Who can tell me which is the BEST insurance company for Deerhounds?
There are so many different exclusions its hard to know who to go with.

I'm with Virgin Insurance, also for a car as well. Did have one occasion I had to claim and they paid out within 2 weeks. that was when Murphy had a run in with a Muntjac and needed anasthetic and lots of stitches and an overnight stay at the vets, it come to about £500.

Petplan was very dear, I did shop around and Virgin was the best 3 years ago, I pay about £20 a month, it goes up about £1 a year.
You have to read the small print because if they have an illness that is on going, sometimes there is a limit to what they will pay out annually.

We Use NFU for all the dogs and cats apart from Toby, apparently they don't do a working dog policy! The policy we have covers upto £4000 per year for the same illness. Have not had any problems with any claim, with various illnesses and accidents.

Thank you everybody. Will look at both of them.

It is great to hear about the insurance, I hadn't decided if I should go ahead with insurance. At 335 pounds for a deeply cut pad incident I should look into further.

I'm with Petplan although it is expensive, the cover is very good and there's a 1£M thirdpart cover. The reason why I stay with it is as they guarantee not to increase the premium as the dog ages. A friend had a Wolfhound covered and they were very good when it aged and had heart problems. However I only have the 1 dog so probably could not afford it to cover multiple dogs.

I use Tesco's for mine. About £10 a monthish and second dog is cheaper. Claimed when Mack ran into a branch and needed an operation. They paid out quickly and were easy to contact.

We're with PetPlan and yes it is expensive, although there is a slight discount for multiple pets, so we have both dogs and the cat insured with them. However, we do have the peace of mind that we are absolutely covered for everything with no upper limit.
Also, if any of the animals developed a chronic condition that needed continuous medication, PetPlan pay for life.

Having been stung very hard in the past (on more that one occasion) we wouldn't take the risk again of having a limited payout level. You'd be surprised how quickly vet bills mount up when something serious goes wrong, and could any of us really stop treatment on the basis of cost?

Spring.

PS. We don't work for PetPlan:laugh:

A vote for PetPlan here too. We did try M&S when it started but then they changed underwriters and everything went sky high. It meant our 10 year old dog has missed out on ongoing insurance as she had 'lapsed' but the other 4 dogs and cats are all on PetPlan. As has been said, despite the expense, there is the security of knowing that they are covered for a problem for life and not just for the one year as is true for many other insurance companies. Also they pay our vet directly, less excess.

Su

I have heard great things about Petplan also. A friend of mine with an IW tell me they pay out £800 a month on expensive medicines for her dog and that will continue for life but the premium has never gone up. Without it she would have had to consider putting him to sleep.

I am with Tesco - I pay about 33 quid a month for Murray, William and Alfie lurcher

Big Thank You to all of you. I will look at them all in the morning

I'm with Sainsburys. It started off because we had an elderly cat who was over 10 years old and they were willing to insure him. With Clunie's tail accident no problem - over £500 paid up promptly, however I bet her premium will go up this renewal! Also if you don't claim the premiums do come down - we did manage a couple of years without claiming and that was great!

Hope you find a suitable insurer for you, and I'd definately recommend insuring them as we ran up £000's prior to insuring Kerry - one year she had 3 accidents straight after each other - daft lurcher!

We have 2 dogs and 2 cats with PetPlan, one dog with Animal Friends and the older, a standard poodle, with Axa as they will do ongoing for her and not just year by year.
Boris' renewal came through today. We pay £47.56 per month for him.
Now I am quite confident about the policy from PetPlan but felt it was worth looking around.
At Animal Friends, a similar policy ie £4000per condition per year up to a total max of £30.000.00 was just over £22. Quite a saving. Apparently they have changed underwriters and now process their own claims to be much quicker than previously. So, hoping to improve their image.
I then checked at Axa, only to find that they do not insure Deerhounds!

So, although we are happy with Petplan Policy, does anyone here use a company with the same advantages for less money? Does anyone else use Animal Friends?

Su

I never tire of telling people that it costs more to insure each dog that it does to insure my car...

We're with Healthcare Plan via the Kennel Club. Costs £35 a month for Murphy and (for some reason) just slightly less for Mara. The cover is good but it should be, at that price!

We were with Sainburys and had no bother, unfortunately when i went to insure a new pup with them they refused because they said they had stopped insuring some of the larger breeds it was costing too much!
So now we are with the NFU, the service has been brillaint from them.

We insure all of ours with Marks and Sparks,easily comparable to PetPlan for an all of life policy and having had 4 ruptured cruciates,an eaten teddy,chronic kidney problem and a severe case of gastroenteritis within the pack it paid up not a problem and direct to the vet.The only thing I can't understand is why double the premium on the dogs that I haven't claimed for anything for???Must think I grow that lucky white heather plant outside-NOT!!!

M&S caught many when they began their pet insurance. Good cover and no excess. However, the next year, change of underwriters and doubling of charges, plus implementing of excess.
By the time this happened, my eldest dog was too old for continued cover with PetPlan which is why she is with Axa.
Is HealthCare Plan through Kennel Club would cost £36.95. However, it seems to be a max of £10,000. Also after the excess of £60 there is still 10% of the rest to be paid.
So where Boris had orthopedic surgery for £1300 and we paid just the excess with PetPlan, we would have had to pay£60 + £124 with KC. Swings and roundabouts again.


Su

People on other sites had also recommended NFU, so I went for quote. The quote was reasonable at £378.16 but unfortunately they could only offer Standard Cover due to his orthopedic surgery last year. Really wanted the 'roll-on' Permanaent Health Policy. I cannot understand why he is precluded from this. After all, any vet treatment regarding this surgery would be excluded from any policy.


Su