Insurance - Anyone got it?

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PAMELAKT

PAMELAKT

Adult Guinea Pig
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Hey guys,

Has anyone on here actually had their pigs insured? I'm thinking about it & have googled but there isn't much out there in the way of pigs... just wondering if anyone can reccommend or if anyone actually does this?

Thanks! xoxo
 
I looked in to it and it was going to cost £25 per month to insure 5 pigs but there's a £50 excess so I figured I'd be better off putting that amount aside each month. A consulation cost £25 so it's only ever going to be worth claiming if it's a major op.
 
True.... I'm going to do something cos my little darlings have already cost me £80 and I've only had them a few weeks. Just wondered if anyone actually had proper insurance.... I'm a bit of an insurance maniac!
 
Blimey £25 ?! My dog costs me £29! Think I'll open another online savings pot then mallethead

Thank you xx
 
I had Bette who cost me over £300, but we didn't know what was wrong, so she wouldn't have been covered.

Infact the most expensive bill I had was £69 which was one visit, that they Xrayed.

Every other visit was counted as a new visit. It cost £54 too have her PTS, blood and urine samples. She was diagnosed with Diabetes even if it was ongoing it would be less than £50 per visit, I don't imagine I would have got my moneys worth.

:x
 
Pet plan are one of the best insurers out there for animals as they actually have vets working for them and do vet supplies too so they don't quibble about paying out for claims unless there is obvious reason.
 
Hammy said:
Pet plan are one of the best insurers out there for animals as they actually have vets working for them and do vet supplies too so they don't quibble about paying out for claims unless there is obvious reason.
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Does that not mean you have to use there vets?
 
Nope, I only know this cuz the vets I'm on placement at tell every client that comes in with an uninsured animal. :)
 
I use petplan with my dog have done for years they're amazing. They paid out thousands for my last dog when she had cancer. didn't kno they did small animals tho I'll have a look. It cost me almost £80 to take them for their ringworm I dread to think what a major issue would cost!

And no you can use any vet with petplan, they pay out quickly and no quibble.
 
The other thing to watch out for is age limits and exclusions for ongoing problems such as dental.

Paula
 
Petplan unfortunately doesn't cover guinea pigs.

But this is the only insurance company that covers guinea pigs that i know of.
http://www.exoticdirect.co.uk/ Read the small print carefully.

I too looked into the insurance and it was £100+ for my two for the year and the excess was £50 and you could only claim for ops not just a visit, not sure if they cover life time illnesses either. So i decided to just keep money aside for them and found a good cavy vet.

:)
 
I have just printed out my proposal form for my two girls Truffles and Noodles - I
am going with Pearson Insurance Services in Stroud -( Just Google them ) - they have a special Cavy Insurance - 2-5 piggies cost £52.50 a year(THATS FOR THE PAIR NOT EACH! ) 6-20 piggies £68.25 - by far the cheapest I have found and covers each piggy for up to £750 vets fees for any one single incident - we spent ages getting quotes with all sorts of companies and they were really expensive - over £100 per piggy- we found this quite by accident - hope this helps!
 
TAN said:
I have just printed out my proposal form for my two girls Truffles and Noodles - I
am going with Pearson Insurance Services in Stroud -( Just Google them ) - they have a special Cavy Insurance - 2-5 piggies cost £52.50 a year(THATS FOR THE PAIR NOT EACH! ) 6-20 piggies £68.25 - by far the cheapest I have found and covers each piggy for up to £750 vets fees for any one single incident - we spent ages getting quotes with all sorts of companies and they were really expensive - over £100 per piggy- we found this quite by accident - hope this helps!
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I have just looked at their website but cannot see anything about guinea pigs. Do you have a policy with them?
 
sandra turpin said:
Thanks Joanne. I see it doesn't pay for treatment in respect of teeth. What do you think of it?
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I don't think Guinea Pigs get enough wrong with them too require it, there isn't many illnesses that are ongoing that I know of.

I'm not sure, wonder if they cover the E-vet.
 
Just read through the policy and it states that cover doesn't start until 30 days after you have taken the policy out and that you pay the first £25 of the treatment, so its like paying an excess of £25 each time.

Also they state this:
''If the total sum insured of £750 is reached in any one year of insurance, all cover under this policy will cease from that date.'' So I'm guessing that is for the 2 pigs and I'm sure that if any pigs have an ongoing problem they will easily be used up. Also no cover for teeth, this i expect is because it can be an ongoing problem for some pigs.
 
Joey&Gizmo said:
Petplan unfortunately doesn't cover guinea pigs.

But this is the only insurance company that covers guinea pigs that i know of.
http://www.exoticdirect.co.uk/ Read the small print carefully.

I too looked into the insurance and it was £100+ for my two for the year and the excess was £50 and you could only claim for ops not just a visit, not sure if they cover life time illnesses either. So i decided to just keep money aside for them and found a good cavy vet.

:)
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Thats the one I am with :) email them with any questions, I have, they are very helpful
 
Exotic Direct are underwritten by the same company as & are linked to Pet Plan. I asked a vet from my work about which insurance company he would recommend for piggies, and he gave me ED's link!
Pet plan deal solely in pet insurance, which makes them much more knowledgeable & efficient than companies which also offer car, home, travel insurance etc. Which makes me think that ED will also provide a very similar service.

And as with any kind of insurance, we just have to accept the fact that there is going to be an excess everytime you need to make a claim.

It is interesting to see that vets further south charge £25 for a small animal consultation, we charge roughly that for a regular consultation!
 
Hmm i think i'll stick to putting money aside, when i took my boys to Vets4Pets, they charged £9 but i wasn't too happy with the consultation so i went to the private vets which i take me dog too, which charged me £26 for the consultation but i'd happily pay that anytime esp with cavy savy vet!
 
The biggest thing I found when looking for insurance is that the standard excess for a small pet insurance policy is £50. That is above the average cost of treatment for anything other than really serious illness so it might be worth considering...

We just try to put money aside for any treatment.
 
I thought insurance for my five piggies and never bothered until.....

I had a guinea that had bladderstones, she had to have an op that lasted nearly 3 hours as the barbed stones had lodged in her urethra. Our absolutely amazing vet went above and beyond the call of duty and in the end used optical instruments to remove the barbed stones. (She is still going strong BTW and that was over 18 months ago!)

In all, with all the check ups after, xrays, two ops and loads of antibiotics etc, the whole thing from beginning to end cost me over £1,500. Sadly she was not insured if she had then she would have been covered. Thats a lot of money to find in unexpected circumstances.

After this I got insurance for all of them from Exotic Direct.

I have another that has masses of cysts, she has had two removed due to their location in about 14 months. This has cost me over £500 in all. I had another who had to a bladderstone op, hers was less complicated and cost £600. These are just two of many things!

All in all in the 6 years I have had five piggies it has cost me nearly £3,000 in vet fees. I have been very unlucky, but I have a fab vet who knows none of my guineas will go without anything but can you imagine this if they were not insured! (the first was'nt though).

I now do not need to panic if something goes wrong and I know we can be as exploratory and investigative as we need to be (as long as piggie is not suffering as a result). ED have been brilliant and pay up everytime, however they will exclude treatments once they have paid out a lot for the same thing, this is a pain but all in all, I have made a 'profit' if you can call it that.

Just my experience but I think its worth it for peace of mind.
 
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