Le Chic Geek
Related Articles
Friday night, my puppy started acting a little strange. Â She kept wandering off to go sit in a corner by herself. Â This is from a dog with huge separation anxiety.
Immediately after, she started getting violently sick. Â Violently.
I took her to the ER wrapped in her favorite blanket with her favorite toy. Â (Her hippie).
Turns out she was really sick. Â Really sick.
A few thousands dollars worth of sick too.
I didn’t care when I brought her in. Â All I cared about was my little squirt getting better.
But holy crap that’s a lot of money.
My friend Matt had convinced me to get Healthy Paws Insurance, and I wasn’t sure if it was worth it. Â You owe a $100 deductible and then you pay 10% of the final bill.
Which made this bill a lot more palatable.
And it makes the decision of whether or not I want to bring her into the ER that much easier. Â When I don’t know the animal hospital, it puts a huge ? on the final bill. Â And I’m a bit of a nervous dog parent.
It turned out to be really serious, and I’m really glad I took her. Â And the pet insurance made me never have to worry about how much the bill would be. Â Granted, 10% of a few thousand is still pretty significant, but it’s nowhere near 100%.
But already, 4 month into owning my puppy, the pet insurance has been more than worth it.
And after being hospitalized for a while, my baby is home.
This all happened Friday night through Saturday morning and I’m so glad to have her home!
What was wrong with your dog? Just curious as a huge dog lover. Hope she’s back healthy and stays that way for a long time.
Bowel obstruction. She just started learning how to jump, jumped into the bathtub, and literally ate the drain stopper. DX
Awww, I hope the little squirt quickly recovers.
I used to work in animal hospitals and peddled (with no incentive) pet insurance to our clients. It was a hard, if not impossible, sell. People’s eyes would glaze over. It was difficult for them to imagine what-ifs. The fact that part(s) of annual visits were covered hardly helped, because not everyone can/will adhere to the routine of yearly check-ups, because not all pet parents are created equally. But there were clients who insured their pets, and some of them needed to take full advantage of the benefits due to accidents/chronic health issues, and were grateful to be covered.
Yay, Matt!
Happy to hear she’s better!! I know the stress it causes. My baby was suddenly very ill a few months ago. We went from our regular vet to the ER vet. Was obviously concerned and stressed about her health but was in major sticker shocked at the costs which continued to grow the longer she stayed in the hospital and needed treatment.
I had never thought of pet insurance before even for my previous dog but $10,000 later was certainrtainly wishing I had. Obviously happy she’s recovered, but wow at the costs of care all due up front. I’ve now recommended pet insurance to new pet owners.
Oh gosh, I’m so glad your dog got the treatment needed, but I’m so sorry at the sticker price!
I have had pet insurance for two years now. It pretty much has paid for itself. Glad I opted for it.
What ends up being wrong with her?
My wife a veterinarian. She is ALL FOR pet health insurance. People think vet care is expensive (and it is), but it’s a surprisingly low profit business overall. Having pet insurance ensures that annual checkups, etc, are accomplished which (like in humans) can help either prevent serious illnesses or catch them early. And, in the event of more serious issues, significantly helps relieve the financial burden. She’s had clients who’ve used their pet insurance for chemo, acupuncture, amputations, and a whole host of expensive procedures at overall minimal out of pocket cost. Definitely get it when “Fluffy” is young…. it will be well worth it in the long run!
Hi Jeanne – Mandi here from Healthy Paws Pet Insurance. Thanks so much for the nice mention of our coverage in this post. We’re happy to hear your sweet pup is on the mend. Please reach out to our customer service team if you need anything else from us.
I’d also encourage you to check out our Refer-A-Friend program so you can get rewarded for any new customers you send to us: https://www.healthypawspetinsurance.com/refer-a-friend/share-c-lp1.aspx
Thanks again!
Thank you for being a loving, responsible pet owner! On behalf of veterinary medicine practitioners, I would really like to thank you for caring your puppy and not blame the illness onto the veterinarians and vet hospitals for being “ridiculously expensive”. Truth to be told, the lab work that the pets get are the same that we would get when we go to our physicians for check up as well, only it’s 150 compare to 600~ Very often we hear people complain and whine and bargain about the vet bill, and amazingly people don’t understand that having a pet is a luxury, and no one has done 8+ years of higher education plus about 300K of education loans so they can treat pets for free. Once again, thank you so much for your article, and hope your puppy will recover well soon!