"Why you need dog insurrance" Topic

I think insurrance companies give out this as a bonus for customers, because they can't make money on this.

Each year my parents pay $160 USD for the insurrance

She is now 11 and the insurrance goes only up to 10 years so we payed $1,600 USD over those years.

Well in those 10 years she has been operated on 3 times.
first her leg broke when she was a puppy, then a few years ago she needed a historectamy, and last years she had Spinal disc herniation, and became paralized in half her body.

The first two surgers cost over $2,000 USD each.
And the back surgery, with two weeks of rehabilitation and recuperation cost $4,500 USD
Now for the last surgery we had to pay $1,000 USD ourself
But that still leaves $3,500 USD coverd by the insurrance.
With the two other it comes to $7,500 USD And we only payed our insurrance company $1,000 USD over 10 years.
Thats a loss of $6,500 USD
And I think this is prety typical, most dogs do have one or to serious injuries or illnesses in their life.
And when a single operation is more then what you would pay for the 10 years of insurrance, well then it becomes obivous that the company dosn't make momey of that.
So thats why I think the insurrance company takes the hit becasue it's not that much money, compeard to house, life and car insurrance, thats were they make they money.
Also this should make it clear that everybody should get insurrance for their dog

I agree…dog insurance is a must! My mutt had two operations last year alone (second was a complication from the first operation when he literally exploded!) which came in at around £1,800.00 GBP Previously to this he has had other ops that cost around £1,000.00 GBP each. Premiums fade into insignificance compared with the cost of vet bills if your hound needs attention!

It varies. Costs in Norway are more than in the US. I have had 3 dogs, one relatively psychotic dog had no helath problems but could not adjust to kids in the house – he was given away when he was around 9 years old. We had two huskies that were remarkably healthy with a single exception. We had a house fire that gutted the basement – we lost our cat and four puppies, the mother dog was ok, but the male was in rough shape (I was hospitalized for smoke inhalation but the rest of the family was ok). The male had passed out by a heating duct and lost the lining of his esphagous and had to be given mouth to nose respiration to get him breathing again. My wife got him to an emergency vet and he was in dog intensive care for about a week before the vet got confident that he would survive. Massive care, antibiotics etc. Since we had lost a significant proportion of our belongings, the vet charged us $300 USD and was written up in the newspaper as part of a follow up story.
He made a full recovery, though from time to time coughed like an old smoker. From there both dogs made it into their teens before they came down with bladder cancer, a couple of hundred dollars in tests, but no real treatment options.
For our dogs, health insurance would have not been cost effective. Had our vet actually charged what his care for the smoke damaged dog was worth, it waould have been worth it.

I can't speak for Norway, but Insurance companies in America do nothing for free.

In ths specific case, I believe your assumptions are incorrect that most dogs have one or two serious illnesses that the insurance will cover. Dogs run away. Dogs get hit by cars and have to be put down. People forget they paid for the insurance and don't claim it. People give up on the insurance prior to the illness. A dog's illness doesn't appear till their 11.

I'm not clear on your math, but it seems like your parents claimed about 4 times as much as they paid ($6500 / $1600). If the insurance company can find 5 healthy dogs (or dogs that fit one of the above scenarios) to your parents dog then they win.

My guess is that they can find more then 5-1, alot more.

By the way, I'm sorry your parents won the bet with the insurance company. Rather then hearing about your dogs ordeals, I'd rather hear about how the insurance company 'stole' $1,600 USD

We have had 3 dogs, two bitches one man dog.

Both bitches had to have historectomies, that single operation means we got more from the company then they got from us. Infection of the uterus if aperantly very commen for bitches that havn't had puppies.
Most of the dogs I've met have has atleast one major incident.

Don't know about america but but we tend to take care of our dogs, the number of dogs actualy hit by cars is very low,
Runaways are also very rare.
We tend to do anything we can to keep our dogs alive as long as possible.
There has never in my 24 years of life been a single dog hit by a car in my part of the city(60 000 people, and probebly 5000 or more dogs)

I should have gotten the dog insurance when ours were pups. Three knee surgeries for two of them and an additional ear operation on one of the two. Well worth it considering the outlay.

Thanks for the reminder. My dog is treated like a princess. Between me and the constant visiting family, she eats better and gets more attention than I do. I'm pretty attached to Crumpet. I was freaking out a few weeks ago when I found out she has Lyme. She couldn't jump or walk properly. Now she seems to be fine (knock on wood).

We are still in the black. Over seven years, our Papillon has had both knees repaired, and bladder stones removed twice, all told over six grand. We've paid about three grand for the coverage.

It's a must for pure-breds, which tend to have congenital issues.