Pet Insurance

[squintero]

A few weeks ago Juliette became ill. She stopped eating and drinking. She became very lethargic. When I would try to go near her she'd run away from me and hide. It scared me a lot and made me very sad.

I took her to the vet and he treated her - the next day she was fine. My pockets, on the other hand, were not.

I quickly enrolled Juliette in doggy insurance with the ASPCA.

My question to you is:

Do you have insurance for your chows? If yes, what companies?

If no, why not?

[PCC]

Dim Sum had pet insurance when he was a puppy, because the risk of is being injured or ill was greater. But now he no longer has it, because the cost to keep it outweighed the risk.

[Rio]

We had every intention of having insurance for Rio until we discovered that most insurance what payment upfront and can take an eternity to actually pay you back what you originally paid. So instead we opted for taking him to a charity based vets who take donations for any treatments, obviously any boosters will be given at the charity based vet as they have a standard pricing for things like that and worming, de-fleaing we have decided to do at home. Some of the insurance policies are so extremely priced that you would end up paying a fortune and not actually getting any benefit back from them. Like PCC says its about cost and risk really and personal choice.

[chowpups]

I would suggest insurance, the costs are going up so high I can't imagine being CAUGHT without it ..for something major. I too had a healthy pup for the first 3 1/2 yrs then cancer hit. we have used ASPCA no issues at that time.

[JasmineW]

I wouldn't recommend it; pet insurance plans are usually not geared towards "exotic" breeds like ours; claiming many diseases as pre-existing or congenital... One good alternative I found is Pet Assure (I signed up a few weeks ago), which is basically a discount program, so I get 25% off at the vet. It's not a lot, but they don't try to wriggle out of paying everything. I think it's pretty straightforward .. Maybe check out their website, I even found a special page for chow chow insurance

[hjana]

i agree, Pet Assure is the way to go than pet insurance becasue there are really a lot of impediments when claiming insurance for your pet and they have a lot of excuses for the diseases so it is better than you do get the discount program instead so that atleast you are sure that you will be saving some money whatever it is that your dog needs.

[chowpups]

I used ASPCA Years ago for my first chow no problems but she was a mix so maybe I never experienced the exotic breed problems..and only needed for shots and spaying, Thankfully. It is always good to hear about alternatives..I do remember that my daughter had some insurance issues because she had a shar pei / pug both have skin issues and her insurance co. would not insure her for skin issues ..I can't tell you what ins. It was its been too long to remember. I also found out that some chain drugstores have a program for humans and pets if they are prescribed human drugs they help cover the costs. If they have no insurance coverage to cover that drug. Nikki was taking human drugs for her cancer and for 20.00 to enroll it saved me a bundle..I asked the Vet each time is there a human drug for what we need and only once she couldn't change it..There are so many ins. Policies you really have to dig in and check it out what it covers and return percentage and time for turn around refund etc. Hope this info can help someone else with drug prescriptions for their pet..or for themselves even.

[Ursa's daddy]

Chowpups is correct about the human drug prescription. Our vet has prescribed drugs which I can get at the big chain stores, and that does save some money.