Insurance claims (general natter)

[MIN]

with insurance premiums being hot topics at the mo, just wondering  (being nosey) what our claims (approx) have been ( if you want to divulge)

we have had 
Mindy border terrier. £1050 for dislocated hip. (staffie pretented it was a bowling ball and mindy was a skittle)
Peggy, staffie,   £1123(treatment till pts)
Theakston staffie, wart removed £136 ,  £1600 (treatment till pts)

have not put pts reasons because do not want to worry anyone with the same probs

[JennyBee]

Im with PetPlan, and it seems at times I'm never out of the vets. I'll try to remember everything I've claimed for! The price may be the hard part...

First claim was at a year old when she had to get some teeth out to correct an underbite - I believe it's quite rare for insurers to pay out on dental work like that. Price was, I believe, £150 (including x-rays). Looking back, it probably wasn't worth it to claim that money back, considering the excess.

Ears. There's no way I could add up how much they have cost the insurers over the years, but it is a LOT. She's had problems since she was a pup, with things escalating greatly last year. We've had weekly visits to the vets for months on end and many different medications to try and sort them out. Three visits to the ear specialist alone was about £1000.

Skin condition (Seborrhea): that's about seven months of treatment, it has been claimed along with her ear infections so no idea how much it cost. Mostly shampoos, so probably not too high.

Pancreatitis: treatment along with a weekend at the vets followed with another overnight stay was around £1000, including tests on her eyes after she bled into her irises.

That's all I remember for now; there's a few I haven't claimed, little things like lame/sore legs, urine infections, stick stuck in back of mouth, etc. after all the problems she's had I wouldn't be without insurance. The problems with her ears have shown me it doesn't take a serious illness or accident for those bills to soar.

[Emilyoliver]

Hmm - this could be a long one!

Ollie: £1000 - broken leg, approx £3000 for disc related consults, x-rays and MRI, about £800 for abscess treatment and removal. Total around £5k. He also has dry eye and recurring corneal ulcers (but not claimed for that).
Emily: x-ray and 3 teeth and abscess removed under teeth - about £450.  £2600 for anal gland tumour diagnostics and surgery.

Not been very lucky the past few years.

[jasper_boy]

A very long list here!

Jacob - 3 hip replacements coming to 5/6k each (the vet paid a huge chuck of the third op himself though), MRI on spine and hips 1.5k, x-rays (probably 8/9 times so far) a few hundred, then all of his pain meds/supplements/hydro/physio. I claimed the full 7k from Axa two years in a row and last year about 50%, this year about 1k so far.

Piper - £800 for raisin poisoning, 4.5k for IBD so far (ongoing now)

Bee - 3/4k for ongoing skin condition that she has had for 10 years now. £300 on a tumour.

Vixen - £500 on urine incontinence. 1.5k MRI and consult with neurologist. £600 on bloods for rare brain conditions (tests done 3 times!). For Vixen, I also have 6k on a credit card and her rescue have paid out about 2/3k as well on vets bills for her.

[LinziS]

Wow how scary are some of these prices.

Touch wood I have been very lucky in the fact that I have not had very much to pay out over the years with Erin who is nearly 8 ...have had the usual cost for emptying anal glands , a couple of upset tummies with collitis and antibiotics and some dental work. Have only ever claimed once on insurance and that is when she required 5 teeth to be removed after breaking them.
Have never claimed for Tilly who is nealy 2.
Despite paying out a small fortune over the years for insurance and getting very little back I still like to have good cover for peace of mind as I would no doubt be unlucky if I decided to cancel.....currently awaiting the axa renewal quote then decision wether to move or not will be made.

[twiceover2]

We have only claimed once but Pippa is only 2 and a half.  It was for removal of a splinter for her eye and only about £170.

[Emilyoliver]

We have only claimed once but Pippa is only 2 and a half.  It was for removal of a splinter for her eye and only about £170.

Ollie will be 9 next month, and Emily is nearly 12.

[BobnDot]

One claim of £1k for Milly's eye problem but nothing yet for Chaz (touch wood).

Bob.

[jasper_boy]

We have only claimed once but Pippa is only 2 and a half.  It was for removal of a splinter for her eye and only about £170.

Jacob is only 3 

Vixen is 7 years old, Piper 11, Bee is 12 

[Pearly]

Really wish I hadn't needed to claim over the years but...

