Best Dog Insurance: A Complete Guide For Protecting Your Pet
As a pet parent to your furry best friend, we know that you want nothing but the absolute best for them. While you shower them with affection, chew toys and yummy treats, have you crossed off every way to keep your dog truly happy and healthy?
We know that you don’t even want to think about something happening to your dog. But, the truth is that accidents, illnesses and mishaps do occur. The question is:
Are you prepared for the unexpected? Is your dog covered in the event that something may happen to them?
Enter pet insurance. The foolproof way to make sure that your dog can get the attention and medical treatment they need no matter what and without breaking your budget.
Let’s jump right in to give you a complete guide to pet insurance for your dog, here’s some topics we will cover:
- What Is Pet Insurance and What Does It Cover?
- What Does Pet Insurance Exclude?
- Everything You Need To Know About Pet Insurance
- Ways To Find The Best Dog Insurance For Your Family
What Is Pet Insurance and What Does It Cover?
In simple terms, pet insurance is to pets as human medical insurance is to humans. Sounds pretty straightforward right?
The pet insurance you have for your dog is used in the event that they need a checkup, medical attention or surgery. While your dog may be healthy now, there’s no predicting what could occur in the future.
It’s best to think of pet insurance as a preventive method that gives you peace of mind. You don’t want anything to happen to your dog, but if something were to happen, you know they’d be covered and taken care of.
So, now that you know what pet insurance is, let’s talk about what it covers.
Pet insurance for dogs covers two main categories: accidents and illnesses. Let’s dig deeper to give you some examples of what these mean and the procedures that are covered.
- Accidents:
- Getting hit by a car, swallowing a rock, stick or sock (foreign object ingestion), breaking a bone, cruciate ligament injuries, eating something toxic, being attacked by another animal, foxtail removal and other accidents.
- Coverage include X-rays, MRI, ultrasounds, bloodwood, sutures, medications, hospitalization and surgeries to treat the accident.
- Illnesses:
- Cancer, arthritis, diabetes, allergies, skin conditions, hyperthyroidism, kidney disease, ear infections, digestive problems, urinary tract infections and other illnesses.
- Coverage includes costs of major and minor illnesses, full hereditary and congenital coverage including breed specific illnesses like heart disease, hip dysplasia, eye issues and cancer.
In addition to accidents and illnesses, many dog insurance policies offer you the option to add routine and wellness checks onto your accidents and illness plan.
Routine and wellness includes:
- Expected veterinary expenses such as annual exams, flea/tick and heartworm medication, shots/vaccinations, teeth cleaning, spay/neuter
While you can add routine and wellness to your dog’s insurance plan, we recommend that you pay for these out of pocket. This is because currently there aren’t many great plans that offer sufficient coverage for these items and make financial sense to buy.
So, you should just consider paying for these out of pocket as the costs don’t typically go above a few hundred dollars.
What Does Pet Insurance Exclude?
Ok, so now you know what pet insurance covers – but what about the aspects of your dog’s care that is excluded?
The only thing that all pet insurance providers do not cover is pre-existing conditions. These are issues that have happened before you purchased the coverage for your dog.
What’s the best way to get around this and find a loophole?
Buy pet insurance coverage for your puppy as soon as you bring them home. That way, as they grow, any conditions that arise will be covered by your insurance policy.
A nice little dog insurance hack for you guys 🐶
Everything You Need To Know About Pet Insurance
At this point, you’re probably eager to learn more about what pet insurance can do for your dog – let’s dive in even further!
Here are some things you definitely should know about pet insurance.
How Does it Work?
First, how it works. The process is simple and works similar to your human health insurance:
- You’ll set up your insurance plan
- Bring your pet to the vet whether they need a check up, had an accident or are sick.
- Pay for your pet’s treatment upfront
- Submit the claim afterward to your insurance provider
- Get reimbursed for the covered treatments.
