Pet Insurance in NZ?

[nippa&pippa]

Can anyone recommed a good NZ pet insurance to insure our puppy after been to Vet for second time in a month
Thanks!

[KerryS]

I use pet-n-sur, as they were recommended by my vet. I think their website is www.pet-n-sur.com rather than co.nz, but I could be wrong.
There is also petmedicare. I have no experience of them, and as I said, only chose the other company on my vet's experiences.

Thankfully my cat is quite healthy and I haven't actually needed to claim for anything yet.

[Aussie Pom]

We looked into pet insurance but after the premiums were paid and the large excesses we felt it didn't really make sense. Also there are some things that aren't covered etc. It is worth reading the policy carefully.
Gina

[nippa&pippa]

Thanks, I will look into all websites and read policy at same times...Just our 4 months old puppy already visited Vet twice this month...cost us fortunes!! With lots of land to play on with our son, we never know what both have been up to
This time is her eye that need surgery and just been done this morning.....at roughly $200 ouch

[crispyking]

we had looked into this for our 2 puppies, consumer.org.nz has a choice of 2;

Ellenco - http://www.pet-insurance.co.nz/ and
Pet Medicare - https://www.petmedicare.co.nz/

Ellenco seemed to do better deals/rates and offered discounts for multiple animals, Pet Medicare offer a 'no claims discount' ...

All in we didn't think it was worth it for what you actually got back from it ...

go on, scare us with the prices you had to pay

[nippa&pippa]

go on, scare us with the prices you had to pay

$278.80 for today....and will be more when she had to go back on friday for stitches out...ouch!

[Myrkk]

Not being in NZ I'm not sure about prices out there but as for insurance I'd generally find out

What the excess is
What is the max. they will pay out on an illness.
Is the max amount paid out per year or per illness
Do they cover complimentary treatment i.e. hydrotherapy, acupuncture
Do they cover specialist diets
If the animal requires continual care i.e. diabetes will they cover the animal for whole of life
What about exclusions i.e. pre-existing complaints. Do they get removed from the policy after a set time without re-occurance.
What happens when the animal becomes older i.e. many companies won't insure a pet past 8yrs of age.
Always ask your vet re. the good, the bad and the downright ugly. Some insurance companies are good and some are like getting blood out of a stone.

They did a straw poll here in the UK asking what people thought it would cost if their dog were in a RTA and had minor injuries incl. a fracture. Prices ranged from around £100 to £2000 with the average being £500.

I work for a referral practice in the UK and the average bill for a dog coming to see us is around 1200 + VAT.........

[Croft]

We have had pet insurance for our cat since we got her at 2 here in the UK. Never used it until she was about 11 - £1200 for radioisotope treatment for an over-active thyroid (she got to distressed and vomiting with with the tablet treatment - and we found out the pet insurance would only pay for a years worth of tablets, while they pay 85% of the cost of the radioisotope treatment_. Best decision we ever made (despite her having to be in hospital for a month), knocked the thyroid problem in its head.

Then last year, a major op to to remove what the vet told us was the largest amount of stones he'd ever seen in a cats bladder (and she'd only shown symptoms the previous week!!!!) That was another £1500, this time only 75% because of her age.

I'd recommend pet insurance every time. To many people end up with huge vets bills which they can't pay and end up having to negotiate repayment plans etc.

[dilanium]

I'm not sure about in NZ, but in the US it's generally more economical to take the money you would pay pet insurance each month and put it into a savings that you use only for your pet care.

It can be handy if you have a very unlucky pet, or when they offer a multiple pet discount. Take a look at how much you would regularly be spending on your pet in a year, and compare that to how much you would pay for the insurance.

[MB]

Sorry I don't have any NZ experience of this, but here is our (USA) experience:

when we got our dog from the animal shelter, in about 1997, I took out pet insurance. Surprisingly, there seemed to be very few companies in the US (at least in those days) that did pet insurance. But I found one. It let us use any vet and would pay a percentage of any costs (the pricier the plan we chose, the greater the percentage, about sums it up).

Well, that beautiful, healthy cross-breed dog got lymphoma after a few years. We took her to a dog oncologist and got her started on the first of several chemo programs. And I can tell you that the insurance people were FANTASTIC. We just submitted all our receipts and basic paperwork and they paid every single one without question. Thousands of dollars, in checks, pretty much by return of post. When dear Amber died after 15 extra months of (thankfully) side-effect-free life, they sent us our final money and a nice card.

I see the sense of dilanium's idea, and that might well prove an excellent strategy for pet owners. But whether one chooses a savings scheme or a strong insurance policy, it helps hugely to have financial resources when a pet is expensively sick or injured. And the earlier one starts, the better. Our own young, strong dog, with daily exercise and home-cooked food, seemed at very low risk re. something like cancer, but our choice to insure was vindicated within a few years.

The company we used is called Veterinary Pet Insurance (to iterate: this was US, not NZ), and our experience with them was wonderful.