Would you get a breed that you couldn't insure? Discussions

I have a dog that no one will insure because of medical issues i just manage it

So they were insuring him then told you they would no longer do so? That's dreadful after they'd taken your money quite happily for all that time. I don't understand why they couldn't just bring it into force for new customers, and leave existing policies in place.

Sometimes we end up with or take on uninsurable dogs. It happens. You manage by taking pragmatic decisions and giving the dog the best life you can.

Thanks for the reminder Tass! I need to do this since Pet Plan put an exclusion on Cain's policy :?

It's mainly the health as shar-pei don't really have the status dog/gladiator look chic that the morons seem to be attracted to. They are actually hopeless fighting dogs compared to the bull and terrier breeds. The only incident I can remember where a shar-pei hit the headlines was when one got stabbed to death protecting his owner from the bloke's psychotic brother.

I'm not saying they are the healthiest breed of dog out there, but a lot of the health issues are blown out of proportion with the insurance companies and some vets seeing naive owners coming a mile off. I know more than my vet about the breed and thankfully they listen to me. But should my dogs have a shar-pei specific problem such as FSF or need an entropion operation, I have and would travel the 30 miles each way to see the particular vet I trust not to treat/operate unnecessarily, make a hash of it or charge me a fortune. Mostly though, I trust my local vet for general things like spaying or vaccinations and rarely have to see the shar-pei expert vet ( haven't needed him in about 7 years).

If I had insured my previous 3 shar-pei, I may as well have flushed a bare minimum of £7000 down the bog over 12 years in premiums with maybe being able to claim about £250 back. My goodness - how I wish I'd banked all of that.

Insurance companies don't insure out of the goodness of their hearts. They make a lot of money, hence the proliferation in places offering it. It's a gamble either way and you just have to weigh up what you feel comforatble with. But for every dog that claims a few thousand back, there are tens of dogs that never claim anything their whole lives to cover that plus all the administration costs and pure profit. I think if it's a dog you can insure for about a tenner a month it's worth it for peace of mind, but when it comes to a breed like my TM which was £40 a month 6 years back despite having a reputation for robust health and good temperaments plus an uninsurable breed in the household, a contingency plan is a better option as you just know the uninsured dog is the one that's going to need to see the vet and you're going to have no spare money as you're giving somebody a tenner a week you're more than likely never going to see again.

I don't do insurance, but I probably wouldn't but a breed which was so prone to illness that some companies wouldn't touch it. Having said that, if I really wanted the dog I would get it. My current dogs are not insured, I simply couldn't afford to waste money every month on 'what ifs'

Absolutely no way.

Good pet insurance is a must for me and, as it stands at the moment, I would always insure with Petplan.

Can I ask why please, SB, out of curiousity? Thanks. PM me if you don't want to elaborate on the forum.

I can't remember the exact wording now, but I think it said any dog that was trained to 'bite'.

They didn't actually say anything, but the renewal came and I looked through the small print and his breed was there

That's given me an idea for a new thread

Re the topic itself - I think it was because of the skin-folds :?

Yep as I don't insure my dogs it wouldn't be a problem for me ;-)

Fortunately this is academic as Petplan, and other insurers, have no such restrictions.

My insurance states that dogs used for guarding purposes are excluded, nothing about the dog being pp trained

Hmmm good question. Mine are all currently insured but I dont think not being able to insure a dog would necassarily put me off owning one.

wouldnt bother me, mine arent insured anyway i know they should be, but i dont tend to bother, i will probably kick myself if something major happens, but i have an emergency credit card for the pooches anyway...

I ende up kicking myself with Moon. I kept putting it off then he for kidney failure completely out of the blue and cost me £3000 in one week Yup, really wished I'd got insurance then...

No-too worrying that if anything went wrong healthwise I couldn't afford it as we don't have large wads of cash in the bank although we both work and look after our dogs well.

I did think of having a Shar-Pei before we got our Kerries but decided against it when I met 2 aggressive ones on the heath and was scared because the owner was having difficulty controlling the dogs. It put me off.

If I had have got one I don't think I would have checked if they could be insured though so may have got stuck with this problem inadvertently.

I know that when we insured Cherry with Sainsbury's and her renewal came through there was quite a few breeds on their list of excluded breeds so insurers are being more particular about which dogs they will insure which you can't really blame them if some are much more likely to be ill than others.

Just looked at Sainsbury's exclusion list - blimey it is long

Bernese on there bet thats to do with health and not wanting to pay out. ;-)

Ive got Millie insured with pet plan £17 a month we didnt want to take the risk not insuring her as sods law would have it something would happen which would end up costing us thousends of pounds if we didn't

touch wood apart from a urine infection ive not come across any other problems.

Yes. Our dog isn't and can't be insured on health grounds. I love oldies, so I'm sure we'll be in the same boat again!