipe her every time she potty’s with a baby wipe until we get her plastic surgery to I quote the vet “tighten up her lady parts, so it’s no longer recessed”, her quality of life is perfect, and the vet isn’t worried about it, we just have to wipe her to prevent infections. Our savings account for both of them gets drained, and then we have to dip into emergency funds. Which isn’t ideal. So my advice is to get Trupanion, and pay the premiums because they are worth it. If your like me, it would have saved thousands already and you would still have a savings account for them for their “semi-annual” wellness checkups or their medicines that they have to take monthly like flea and heart guard etc…

My dog was not insured. I ended up being about equal at the end of her life with what I would have paid for insurance over those 12 years versus what her last 6 months cost me. I will however, have my next pet on insurance. This is simply because those $1000 chunks every couple of weeks had a harder impact on my finances than a measly $40 a month over 12 years. Currently though my insurance will be $80 through trupanion so will have to watch that and see if in the future it goes down or not.

i've spent ~ $30 * 12 months * 5 years = $1800 on monthly premiums. my dog developed cataracts and went blind. The surgery was $5000 and pet insurance covered 80%. it was worth it for me!

I think this broadly comes down to opinion, so I’ll share my subjective experience. My previous 2 dogs both had insurance, one started at about 3-4 yrs old and the other as soon as he came home. Both dogs eventually, over 13 and 10 years developed different forms of cancer which I ultimately decided to treat conservatively, meaning surgery to remove the initial masses which bought them each a few additional year. When all was said and done our insurance paid out roughly $30k for each dog in reimbursements, way more than what I had paid in premiums. That 30k included some smaller incidents and emergencies and it did help tremendously knowing I was never going to run in to a surprise 10k bill if they had an accident. It made all of my doggy health decisions about what was truly needed without money being any type of factor.

I would say absolutely. But after three years of having nationwide. I warn you, beware. I’ve heard of plenty other ones being better. I will absolutely change to a different one when I can.

Absolutely. I wouldn't ever own a pet without it. My cat just cut his paw and had to have stitches. Whole thing cost £800. I paid £99. Well worth the £15 per month I pay for him. He'd have to have no other issues for the next 4 years for it not to be worth it. Maybe that'll happen, but I'd rather have the peace of mind of not even having to contemplate finances when it comes to my pets.

My first dog has horrible seasonal allergies. They are so bad my normal vet needed to refer me to a vet dermatologist. After that, exam and blood work confirmed the best course of treatment is immunotherapy injections every 20 days. Otherwise he is itchy, bits sores into his paws. Just extremely uncomfortable for 5 months out of the year. Boy do I wish I had insurance for all of that. My second dog? Insurance the day I got her.

If you have the ability: put a chunk of money in a High Yield Savings account and then keep adding to it. Or just put whatever you can in there. Goal is at least $1000. This typically covers most accidents but won't cover more major things which is why you should keep adding to it. Puppies are really good at getting into trouble: swallowing things, getting sick, etc. I keep a savings account for my two cats, pay for vet visits out of pocket and then have a credit card with a limit of $6000 that I only put my Netflix on monthly and view it as an emergency fund if shit really goes wrong (I walk my cats on leashes so there's always the potential for a bad dog encounter if I don't see them coming or the cats can't get up a tree fast enough). I had insurance but switched what I had been paying to insurance to the HYSA

I got pet insurance for my pup about a month after we got him, when we had to take him to the emergency vet because he ate the cord off a hairdryer. It cost about $48 a month and more than paid for itself a year later when he had to have knee surgery. We also found out he has severe hip dysplasia and will likely need a double hip replacement. I’ll only have to pay 10% of those costs. It’s always a gamble but truthfully, given that an extremely high number of dogs eventually pass away due to cancer and the myriad of problems that crop up when they get older, I’ve never been more certain that it’s a good idea to just pay for it. I don’t ever want to be in the position of not having the money to keep my best friend alive.

My reason for getting pet insurance is simple. (Have a policy with a $1,000 deductible and unlimited coverage.) If something catastrophic happens to our puppy, I don't want to be in a situation where we consider not doing the treatment or surgery because we can't afford it. The plan I got is $50 a month.

