Pet Insurance Recomendations

[WideReceiver]

Originally Posted by rain_e

Open a separate bank account and auto transfer $100 in to it every month. You'll be a happy man in 10 years.

Or woman.

[MonaTone]

Ill share my experience here, pet insurance was absolutely crucial for us and I will never not have it (assuming a fair and reasonable insurance plan can be purchased).

We had Pet Secure - starting in 2014.

1) We got a Bernese Mountain Dog from a breeder who included 3 months of Pet Insurance for us when we picked her up. The last day the trial was in effect she swallowed a jagged bone from a piece of meat the MIL gave her. Emergency surgery was 3500, we paid 750-ish.

2) When she was spayed she had some bad reaction to the anaesthesia, went into cardiac arrest and had to be monitored for several days. The vet didn't charge for the spay but insurance covered all of the other stuff. I cannot find that invoice but it was about $2000 if I remember correctly.

3) The idiot swallowed a toy -> emergency surgery # 2. Cannot remember the full price but about 3k, insurance covered 80%.

4) Diagnosed with an hereditary but rare and aggressive cancer. From diagnoses to death, after all the testing and treatment and emergency visits + cremation and an urn the cost was just shy of $10,000. Insurance covered $4900 of it all.

Our monthly cost did gradually go up from $89 to $135 per month by the end, but we were clear heavy users lol. Some years it actually dropped because we managed to avoid an emergency visit.

Add in yearly checkups, teeth cleaning etc. that were all covered we paid about $8700 in fees over 8 years for insurance to cover about $13000 in vets costs.

Depending on your financial situation that may or may not be worth it, but I know having the insurance in those situations meant I never thought twice about the cost of whatever she needed and the decision was always based on what was best for her. I would have found a way to pay for whatever she needed regardless but the insurance meant I didn't have to stress over it.

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

Dogs and limb injuries are an interesting scenario. I think a lot of people dismiss how high of a quality of life a dog can have after having a limb amputated. Most small-medium breed dogs can have a great life with 3/4 legs, but a (VCA) vet will always push for the more expensive specialty surgery.

Depending on the size of the dog, its age and front vs back legs amputation can actually be the better option for lots of cases. It’s a learning curve for the dog but with amputation it will very unlikely need another surgery (speciality surgeries can and do fail, our old foster dogs knee being a prime example) and they can generally still do all the things a dog loves to do. I do get why people put themselves in the animals position, but would you rather your dog spend a couple months of recovery after amputating a leg or potentially multiple surgeries spanning years of their life when they may only live to be 10-15?

It's funny, I drive all the way up to Olds/Sundre for my vet specifically because my Calgary vet flipped over to a VCA and the prices went bananas. If I was faced with $15K front leg operation, he would have been amputated.

My vet up north thoroughly discussed all the options we could try, from not treating the leg and just letting it heal, and explained what that might look like.

He's also a [smooth brained] bulldog, and it was his front leg. To say he's built like a sack of potatoes is being generous, it's more like a sandbag. If it were a back leg, and he required amputation it would have been much more manageable. But with a front leg, not so much. So we went with the pin, Followed by six weeks of being in a crate so small he could barely move.

I seem to recall 9-1-Mom swooping in to offer financial assistance.

Yeah, get the goddamn insurance.

Did I mention the water rehab? Fuuuuck.

[you&me]

That is another good point all dog / pet owners should be aware of - the prices out of town can be a fraction of what the VCA-driven Calgary prices are.

Our Frenchie required oral surgery and the only specialist in Calgary is at the VCA hospital... After sitting down with the surgeon and listening to his surgical plan, with a heavy dose of scare tactics sprinkled in, the best we could get out of him was estimated at "$20,000 - 30,000; shouldn't really be any more than that"... Which, along with the Audi R8 and Sub on his wrist told me that it definitely means it could and almost certainly would be more.

A couple calls to friends, a quick zoom call and off we went to Red Deer to see another (the other?) specialist for this procedure... $3k later and a no-cost follow up visit to address some minor issues and we were very happy.

It may not be worthwhile for routine checkups and minor issues, but whenever possible, no one should just accept the bankruptcy-inducing fees some of the local vets charge for major procedures.

[TorqueDog]

Does anyone have any experience with the non-VCA veterinarians in the inner city? Specifically curious about Westmount Animal Clinic, Fen Vet, and Downtown Animal Clinic. Oskär has been going to VCA 17th Avenue Animal Hospital since he was a kitten, and while I have been happy with the service, the pricing is a bit mental and he's gone through three different doctors over almost ten years, so there really isn't any sort of attachment or vital history there considering I have copies of all his records.

[Fuzz]

Can't comment on those, but the Calgary Cat Clinic (across form McMahon) is great. I've been going for over 20 years. Their prices are reasonable(compared to VCA) and they understand financial limitations and have offered alternatives. But they don't have the facilities for everything, and I've had one procedure done at the VCA clinic but performed by my vet. I think it came out cheaper to do that than go straight to VCA.

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Does anyone have any experience with the non-VCA veterinarians in the inner city? Specifically curious about Westmount Animal Clinic, Fen Vet, and Downtown Animal Clinic. Oskär has been going to VCA 17th Avenue Animal Hospital since he was a kitten, and while I have been happy with the service, the pricing is a bit mental and he's gone through three different doctors over almost ten years, so there really isn't any sort of attachment or vital history there considering I have copies of all his records.