Key Factors To Know
Next, these are some key factors to note about pet insurance:
- Your plan will be customized to your pet. This includes their breed, age, any existing health issues or conditions they may have.
- Chronic conditions, disease or allergies can be covered.
- If you have more than one pet, you can obtain insurance for each. Many providers offer a multi-pet discount (usually 5% or 10%).
What Are My Dog Insurance Coverage Options?
We mentioned above what pet insurance does and does not cover for your dog. Here are the 4 types of typical pet insurance plans you can choose from.
- Accident & Illness
- This is the most common plan, which covers treatment and any care related to an accident or illness.
- It does not cover wellness visits, routine care or preexisting conditions.
- Accident Only
- This plan covers emergency accidental care such as getting hit by a car, foreign object ingestion or eating something toxic.
- It does not cover pre-existing conditions, illnesses or breed specific issues. It also does not cover wellness visits and check ups.
- Accident & Illness with Wellness
- This plan covers all types of treatment – whether that be routine wellness, accidents or injuries.
- It does not cover pre-existing conditions.
- Wellness
- This plan covers a portion of services such as annual checkups and routine vet visits, vaccinations/booster shots, and teeth cleaning.
- It is typically an optional add-on to an accident and illness plan.
The plan you choose is ultimately up to you and what you can afford. But, as you can see – the most comprehensive insurance plan is the accident and illness plan with a wellness add on.
How Much Does Dog Insurance Cost?
Before we jump into the numbers, let’s give you an insider scoop as to how you can play the field before committing to one pet insurance provider.
All pet insurance providers offer a 30 day free trial for you to test out their program. With such a low barrier, you can get started right away and research which provider is the best fit for your dog. As long as you don’t submit a claim, you can get a free refund if you cancel.
So, we recommend looking at several different providers before you lock down your final selection.
Without pet insurance, vet bills can be astronomical and very expensive. For example:
- If your pet swallows a foreign object, it could cost you $3000.
- If they tear their ACL? $5400.
- Become sick with cancer? $9000.
The average cost of pet insurance for dogs is $47.20 per month. And depending on your specific dog, the general range of cost is between $25-70 per month.
Now, that’s incredibly affordable in comparison to the procedure costs for most accidents and illnesses, which can be thousands if not tens of thousands.
The cost of your dog’s insurance will be determined by:
- Dog’s Age
- Dog’s Breed
- Where You Live
- The Coverage Package You Choose
Remember, providers don’t cover pre-existing conditions and the price of pet insurance gets more expensive the older your dog is – so, it’s key to get them set up with a policy as young as possible.
Ways To Find The Best Dog Insurance For Your Family
At this point, you’re pretty educated on pet insurance for your dog. So, how do you find the best dog insurance plan for your furry friend?
While it may seem like you could simply do a Google search to find the best provider, the actual research that goes into finding the best plan for your dog is extensive.
It’ll take you hours to compare the costs of each provider, get quotes and read about their entire policy and how it will apply for your dog.
While you could do it yourself, we’d like to save you some stress by recommending the expertise of pet insurance gurus, Fursure.
Fursure is a pet insurance broker that will find the best policy for your dog for free. They do all the research, heavy lifting and stressful comparison – while you sit back, relax and wait for your policy recommendations to land in your inbox.
All you need to do is sign up and schedule your free consultation call with their team. They’ll ask you questions about your dog and get all the information they need, so that they can put together a customized plan recommendation for you.
Made for pet parents, by pet parents – Fursure is the simplest way to compare benefits and costs of various pet insurance policies for your dog.
Schedule your free consultation and get your dog covered as soon as possible!
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As you can see, there’s a lot of valuable information and things you should know about pet insurance and why you should get your dog covered.
We know you want to make sure they live a long, healthy and happy life.
And, with a quality pet insurance policy they can have the care they need no matter what.
Get a pet insurance policy for your dog today and have the peace of mind knowing that they will always have the coverage they need at a price that you can afford.
