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It’s all too easy to be swept up in the excitement of collecting a new puppy, and not want to be bogged down with the financial side. However, it’s important to arrange pet insurance before you pick up your puppy. Here’s why.
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Should I get pet insurance before I pick up my puppy?
Welcoming a new puppy into your home is an exciting time. Naturally you don’t want to consider the possibility of them becoming unwell. However, illness or injury can happen at any time. This means it’s important to ensure your puppy is covered from the moment you collect them.
Puppies are prone to certain illnesses
For example, parvovirus (before they are fully covered by their vaccines). Since puppies explore with their mouths, they are also prone to eating things they shouldn’t! Vet bills can soon add up; regardless of whether this results in a mere stomach upset or a more serious illness, such as a foreign body (where an ingested object gets stuck in the guts and needs to be surgically removed).
Much like children, puppies are also accident prone!
Fractures tend to be more common in puppies than adult dogs. Having pet insurance already in place helps take the stress out of deciding the best treatment plan for your pup. If your pup were to break their leg, having pet insurance may mean the difference between an orthopaedic surgeon operating to fix the break, and having to make the decision to amputate.
Unless you are collecting a puppy with a known medical condition or health concern, puppies are very unlikely to have pre-existing conditions. This means that if you arrange for pet insurance to start as soon as you collect your puppy, it is very unlikely there will be any exclusions on the policy.
However, if you don’t arrange pet insurance for your puppy right away and they become unwell, any policy you subsequently take out may exclude related conditions.
What to look for in an insurance policy
Essentially, you pay an annual or monthly premium for pet insurance, to cover your puppy for any new injuries or illnesses arising during the period of the policy. If your puppy needed veterinary treatment, you would submit an insurance claim, and they would re-imburse you (or your vet, if your vet practice allows this) for the cost of treatment, minus your excess (and anything excluded on your particular policy).
So, what should you consider when taking out pet insurance for your puppy?
The level of cover
You can choose to be covered for third party liability alone, or also for illness and accident. Some policies will only pay out a set amount per year. Others are more comprehensive, and will pay a certain amount per condition per year. Sometimes the level of cover is so low that it would only cover very basic treatment- so be sure to do your research.
Lifetime cover v time-limited cover
Some policies will cover a condition for the duration of that policy, but when the policy renews, will then exclude that condition going forward. Policies with lifetime cover mean you can continue claiming (up to a set amount) for ongoing medical conditions year after year; as long as you continue to renew the policy with no breaks. So, for example, if your dog develops diabetes, lifetime cover will allow you to claim a set amount per year towards diabetes treatment. Time-limited cover will only pay for diabetes treatment until your policy renews, and will then exclude diabetes from your dog’s cover.
The excess
The excess is the proportion of the bill that you will have to cover yourself. Sometimes this is a set amount, other times it’s a percentage of the total bill. The latter can soon add up!
The timescale for processing a claim
Some insurance companies can pay the vet directly. This means you aren’t out of pocket while waiting for the insurance company to process the claim. However, not all vet practices are able to offer direct claims, and not all people are eligible. This means you would have to pay the vet directly and wait for the insurance company to reimburse you.
Of course, pet insurance isn’t for everyone
If you have enough money in accessible savings and are willing to spend large amounts of money at a time, then you may not need pet insurance. However, I’d caution against starting a savings account for your puppy instead of taking out pet insurance, as your puppy may become unwell before you’ve had time to save enough!
It’s important to sort out pet insurance before you get a puppy, so that cover is in place from the first day that you welcome your puppy home. Puppies are prone to accidents, illnesses and eating (or chewing on) everything! If your puppy becomes ill or has an accident before you take out pet insurance, they won’t be covered, even if you subsequently take out insurance. That illness may also then be excluded from future insurance policies. So, with puppy insurance, the sooner the better!