Dr. Joe Waldman at Downtown is very good, personable, and a no BS sorta vet who just lays it out how it is. I went to him when they were called 9th Ave Animal Clinic and I lived just west of downtown.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by MonaTone

Ill share my experience here, pet insurance was absolutely crucial for us and I will never not have it (assuming a fair and reasonable insurance plan can be purchased).

We had Pet Secure - starting in 2014.

1) We got a Bernese Mountain Dog from a breeder who included 3 months of Pet Insurance for us when we picked her up. The last day the trial was in effect she swallowed a jagged bone from a piece of meat the MIL gave her. Emergency surgery was 3500, we paid 750-ish.

2) When she was spayed she had some bad reaction to the anaesthesia, went into cardiac arrest and had to be monitored for several days. The vet didn't charge for the spay but insurance covered all of the other stuff. I cannot find that invoice but it was about $2000 if I remember correctly.

3) The idiot swallowed a toy -> emergency surgery # 2. Cannot remember the full price but about 3k, insurance covered 80%.

4) Diagnosed with an hereditary but rare and aggressive cancer. From diagnoses to death, after all the testing and treatment and emergency visits + cremation and an urn the cost was just shy of $10,000. Insurance covered $4900 of it all.

Our monthly cost did gradually go up from $89 to $135 per month by the end, but we were clear heavy users lol. Some years it actually dropped because we managed to avoid an emergency visit.

Add in yearly checkups, teeth cleaning etc. that were all covered we paid about $8700 in fees over 8 years for insurance to cover about $13000 in vets costs.

Depending on your financial situation that may or may not be worth it, but I know having the insurance in those situations meant I never thought twice about the cost of whatever she needed and the decision was always based on what was best for her. I would have found a way to pay for whatever she needed regardless but the insurance meant I didn't have to stress over it.

It's a tricky risk reward calculation. We had VPI in the US a few years ago, and had a dog with congenital liver issues that cost in the $7k range by the time we were done with all the diagnosis and surgeries and nothing could be done to save him in the end.

Insurance first balked by claiming it was congenital and so a pre-existing condition. After lots of fighting, they finally agreed to pay the percentage in the plan, but they only paid according to their rate tables, and not what the vet actually charged. They covered maybe $1500 in the end after lots of fighting and stress. I think that was a little more than I'd paid in premiums up until then. But, didn't provide the benefit of covering large bills that I was counting on.

I don't know how far we would have kept going with all the surgeries and tests if we knew insurance was covering such a small part of it. At some point we should have probably accepted there wasn't going to be anything that could be done.

[you&me]

Originally Posted by you&me

That is another good point all dog / pet owners should be aware of - the prices out of town can be a fraction of what the VCA-driven Calgary prices are.

Our Frenchie required oral surgery and the only specialist in Calgary is at the VCA hospital... After sitting down with the surgeon and listening to his surgical plan, with a heavy dose of scare tactics sprinkled in, the best we could get out of him was estimated at "$20,000 - 30,000; shouldn't really be any more than that"... Which, along with the Audi R8 and Sub on his wrist told me that it definitely means it could and almost certainly would be more.

A couple calls to friends, a quick zoom call and off we went to Red Deer to see another (the other?) specialist for this procedure... $3k later and a no-cost follow up visit to address some minor issues and we were very happy.

It may not be worthwhile for routine checkups and minor issues, but whenever possible, no one should just accept the bankruptcy-inducing fees some of the local vets charge for major procedures.

Too late to edit, but I was talking with my wife and wanted to correct the figures above.

The estimate from the VCA surgeon was actually only $12,000 - 20,000... The scare tactics, "really shouldn't be more than that", Rolex and R8 were all real though

[MonaTone]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

It's a tricky risk reward calculation. We had VPI in the US a few years ago, and had a dog with congenital liver issues that cost in the $7k range by the time we were done with all the diagnosis and surgeries and nothing could be done to save him in the end.

Insurance first balked by claiming it was congenital and so a pre-existing condition. After lots of fighting, they finally agreed to pay the percentage in the plan, but they only paid according to their rate tables, and not what the vet actually charged. They covered maybe $1500 in the end after lots of fighting and stress. I think that was a little more than I'd paid in premiums up until then. But, didn't provide the benefit of covering large bills that I was counting on.

I don't know how far we would have kept going with all the surgeries and tests if we knew insurance was covering such a small part of it. At some point we should have probably accepted there wasn't going to be anything that could be done.

That's awful, we never had anything disputed but I suspect if we had a third foreign object removal they would have disputed it as a behavioural issue.

It definitely was luck (if you can call it that) all of our expenses outside of yearly maintenance were considered emergencies and thus covered at 80% with no limit per our plan. We thought cancer diagnosis might have been disputed since it tends to hit larger breeds more but they did not.

It is impossible to say hard and fast if pet insurance will benefit a pet specifically without seeing into the future but I guess that is why they call it insurance.

[Johnny Makarov]

VCA can go eff off!

When my dog leapt onto our islande and dragged a box of raisin bran to the floor and ate a quarter of it, we took her to Trinity Hills Vet hospital. All in only $260!!

I called the VCA hospital and they wanted $400 just to see her.