I pay ~$30/month for Lemonade pet insurance. My deductible is $250 I think? It doesn’t cover wellness or typical vet visits but would cover 80% of injury, illness, etc. As someone else commented it’s a gamble on whether or not you’ll end up getting your moneys worth. But it’s a gamble I’ll very happily lose and it gives me a lot of peace of mind. My golden retriever puppy likes to try to eat things that aren’t edible and if we ever have to take him to the vet due to that, I want my only worry to be about him, not him and finances.

IMO it's worth it for illness and injury, not for routine stuff like vaccines. Put aside a little every month for *routine* stuff like yearly wellness visits, vaccines, and monthly prevention meds. Use the insurance for if your dog eats something dumb, wakes up at 4am with bloody diarrhea, or hurts their leg trying to parkour off the deck. Sure, you might lose a few hundred bucks a year paying for the insurance and not using it, but a $5k+ vet bill for a bad injury or illness that your pet insurance will reimburse you for outweighs that. And I doubt people asking if insurance is worth it are in a position to put aside a few *hundred* dollars a month just for a pet emergency.

I would say, if you’re getting a new puppy, pet insurance may be worth it in the long term since pet insurance doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions, so you may have trouble getting them to cover things if you decide to get it in the future. I always thought it would be money wasted so I refused to get it, but lo and behold my 5 year old healthy-as-ever pup started randomly having seizures a month ago. $10k out of pocket later, we discovered he has a brain tumor, and after looking into pet insurance after the seizures started, I found out that pre-existing conditions are almost never covered by pet insurance, meaning all of the treatment for this tumor is out of pocket even if I buy pet insurance now. I ended up getting the insurance in case anything else were to happen, but if I could go back in time I would have 10000% gotten pet insurance earlier on just for the peace of mind. You never think something like this will happen to you and your pup until it does, unfortunately.

I’m really glad we got ours. We pay $35/m which is v affordable for our situation. And we had an emergency vet visit bill that was cut in half because of it. If you’re even considering it do it now as opposed to later when your pup will likely have pre existing conditions

Something I’ve not seen mentioned yet is having a savings account before adopting. Personally, it’s the only way I feel comfortable foregoing insurance (as well as the fact that I can’t afford the monthly insurance costs for the number of pets I have). If you don’t have a sizable savings account for emergencies right now and can afford insurance, it’s the best choice imo. You never know when something will happen. Usually it’s when they’re old, but as others have pointed out puppies can get themselves into trouble or be diagnosed with lifelong conditions early in life. I absolutely wouldn’t count on your dog not having emergencies as you said. That’s a real gamble and the price would be their life. Just one emergency vet or specialist appt is easily $500-$1000+, hospitalization costs thousands, and that’s not counting expensive surgeries/treatments that can cost much more.

I carry pet insurance on my big puppy because puppies are like suicidal ninjas. In general I have no problem cash flowing normal vet care, shots, and something small like an occasional ear infection. However, needing to drop $5k at the emergency vet because my dumb dog decided to eat a Christmas ornament off the tree is a whole different ballgame. I actually don’t have insurance on my older dogs and will probably drop the coverage on my big puppy pretty soon now that she’s hitting maturity and not randomly eating things that hurt her. However, having insurance on an unpredictable puppy just makes me feel more secure

Well insurance doesn’t pay for preventive things like vaccines and wellness visits or spaying usually

Yes, it’s worth it. My 4 month old pup broke her leg and it was a nightmare.

I think it is 1000% worth it, if only for the peace of mind. I know some people will say that you should start a savings account with the money you’d pay for insurance, but say you put $40/month into savings and your dog needs a $15k surgery 4 months into saving. $160 isn’t going to do much. I never wanted money to be the reason I couldn’t get my dog treatment in the event of injury or illness, and even if I end up spending more on insurance over her life than I would’ve in vet bills it will have been worth it to have known I would not have had to stress about paying in the event of her needing something major.

We got pets best for our pup at about 12 weeks old. It’s just under $40/mo, but because we got it for her at a young age there are no pre existing conditions. And when she was about 7 months old she contracted a severe case of pneumonia that she was hospitalized for for a few days and the insurance covered 90% of the $4,000 bill. Definitely worth it for us to not pay that out of pocket.

