Insurance

Why Pet Insurance ?
Pet Insurance helps ensure you can give your pet the treatment it deserves

Did you know?

1 in 3 pets may require urgent veterinary attention this year
 

You are more likely to claim on your pet insurance than your household policies
 

Technological advances mean vets are able to do more for pets including using the latest diagnostic tools which can be expensive
 

Third party liability cover for dogs is increasingly important in case of legal action ( this may be covered on your household policy we suggest you check).

What to look for when choosing a pet insurance policy
Not all pet insurance is the same ~ there are 3 main types of policy
 

Lifetime or Covered for life:
Cover is provided up to a set amount for vet fees each year which is renewed at the start of each policy year. As long as you continue to renew the policy without a break in cover there is no time limit on how long you can claim for each illness or injury.Problems are covered for life eg diabetes or allergies.
 

Time –limited policies
Cover is provided up to a maximum per condition and there is a 12 month limit on how long you can claim for each condition. This means that ongoing conditions such as allergies arthritis or diabetes are only covered for the first 12 months and after12 months these conditions will be excluded from your policy cover.
 

Maximum Benefit
Cover is provided up to a maximum amount per condition but there is no limit on how long you can claim. The remaining benefit reduces each time you claim until cover for that condition is exhausted.
 

For a fraction of the feeding costs of your pet per week, you can now insure your pet against the sometimes high costs of increasingly sophisticated treatments, including referrals to specialists that can be very expensive. Each year, approximately one in three pets suffer illness or injury, so unexpected vet bills can occur unfortunately at any time. Ideally, insurance should be taken out early in your pet's life and when your pet is insured, with the exception of vaccine and other elective routine procedures such as neutering, your veterinary bill will never exceed the insurer's excess that you have to pay towards any treatments. Our endeavour is to provide the best possible standards of treatment and care but often the best route of treatment is also the most expensive and it can be very traumatic when a pet's health can be compromised by financial considerations.

The Practice does not sell insurance but we are happy to advise on criteria for policy selection without legally being able to make any specific company recommendations.

Some practices sell their own in-house insurance but we feel strongly that this leads to a conflict of interests between patient care costs and policy cost and profitability. We prefer to recommend a main stream insurer to whom we have no allegiance, leaving us free to offer the best treatment for your pet, without any financial pressure from the policy.