Chester - Siamese cat, aged 9 months when she came home and died 1 week short of 6 years had polycystic kidneys, regular pancreatitis, a hole in her heart which closed to a 4/5 heart murmur by age 13 months, distorted nasal passage, holes in her brain stem and eventually a brain tumour which killed her [a series of fits which were controllable] and two strokes in the last 24 hours......

Harvey - Oriental cat, aged 13 months when he came home and died aged 10.5 years old, tore a claw out - his blood wouldn't clot so bled out in the house [house insurance claim].  Had a stroke aged 9 and died from lymphoma.

Minnie - Bengal cat aged 13 weeks when she came home with giardia  and has had camplyobactor.  Still here......

Pearl - now aged 2.5 - sweetcorngate, lost all teeth and had full set in 1 week, cystitis in first season, pyometra in second season and recurrent anal gland problem in last 10 months.....still here

Peony - no claims

I haven't claimed for everything!  The usual tummy upsets including giardia that Chester and Harvey caught from Minnie before she was diagnosed and a bout of cat flu turns out Minnie is a flu carrier.....or the specialist food etc.

Running total so far is £46,000  that's also not including the premiums - at one point it was costing me £300 pcm to keep Chester alive plus the insurance premium

You know its bad when the Vet Practice send you a Christmas card, to your first name, with a discount voucher inside for all treatments the following year....10% off.  When I questioned if the number 14 on the back was just to keep track of who had which ticket the answer was no - it meant I was the 14th highest spender in the previous year.....they have an equine practice and farm practice too     

[Neon]

Grass seed removal from ear - £180
Tummy problem diagnoses including x-ray, overnight stay on a drip and blood tests - £470 (still waiting on this claim)

There's been other things like diarwotsits and mouth infection that I didn't claim for.

[LurcherGirl]

Dylan's (lurcher, 12 years old) list is too long to even bother starting it really... but in his lifetime of 11 years with me, his treatment costs are probably not far off £20,000 in total. Amongst several wounds needing stitching, he also had to have his dew claws removed, had a bout of exertional rhabdomyolsis (exercise induced muscle breakdown) which meant he was on a drip for a whole weekend to flush his kidneys, hypothyroidism, TPLO for partially torn cruciate, bronchitis, damaged tooth... That's the ones I can remember off hand...   Now you can imagine that I am very reluctant to cancel his insurance policy eventhough the premium is astronomical.

Flash, my saluki (9 years old), also has a fairly long medical history with various skin injuries needing stitching, dew claws removed, removal of an inhaled grass seed from his nose, stitching his toe back together after he nearly sliced it off on something on the ground, very serious food poisoning and he now also has degenerative disc disease... He is not quite as much of a walking disaster as Dylan, but still clocked up several thousands of pounds of vet bills over the years.

Jesse, American cocker (6.5 years old) has "only" autoimmune thyroiditis (hypothyroidism) and various food and environmental allergies which used to cause skin problems. He recently had an eye ulcer, but that wasn't too expensive to treat (and thanks to homeopathic remedies, he didn't need surgery for that one). Since his diagnosis five years ago and being on thyroid medication, he hasn't cost much anymore at all.

Skye, English cocker (2.5 years old), has only had investigations for hypothyroidism, but isn't on treatment now. Other than that she has never had any vet bills at all.  

[elaine.e]

William (9 years old) - approx. £3,700 so far that I can remember. I'm with NFU and pay £52 per month for good quality lifetime cover, so I can't complain as both NFU and myself are aware that William may need spinal surgery in the future. The breakdown of claims so far is:

£2,000 for MRI scan and physiotherapy when he started back problems 4 years ago. The scan showed lumbosacral disc damage but since the initial diagnosis and physio he hasn't needed any treatment (and I really hope he never does).

£170 for a course of acupuncture in recent months as I think he's getting a bit stiff through his back and want to keep him as fit and supple as possible to give his back every chance of not needing surgery in the future. Luckily NFU have accepted it's related to the original back claim so I haven't had to pay any excess. The plan is for him to have one session every 2 months for maintenance, which will work out at £240 per year.

£900 so far (approx. £200 per year) for Optimmune ointment and 6 monthly ophthalmic check ups as he has Dry Eye.

£110 for removal of a lump from one eyelid in 2011.

£490 for entropion operation to both upper eyelids in 2012.

Louis (4 years old) - nothing claimed so far. In fact he's hardly ever been to the vet. He's also with NFU and I pay £21 per month for him.

[Deb H]

We are at approx £20k with Jasper for his auto immune issues

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

I haven't...and I really hope to keep it that way...(i.e. that there will be nothing wrong with him )