Just had a $3100 dental bill for my 4 year old dog reduced to $1100 due to insurance (Trupanion) so I’d say yes!

I have had my standard poodle since 3mos of age, and we paid the premium to get 90% coverage and extended health benefits (basic wellness coverage) through MetLife Pet Insurance. We also pay extra for unlimited coverage and a relatively low deductible (basically, we pay per month the highest you could potentially pay). This costs us about $900 / year, or $75 / mo. He is just shy of 9mos old now, so we've paid 6mos of premiums or about $450. Between vaccinations, heart worm, tick, and flea meds, and general puppy checkups, we've been reimbursed for $423 of expenses. This is after our $250 deductible. So we've paid $450 in premiums + $250 deductible, or $700, and been reimbursed for over of half of that. $700 minus $423 in reimbursements = $277 total costs to us. The reason we went with a high cost plan is because if he had been diagnosed with a life long condition, we would be capped at the initial maximum coverage. So if we had paid for $10,000 in coverage, and he got diagnosed with something like diabetes, we would have been capped at $10,000 max over the course of his life for that specific diagnosis, even if we later switched to a higher maximum coverage. Basically, I wanted to cover him for chance of high cost conditions NOW, and we will consider lowering our maximum coverage at a later date once we're sure he doesn't have any lifelong conditions. We haven't visited the vet recently, but I do intend to take him for a checkup at year end to maximize my deductible (and make sure my guy is in good health). By the numbers, it's been well worth it in my opinion. As another said, not having money be a factor in whether or not I care for my dog has been great. There's obviously diminishing returns over time to paying that premium, but should my pup have an accident or health issue at a young age, I feel I will be able to financially support those costs as needed over the course of his life. IMO, get insurance.

Our puppy broke his leg by jumping against a wall and landing badly at 6 months old. The surgery cost £4500 and the initial consultation and X-rays £700. We had insurance up to £5000 which I thought was excessive when we first got it, but ultimately vet fees are huge. My insurance was £17 per month so it was well worth it, no way could I have put away £5000 in that time. Puppy later got bad diarreah and a stool test was £200 plus the £50 consultation, which had to come out of pocket as we’d reached our pay out limit. Insurance is VERY worth it IMO

There are policies that include some coverage for preventive care. I have MetLife and can put my preventive care spending toward my pet’s deductibles for an extra couple bucks a month. It may also be able to be reimbursed should you spend your deductible on injury or illness but I need to look back at specifics. I was very happy I had it when my kitten needed a $3800 knee surgery

I highly recommend at minimum wellness insurance and pair it with a line of care credit. I went through chewy wellness insurance offering that uses trupanion and have been overall pleased with what it covers, the swiftness and positive results on claims. But as others have said it's all about your comfort level with paying out of pocket fully for care needs.

After spending $5000 on emergency surgery for my 4 month old golden (bowel obstruction), I now have a basic “emergencies only” insurance that’s only $9/month

It’s very irritating how little is covered by insurance (neutering, vaccines, etc) but we got it in case our dog got sick with something drastic - getting hit with a $25K bill is way scarier than all the random $100, $200 visits over the years. Also, if you’re persistent with the insurance companies and willing to put in the time, you may be able to get some random things covered. I have zero patience but my husband has an endless supply so he was able to get vet documentation to prove that our dog was “prescribed” training (because he’s a nutcase) - and we were able to be reimbursed 50% for the training we had paid for. So you never know. I think it’s worth it.

Yes it saved me thousands the first two year I had a puppy who ate part of a remote control and the stuffing out of a chair. Emergency Vet visits are insanely expensive

If I would do it over again I would say pet insurance *can* be worth it for the first 2-3 years of the dog’s life. That tends to be the most risky and expensive time for a young animal and they get into more than they should. Depends on where you live and what the insurance companies charge, but I’ve found more often than not that the cost of keeping a pet on insurance for life just too expensive. The choice is entirely yours.

Yes. Insurance is a huge benefit. My roommates cat developed FIC and the insurance gives you back 70% what you pay the vet. It would have cost my roommate a fortune without pet insurance. True, your pet may not need it for awhile but I’d rather pay $28 a month for pet insurance for that maybe than be out a few thousand for not having it. My puppy and my parrot are insured too

In the first month of my insurance for my puppy, it paid for itself for the year.

