Spec Me Pet Insurance (For a dog)

[Bes]

Hi,

We are getting a 2 year old German Shepherd rescue dog in a few days, and as anyone who has ever owned a GSD will know, they are wonderful dogs, but they are blighted with ongoing health problems (especially once they reach 9 or 10), due to irresponsible breeding, and so on.

We know he is in good nick now (X-Rayed & no signs of hip dysplacia), so seems like we should get cover now before any conditions show up.

We also live next to a playing field, and sometimes the little scrotes think it is funny to climb over the wall and play chicken with the dog (Luckily by the time our old GSD had actually run to said wall, all he managed to get was a trouser leg, or a trainer from the fleeting youth, but obviously, we could end up being sued so need liability insurance, as this new dog is much younger and faster).

So I am trying to arrange some pet insurance that covers both ongoing health problems and public liability, but all the policies seem to have very different rules, and I have heard all sorts of dodgy stories about certain providers not paying for idiotic reasons, so was wondering if anyone could suggest a good one for us?

Thanks

 

[Bes]

Hmm looks good- thanks

Hadn't thought of More Than, but it looks a bit more comprehensive than my favourite so far (Direct Line)

 

[Bes]

£50 excess is excellent.

However....

More Than do not cover transplants... This might not be a problem for most, but GSDs can get bad hips, and can need hip replacement operations.... As ours has been cleared of any hip problems so far, it might be a non-issue, but is something we need to think about.

 

[Bes]

We never had any insurance, but we recently lost our GSD ("Rio") at 11 years of age . He was generally as fit as a fiddle throughout his life until his last 3 weeks, when he was diagnosed with a tumor. It cost around £340 for investigative surgery and his cremation, which is probably the only cost we could have claimed through insurance.



Rio was very territorial around the the house/garden, and I am sure he would have liked to kill the postman/window cleaner given the chance.

We never really considered being sued over him biting someone (maybe we should have?)

My Missus has always had horses though, which are insured yearly (inluding public liability) because the risks, costs are much higher. They where insured through the Farmers Union, which offers very good rates, but I don't know if they deal with insurance for dogs.

Sounds exactly like our GSD, Max, who also died from a tumour a few weeks ago- his tenth birthday would have been last week.
Unfortunately, we had no idea he had a tumour (Showed absolutely no signs of illness, and was even bouncing around the house like a mad thing until about 2 hrs before he got ill).

Basically, a tumour on his spleen ruptured, bleeding into his abdomen. He suddenly got very ill in the middle of the night (Suddenly wanting to lie down and shifting uncomfortably, but didn't look seriously ill for the first 90 minutes or so) and died a couple of hours later before we even realised what was really wrong... It was strange.... no physical signs of bleeding or anything- we knew something was amiss, and planned to take him to the vet in the morning... however, once he started looking bad (Rolling his eyes back, shallow breathing, etc which came on very suddenly), we rushed him down there at 3AM, but it was too late when we got there. Very sad.

Similar costs for investigation & cremation too... We were also discussing whether we would ever need insurance, but really it is worth it just for the liability insurance for us... Some little chavette taking us to court because her idiot kid got bitten whilst trespassing could financially ruin us. GSDs are also very prone to arthritis, and we are hoping we can get the cost of medicine and consultations back, as these cost an arm and a leg.... (Max had been on meds for about 3 years.)

 

[Bes]

Kennel Club looks very good, but isn't cheap!

I guess it's looking at a less comprehensive one like Direct Line vs something like Kennel Club that covers everything under the sun... hmm