[Penny's Mommy]

It's a very exciting time for my family and I, we are first time dog owners. After months of research and a couple of meet and greets, we finally found the one. We adopted our sweet girl Penny, she is perfect and jut wonderful...there is one minor detail....she is heartworm positive. She did the slow kill method and she is currently on Advantage Multi until September. She will then get retested and we will decide what happens then. I never thought we would adopt a heatworm positive dog. But somehow she chose us...I always heard people say "when you meet the one you just know" indeed it is. I need advice on her medical costs, I understand pet insurance doesn't cover pre-existing conditions but what if something else happens? Should I get pet insurance for unexpected things? Any advice you all can give me will be greatly appreciated.

 

[DogFaming]

Hi Penny's Mom

I am so impressed with you for adopting a dog that has heartworm. She is a very lucky girl.

I posted yesterday about getting pet insurance. You are correct about pre-existing conditions not being covered, but they wouldn't have covered heartworm anyway because it's a parasite and it supposed to be preventable. Heartworm and illnesses that are preventable with vaccines are not covered. What is covered, is any accident or illness.

In my post I mentioned that I chose to go with Healthy Paws insurance. I did a lot of research and they seemed to have good coverage that's pretty straight-forward, and they have really good reviews.

If you decide to get insurance I suggest calling and talking to a representative and find out just what won't be covered with your dog's history. Educate yourself so that there isn't any surprises in the future.

Give Penny a hug for me.

 

[Shadowmom]

Definitely get pet insurance. The sooner the better as the younger and healthier they are when you enroll them the cheaper it stays lifelong and the less pre-existing conditions there are.

I have Trupanion and it costs about $29-$49 a pet a month and I have all kinds of alternative treatments and extra coverrd. They cover 90 percent of everything after the deductible and not counting exams or preventative care unless a vet says it's diagnostic.

My dog had symptoms of Lyme so they covered the Lyme heartworm test because it wasn't done preventatively and as routine care but to diagnose an lllness.

But I've had old pets with awful major medical problems and I wouldn't have been able to afford to treat them or even keep them comfortable on my own.

No one should have to decide wheth put down a beloved pet based solely or mainly on money. Ideally that type of decision would just be made based on their actual health, condition, prognosis and what's best.