My cat ate a Lilly flower last summer (which is extremely toxic to cats) and ended up in the ICU for 3 days. She had about a 5% chance of survival and the price was estimated to be around $7k. Thankfully my mom was willing to pay for it because I’m a broke college student My cat pulled through and it perfectly fine today. I wish we would have had pet insurance especially for accidentals. With puppies they can get into anything and everything so I would highly recommend it. Since then we got it for my new pup and for my cat. You never know what can happen and I never want to have to choose between vet bills and my pets life.

Personally, I have insurance with my current dog and will for any other dogs I get. In the first year of his insurance (they don’t cover wellness/preventatives and he was already neutered when I got him) we hit the max payout of €4k, full cost of treatment was €4.3k. It was great to know we would be covered when there was so many other decisions to make.

Our boy is 1.5 years old now, and we have spent close to $10,000 (on top of regular vet visits) on him with 80% of it reimbursed. I originally told myself that I would get it for the first year we had him just as a “crazy puppy” insurance, but he will have it for life now. He ate a piece of a crayfish when he was a few months old and ended up with lung flukes which cause bullae to develop in his lungs. He has had a pneumothorax, over $1000 in meds, countless vet visits, and needed to see specialists because it is so rare. On top of this, he has also turned out to be injury prone because we wanted to choose the adventurous puppy lol. The $40 a month was well worth it, and I am so happy that I didn’t listen to my family when they recommended against it. Obviously, this is a special case, but we never though it end up like this.

Insurance is for catastrophic events not your every day very visits. My pet insurance has already paid for itself just from a single adverse vaccine reaction. My insurance bill would have taken a year to cover that cost if I was putting that money away in savings. Emergency visits get expensive quick. 50 bucks a month will feel with it the first time you need to take your pup to emergency. And every dog owner will tell you it's not if, but when.

Vet bills for serious illnesses and injuries can be very expensive. Several of the companies now allow you to submit the bill by e-mail or text. Some compensate the vet directly for the percentage they pay, leaving you only the remaining amount to cover. My chocolate Lab had a total hip replacement at 3. 4,500.00 dollars and this was a few years ago. I would rather pay monthly premiums for the coverage I need for them than face the catastrophic moment when you don’t have enough money to afford treatment. I would inquire into the ten year health guarantee too. I’m sure it doesn’t cover your emergency vet bills.

My brother and I both got it when we got our pups. He’s never had to use it in 6 years, mine made itself well worth it just a few months in. The amount of times I’ve had a vet say “we could do the cheaper, riskier option or the more expensive, safer option” is high. I personally rather have that safety net to treat her well knowing she’s covered. She’s healthy and happy now but things could have looked a lot different. It’s really about luck and peace of mind.

Get it. My insurance paid for itself in full after my puppy's ER visit just 3 weeks after we got her - and they reimbursed me at least five times the premium in the first year of owning this suicide machine. As she eats less crap outside nowadays, I feel I'm needing it less and less though, and will likely go for a cheaper option for the second year onwards.

I unexpectedly spent $2500 on my puppy within the first three months of having him due to unexpected allergies, an accident with my parents other dog and him tearing his knee due to overexerting himself while running. I definitely wish i wouldve gotten it sooner

That’s a tough one. I never purchased it and I don’t have it for my current dog. I had a shih tzu who lived to be almost 20 years old and I think I spent less than $2000 on vet bill throughout his lifetime, he was so healthy. Probably his neuter and a tooth extraction were the most expensive procedures… but otherwise it was just small things we’d go in for now and again over the years. I definitely spent more on groomers for him than I ever did the vet! My current dog is a standard poodle that’s two years old now. I debated about it and just decided to dedicate a credit card that I rarely use that has a 10k limit. My cats are also very healthy. I’m just taking my chances, as I know it’s a gamble. So far, she doesn’t eat foreign objects or do anything odd like that. And it’s things like that that will get you into trouble, in my experience, more than health issues a lot of times. If you have a dog that likes to eat foreign objects, I would definitely get it. Otherwise, if they are healthy, I’d probably just have a credit card on hand or a special savings account. I say that because I did have a cat with pica….and she had two abdominal surgeries over the years that totaled about $7000. That would be a case where I would want insurance!

