[ChelseaMorning]

Hey all!

It has been a while. The dogs and I are all doing great and Tribble's third birthday and Gotcha day came and went. Since he was diagnosed over a year ago with grades 3 and 4 luxating patellas, we have been managing by keeping his weight down, keeping him active and trying to get him not to jump. We are doing well with the not jumping on people and not pulling on the leash, but keeping him off of furniture, tables, chairs, park benches, etc has been a challenge. It is my fault for having taught him those behaviors in the first place and made them extremely rewarding, but that is a time/consistency/training issue that I just haven't had time to work on.

Anyway, like I said, we have been managing, with only very occasional low doses of rimadyl, but he has started presenting with discomfort and lameness on occasion, and I want to get a move on the surgery (once his behavior is under control) sooner rather than later. Since it is both knees, and the cost is exorbitant, I was thinking it would be well worth it to purchase insurance that covers congentital/preexisting conditions. The way I figure it, this would save me somewhere in the realm of $4000-$6000 the year of the surgery, especially if it covers medication and rehabilitation. AND, if Tribble makes a full recovery and the surgery is successful, we might be able to go back to agility!!

Does anyone have any experience with pet insurance companies? Good ones, bad ones? Any total scams I should look out for?

Thanks!

 

[Sha]

The biggest issue that you will run into is that insurance companies will not cover any treatment for pre-existing conditions. Since you mentioned going for a program that does cover those types of situations, I'm at a loss. All of the pet insurance companies I've researched explicitly state they won't cover pre-existing conditions. May I ask what companies you've looked into?

I will say that Embrace and Healthy Paws both have very good reviews on Angie's List, but again, neither of them cover pre-existing stuff.

Also, another thing to remember is that most plans have a waiting period before any treatments are covered, so even if you do find a plan that covers pre-exisiting conditions, you would most likely have to wait a bit before having the surgery.