Fairwater & New Inn Veterinary Surgeries

We recommend the general principle of pet insurance for all our clients’ pets. We are unable to recommend specific companies or policies, but we offer the following information to clients to help in their selection of a suitable policy.

Lifelong Cover
Some policies will insure your pet for treatment for an accident or illness for 12 months, others will insure your pet throughout its lifetime for a condition, subject to an annual maximum limit. Since so many of the conditions we treat are lifelong conditions (eg diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, epilepsy) we favour policies which offer lifelong cover.

Excesses
All pet insurance carries an excess which the owner pays before being able to claim the remaining costs of veterinary treatment. This is to avoid the situation where a hypochondriac pet owner would come to the vet time and time again, whether the animal was sick or not, because the insurance company would cover all costs. Some policies may appear to have very cheap monthly premiums, but have very high compulsory excesses, so the owner needs to spend more at the vet from his own pocket before the insurance company will contribute towards the cost of treatment. Therefore it is important to compare excesses and premiums of policies you are considering for your pet.

Peripheral benefits
Most people insure their pets for the main benefit of covering veterinary medical costs. However, many policies offer additional fringe benefits, such as paying for advertising and reward if your pet strays, or paying for kennelling for your pet if you, the owner, are hospitalised. The fringe benefits may decide which company’s product you choose if two insurance products are directly comparable in all other respects.