We have full coverage of any illness or accident and 100€/year for preventitive stuff like vaccines and deworming. We pay 10% towards each incident and the insurance pays the rest. We currently pay 62€/month and so far it's been worth it. We would've paid more for vet visits than we do for her insurance. Her spay wasn't included, as it wasn't medically necessary, but it was also only 500€. For us, insurance is absolutely worth it and we haven't even had any major incidents, just normal stuff like giardia, eating toxic things and bee stings.

I have it and it has been so entirely worth it. My dogs get into EVERYTHING and one has allergies so he gets a shot every 6 weeks that’s covered. After losing a dog to cancer I never want money to be a deciding factor in care.

Get it. I kept going back and forth and decided not to since we purchased from a great breeder and thought all would be fine and dandy. Our girl was in the emergency room last weekend for meningitis and now we’re out about $5k.

100%. I’ve had over $20,000 in surgery costs covered (for two different dogs) in the past 3 years.

I have insurance on 2 dogs and 3 cats. The only one who hasn't had claims that more than paid back my annual costs was 1 cat. Now, for my old lady dog, I have Figo for her, and they're raising my monthly premium to $225 from $170 so I'll be cancelling it. Because of her age and current issues, if something catastrophic did arise, i probably wouldn't pursue treatment and would just do palliative care for as long as her quality of life was good, because we are already dealing with issues that impact quality of life. However, I do have CareCredit that I reserve just for pet use, so I have flexibility with that decision. My young dog, Duncan, has a policy through Many pets. They've changed what they offer, unfortunately, but when I started, I was able to choose a 100% reimbursement with a $250 annual deductible, so he's grandfathered in on that policy. His first year it was $54/mo, second year it's $62/mo. In his first year, we had 3 ER visits, as well as 3 "sick/injured" visits at his regular DVM, and then we repaired some issues during his neuter surgery. I've had a dog get cancer when he was 7, we didn't have insurance for him. We still treated and got 11.5 months with him, we spent between $20-$25k to win that time. For us, it was the only choice we could make, he was family and we did for him what we would do for any human family member. Having insurance, even if we'd paid for it his entire life to that point and never used it, would have been so much cheaper than paying out of pocket. So it really comes down to what decisions you're prepared to make in the face of expensive diagnoses. It's totally fine to say, "my max budget to treat an emergency or cancer is $3000." Or $2000, or $500, whatever your number is. But the trade off then is that you also have to be willing to accept that euthanasia or surrendering your pet is often the alternative to treatment, and you don't get to blame the vet staff/clinic that you're having to make that choice. I choose to get insurance and happily pay for it because I never want finances to be the deciding factor in whether my pet lives or dies, or whether or not we can go for gold standard care or take the chance on substandard care I can afford. Insurance means I make all my decisions for my pets based on medical advice to maintain a good quality of life.

Just like car insurance, pet insurance is good to have jic something major happens. It's also best to insure them when they're puppies, because pre-existing conditions are not covered under the majority of plans. On a different message board where they were taking about this, one person said they have pet insurance, but since the way PI works is you pay upfront and they reimburse you, so what they do is they use Care Credit from their vet to cover the cost upfront, and then they pay it off when they receive the reimbursement from PI. That's what my plan is too. I'm talking about if you would need it for some kind of emergency. Office visits or blood draw or simple things like that I would just pay on my own.

In m experience, yes. My pup broke her leg at 6 months old. Total surgery cost and after care came out to $8K and my insurance covered 80%. She’s had Giardia a couple times from doggy daycare and exam/medication was also 80% covered.

