Pet Insurance

[Timsmith]

$5000 vet bill?

[SCSwitchback]

$5000 vet bill?

Yep that's easy. I had pretty close to $4k in a 5 year old Labs left rear knee......she tore her ACL and the TPLO surgery will hit you 3 ways at one.....fast, hard, and deep.

[2thDoc]

Benicio del Toro.

So, yes.

glad i'm not the only one that thinks this....

[Tater]

Yep that's easy. I had pretty close to $4k in a 5 year old Labs left rear knee......she tore her ACL and the TPLO surgery will hit you 3 ways at one.....fast, hard, and deep.

You screwed the pooch, literally. Dude.....my guy is a.) better than your guy, b.) less expensive than your guy and c.) needs a new a shotgun so......WTF did you take your mutt to your guy for?

If you don't believe me then go wrench her right rear and take her to my guy and see for yourself.

[Glenn]

You screwed the pooch, literally. Dude.....my guy is a.) better than your guy, b.) less expensive than your guy and c.) needs a new a shotgun so......WTF did you take your mutt to your guy for?

If you don't believe me then go wrench her right rear and take her to my guy and see for yourself.

And you can just bring the shotgun instead of the cash.

[Glenn]

I would be curious to know why you think it is a scam glenn. I know vets who have insurance on their pets... Instead of eating the cost on their own pets emergencies they can actually bill themselves appropriately and then be reimbursed or send them elsewhere for more specialized tx. I have several pets and do not have any insurance on them. I do not feel real strongly one way or the other.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Trupanion is another option... I looked into it for my 10 year old lab (about a year ago when he was 9) and the price is around $80/mo. Wish I would have had it last year when I got a $5K vet bill... That being said, $80/mo is $960/year. I had never had a vet bill over $1400 before. I wouldn't spend $960 a year to protect me from a $1400 vet bill, but it would have been nice for the $5K vet bill... It's really a question of what do you think your chances are of getting an astronomical bill? It's probably much more worth it if your dog is very young and you can get it for $30+ a month.

Budget for a rainy day. Most pets won't have but one, maybe two (if that), major health issues over a lifetime. $50-100/month in your emergency pet fund and Jason could have paid cash for the TPLO and still had money left over.

[Glenn]

It's amazing how much a vet will come off the price when you say "That's too much. Just put her down."

I can promise you that although I love what I do and love being able to help when I am able, my prices and recommendations are not based on emotion. All we can do is tell you what is wrong and what needs to be done. At the end of the day it's your pet and you make the call.

[Tater]

And you can just bring the shotgun instead of the cash.

See? Bewm.

[Islandguy85]

I can promise you that although I love what I do and love being able to help when I am able, my prices and recommendations are not based on emotion. All we can do is tell you what is wrong and what needs to be done. At the end of the day it's your pet and you make the call.

I have yet to see a vet come off of pricing much, and rightfully so. The cost is the cost. Most vets are not getting rich.
I get more aggravated when breaks are given to people just because they "cant afford it." In that sense, I cant afford it either. No one made you get a pet. They are a luxury expense, if you cant afford one don't get one. Why cut a break to someone who is clearly not going to bring you much business when you have plenty of clients that pay without batting an eye and will continue to do so? If you decide to take a living creatures life in as a pet, your property, or whatever you call it, you have an obligation to take care of it. If you don't want to take care of it, don't get it. Pretty simple, but if you work in a vet clinic and tell a client the above information you are basically going to hell . I know I am off topic, I apologize.
Glenn, to your point of saving month to month, I reckon that would work just the same if you actually did it. You haven't had any cases where you thought insurance should have covered and didn't have you? That was more along the "scam" lines I was thinking. I think Care credit is a great option for 0% APR loan basically (different terms depending on situation). The problem being the people who often want/need the CC are denied for various reasons.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jasonw]

Mine wasn't a TPLO, but just as costly it seems... My lab was seen first by his primary vet and then sent to "Charleston Veterinary Referral Center" who I am convinced is the most expensive vet on the planet. Though, they do have a good reputation of "being the best".

I was out with my dog one morning and everything was fine. He was out of my sight for maybe 30 seconds as he scooted around the corner of my house. I work from home so my dog is literally around me all day. About an hour after we came in, I noticed him limping, but he is 10.5 now, and he does it after hunting so I figured "oh boy, his age is started to set it". I went to lunch and when I came back, he had swelling about the size of a baseball on one of his "elbows".

I took him straight into the vet assuming it was a snake bite. The vet looked at it and did find some small puncture wounds around the elbow. They suggested that I keep him at the 24x7 emergency vet for observation and such. There, they ran some tests and were not convinced of a snake bite at all. He had 2 major symptoms. 1) He had an infection in his elbow and thought that was the cause of the swelling. Secondly, his "liver enzyme values" were off the charts. When I say "off the charts", I mean that they had to actually dilute his blood to get a reading and even then it was as high as they had ever seen. They could not connect the two, and said that it was likely 2 different things. He went through surgery to drain out the abscess on his elbow and they put a tube in there. He was treated with antibiotics, etc. Also, the "liver enzymes" were considered "serious" and a sign of impending liver failure which is a death sentence for a dog. To make a long story short, he stayed at the referral center for almost a week, various IVs, testing, lab results, medicines, surgery, bandaging, follow up visits, etc. $5000 later, my dog came home. His itemized bill literally had 100+ items on it.

After several more checkups, his liver values have been in normal ranges since. The old boy got to hunt a good bit this season!

I did some research on the enzymes that they mentioned and found that that exposure to Sago Palms would explain the liver issues. To this day, I think he had ingested some sago, and the infection was just coincidence. If he didn't have the visual symptoms of the infection, I might have never discovered the sago palm poisoning... I'm in a rental house right now, and there are sagos in the yard. I had no idea that they were DEADLY to dogs (80% mortality rate) and I DID see him sniffing around one that morning (24 hours before his liver enzyme test).

