can you get guinea pig insurance

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deena

Post   » Sun Apr 21, 2002 2:40 pm


I have just resently taken my Tilly to the vets as she had a rather large lump in her throat, and i had to pay a pretty packet for the operation that was much needed to remove it.
And i thought to myself wouldnt it be great to get all my little darlings insured, only thing is i cant say that ive ever seen such a thing or heard of it. so i ask you all have you heard of piggy insurance and or even know of any uk companys that do it.
all information would be gratley accepted.
many thanx ?(

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Ciaytee
Almost Inbred

Post   » Sun Apr 21, 2002 3:01 pm


I´m in the States, so I don´t know how good/reliable this is, but the Winking Cavy Store site has a section on insurance.

http://www.winking-cavy.co.uk/insure.htm

A UK-er will probably be able to get you better info, but maybe this is a start.

pinta

Post   » Sun Apr 21, 2002 6:00 pm


I believe many pet insurance firms offer it now. When I asked my vet she laughed hysterically and said I´d never be able to afford the premiums on 20(at the time) pigs. Might be more workable with just one or two pigs.

Evangeline

Post   » Mon Apr 22, 2002 10:36 am


Deena-
I believe pet insurance companies won´t accept yuor pig if he has an existing condition.

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LynnK

Post   » Mon Apr 22, 2002 3:29 pm


I have been thinking the same thing teeth trimming once a month is bit much on my budget glad wickett don´t go in that much.

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Sonia

Post   » Mon Apr 22, 2002 6:47 pm


I looked into pet insurance for my three little squeakies, and couldn´t track down a single UK company that do insure piggies. I found Petplan do insure rbbits so I called them but they said they wouldn´t insure my piggies as they don´t have the right clauses to allow that. They didn´t know any other company that does, although the Direct Line company
( you know, the ad with the annoying red phone ! ) are thinking about a small animals and bird policy, that if they agree on things, will start in September next year. I called and enquired about the new small animals and birds policy, and they said they would not be able to insure a guinea pig on that policy until it is all finalised, however, if the guinea pig was over the age of three, as far as they know, at this current time, the client would not be eligable for insurance. In dogs, insurance for most companies stop ( without further notification, I might add ! ) when the dog reaches the age of 8 years old. If you have your pet insured, make sure you know just how long their " Insured For Life " policy insures your pet for. Otherwise you might get a nasty surprise !!!

Peace, Love, and Happiness, Always
Sonia

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bats

Post   » Mon Apr 22, 2002 6:51 pm


<sigh> Yet another failure of the British socialized medical system!

You´re crested red is a cutie, Deena.

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Sonia

Post   » Tue Apr 23, 2002 5:47 am


I´m probably going to get lynched for this coment, but Britain is really very far behind in a lot of things, whether it be human or veterninary medicine.

Peace, Love, and Happiness, Always
Sonia

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RavenShade
Thanks for the Memories

Post   » Tue Apr 23, 2002 9:01 am


Even where pigs can be insured, it may not be financially in your best interest.

This came up a while back. After I used the poster´s numbers, I determined it wouldn´t have made much difference with Max´s expenses, assuming I covered him for his whole life (he got sick when he was 4 1/2).

With the majority of my pigs, I´d be throwing money away.

I´d rather put that money aside in savings.
Last edited by RavenShade on Tue Apr 23, 2002 9:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

my2piggies

Post   » Wed Apr 24, 2002 6:55 am


I agree with Ravenshade, you are better putting the money aside yourself - call it your piggie emergency fund or something - Insurance won´t cover the routine check up visits and stuff like that.

There will more than likely be a "excess" ie the amount you have to pay before you can claim anything back, which will probably apply to each animal insured rather than a group of animals, so for example a course of mite treatments which i guess is probably one of the most common reasons for visiting the vet would most likely still have to come out of your own pocket anyway.

It might be handy to have insurance for major ops in rare cases. However I have worked out that it would probably have cost me more to insure Marcy over the time I´ve had her, than it cost me to have her spayed.

And they´ll always get you in the small print. I can´t understand people who don´t read small print and then whinge when it catches them out. It´s one of the first things I read, and I know I have saved a fortune on things by declining something because of the small print. Sorry I´m waffling now, its just one of my pet peeves.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Apr 24, 2002 7:49 am


And I personally think the best thing you can do for yourself and your pig is be an informed consumer -- know when to take your pig in, know what could be serious, know as much as you can about their medical problems.

If you want to know, Guinea Lynx medical pages and this forum all had their roots in my being a cheapskate. I wanted to know how to safely take care of some hairloss in my pigs myself. (Oh, that and laziness -- at Cavies Galore, I got tired of answering the same questions and hoped a reference would be useful for people.)

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