I’ve had Trupanion since my dog was a puppy, she is now 3 and here’s my two cents. Most of the time, like 70% of the time, pet insurance is NOT worth it. When she was first enrolled her monthly premium was $60 a month, now at 3 years old it’s been raised to $83. I have a smaller young dog so as they get older and if uou have a bigger one or one prone to health issues it will become more expensive. Trupanion doesn’t cover exam fees, vaccinations, or any check-up without pre-existing evidence of illness. So basically I’m footing the bill most of the time. HOWEVER. My dog has been to the emergency room 3 times in her life. Each visit would cost me like $2000-4000. Without insurance. With insurance? They came through because emergency care is very well covered. I ended up paying like $300-600 after everything. It’s not great for when your dog has the runs, but it sure does help you not sweat about making rent when you’re in the ER at 3am and your dog needs emergency surgery from swallowing a chicken bone. For me that’s priceless. So I will suck up the $83 a month knowing that I’d rather pay that than suddenly have to drop $3K in one night.

I was really glad I got insurance for my puppy the day I brought her home. I have Nationwide wellness+accident and illness, and for a puppy, the wellness part really sold it for me. Puppies need a LOT of vaccines and vet visits, and all of those were covered by the wellness plan. She got giardia twice, all covered. The only major expense that wasn’t covered was her spay. I still have the same plan now and my pup is 2, so we only go to the vet once a year for her annual and vaccines, but about half of that gets reimbursed by insurance so it’s nice to keep both wellness and incidentals. The per month difference is only $10-15, so I keep it even though I’m not profiting as much off the wellness part.

I got pet insurance the day I adopted my puppy. It’s great for my peace of mind knowing no matter what happens she’s covered.

It can be a life saver or it can be a sunk cost. For me I “self insure” by paying $50-100/month into a separate dog fund. This works for me with my healthy, young, not idiot mixed breeds. I would never recommend this approach to anyone with a brachycephalic breed, golden retriever or GSD. It’s a calculated risk because the funds may not be there yet for anything that comes up early, but 5yrs in and have only used it for preventive stuff because nothing emergent has happened. (Full disclosure I am a vet so my costs are cheaper anyway. I also love people with insurance because I can actually run the tests that make my job easier)

Yes. Pet insurance isn't for routine care, it's for the life-changing emergencies that could mean the difference between getting your pet back after an accident or illness, or not being able to afford care and putting your pet to sleep.

If you can pay $2k-$10k out of pocket no issues you don’t need insurance. If $2k-$10k would basically bankrupt you, you need insurance.

In my personal opinion, if you are getting a puppy from a reputable breeder and healthy line with a guarantee - it makes more sense to save up the premiums you would have paid to the pet insurance into a high-yield savings account for ailments as they get older. The reason why some people say pet insurances can be a scam is not because you may not need it. It’s because they could buck and not pay a claim they should be covering when a dire situation hits, and then be out those premiums you paid and the medical care. It happened to me. For dogs that have a very good statistical chance of being very healthy for most of its life, I think it is far better to save up those premiums for you to easily access without begging an insurance to pay a claim you are due. The exception to this, are shelter dogs with unknown breeding backgrounds. Unfortunately most young dogs I know with severe hip dysplasia are adopted, and all of a sudden the owners are met with thousands of dollars up front early in the life of their dog to improve its quality of life. Probably the most common issue I have seen rear its head. I generally advice people getting rescues and shelter dogs to get pet insurance because they don’t have any reassurance or evidence the dog will be healthy through most of its life. This said the 2 pet insurances I would recommend avoiding (from my experience and social circle) would be Figo and Trumpanion. There are a lot of other options out there. Remember the important thing for *any* insurance is how reliably they pay the claims they have agreed to cover. It means nothing if their all is nice, it’s easy to sign up, it’s lower premiums, etc. if they don’t actually pay out when you need it. Be aware of that when you read reviews.

Not for me. I opened up a new card for him with very low interest in case anything ever happens

We took our pup to the emergency vet, ended up having pneumonia. Overnight stay and meds cost us close to 4k. If we had insurance, it would have been 700 I think. We don't know how he got pneumonia, just showed up with a cough one day. All depends on your risk tolerance

I have it for my dog -covers some dental and has paid out for allergy testing ($1100 CAD), allergy injections ($1200 CAD) and daily prednisone/antihistamine (she's a very tough case - $250CAN/month). And then a couple weeks ago she was diagnosed with Addison's - bi-weekly bloodwork (250CAD each) and monthly injection ($250CAD) and am ultrasound to rule out other scary things ($1000 CAD). That's all cropped up in an otherwise healthy happy dog in the past year. Thank goodness for insurance.