So, if you have sago's in your yard, you need to rip them out. If your dog eats any part of the plant, there is an 80% chance that he will die from first exposure. And he if he doesn't die from that, then chances are, his liver will fail in the future.

I am proactively giving my dog DENAMARIN for the rest of his life. If you think your vet bills are bad, that's about $90 a month for the rest of his days.

[jasonw]

Budget for a rainy day. Most pets won't have but one, maybe two (if that), major health issues over a lifetime. $50-100/month in your emergency pet fund and Jason could have paid cash for the TPLO and still had money left over.

Yes, that is pretty much my thought... Pet insurance doesn't seem like a "good deal" to me... I think if you just take that money that you *would* have spent on pet insurance and stick it in the bank, you'll be better off 90% of the time. I think it's just more palatable for some people to pay $50-$70 a month instead of writing one big check for $5000. And even then, you should know the limits\deductibles, etc... You will still have to come out of pocket for something.

[Tater]

Bullets are cheap. Shotguns aren't. Get the surgery. Use my guy.

[jasonw]

I would have gladly bought my vet a SBE 2 instead of paid my vet bill if that were an option, but I don't like the idea of going to prison.

[Glenn]

Glenn, to your point of saving month to month, I reckon that would work just the same if you actually did it. You haven't had any cases where you thought insurance should have covered and didn't have you? That was more along the "scam" lines I was thinking. I think Care credit is a great option for 0% APR loan basically (different terms depending on situation). The problem being the people who often want/need the CC are denied for various reasons.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Eh. Scam isn't the right word. I used that for toofers sake as that is one of his catch phrases. The only time I have ever seen insurance not pay is when a client applied for insurance on one of their pets and lied on the application and then asked me to lie on the date of diagnosis for a long term to life time condition. They lied and I didn't and the insurance company denied their claim and dropped them completely.

We're fortunate in that we don't deal with the insurance companies. You pay me and they then reimburse you. So if there are nightmare or horror stories out there then they exist on the road between client and carrier and I don't have to deal with it. So my original point is you are going to have to come out of pocket for it initially anyway or put it on a credit card. And for those that put it on a credit card I'd be willing to bet most take that reimbursement money and spend it on luxury non essentials rather than paying it on the card. But that's just an assumption based on common human nature.

We do zero billing for goods and services here. Over the course of 30+ years in this business I've heard every sob story imaginable. I used to give people the benefit of the doubt until a sweet little old blue haired self proclaimed christian grandmother stiffed me for over $400 and when I called her she told me, and I quote "You need to fuck off and leave me alone!" I hung up the phone and wrote her bill off as a charitable donation and vowed then and there I had been taken advantage of for the last time. You can bring in all the crying kids, four bibles and three sets of grand parents and the rules still apply; "no ticket, no laundry."

[Campbeller]

I swear, people can be talked into anything.

[Moonlight Hunter]

Eh. Scam isn't the right word. I used that for toofers sake as that is one of his catch phrases. The only time I have ever seen insurance not pay is when a client applied for insurance on one of their pets and lied on the application and then asked me to lie on the date of diagnosis for a long term to life time condition. They lied and I didn't and the insurance company denied their claim and dropped them completely.

We're fortunate in that we don't deal with the insurance companies. You pay me and they then reimburse you. So if there are nightmare or horror stories out there then they exist on the road between client and carrier and I don't have to deal with it. So my original point is you are going to have to come out of pocket for it initially anyway or put it on a credit card. And for those that put it on a credit card I'd be willing to bet most take that reimbursement money and spend it on luxury non essentials rather than paying it on the card. But that's just an assumption based on common human nature.

We do zero billing for goods and services here. Over the course of 30+ years in this business I've heard every sob story imaginable. I used to give people the benefit of the doubt until a sweet little old blue haired self proclaimed christian grandmother stiffed me for over $400 and when I called her she told me, and I quote "You need to fuck off and leave me alone!" I hung up the phone and wrote her bill off as a charitable donation and vowed then and there I had been taken advantage of for the last time. You can bring in all the crying kids, four bibles and three sets of grand parents and the rules still apply; "no ticket, no laundry."

When I'm having a bad day dealing with clients, which is often, I think back to one story that you shared about looking into the eyes of a crying child and telling them, "no." I don't remember the circumstances, or even if the story is true, but just the imagery is enough to lighten my mood.

[SC quacker2]

I can promise you that although I love what I do and love being able to help when I am able, my prices and recommendations are not based on emotion. All we can do is tell you what is wrong and what needs to be done. At the end of the day it's your pet and you make the call.

Come on- we all know the cost of the problem is directly proportionate to the size of the little girls tears...

[flockbuster]

It's amazing how much a vet will come off the price when you say "That's too much. Just put her down."

I tried that approach with my kids pediatrician. Old Bastard wouldn't come down a dime

[Islandguy85]

Glenn, I have seen/shared the same. I haven't seen an issue w insurance reimbursement but have seen people try to scam them w preexisting conditions and get caught. I have also seen many a people skip out on a vet bill and then act like you are the asshole for trying to collect. No "type" of person is off limits to skipping out. Its crazy. You Do someone a favor and you wind up the ahole. I guess the take home story is be financially responsible and set aside a pet savings fund if need be.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Tater]

Glenn found out my dog didn't need surgery so he tried to kill him. Vet tech saved his life with love so Glenn fired her. He's an exceptional surgeon though. Some times I wish Bubba had needed the surgery so the vet tech could keep her job. #hindsight #liveandlearn