[Chloe]

Pet insurance is a hot topic.
People will say take the $47/month and tuck it away instead. Which is all fine and dandy until your dog needs a $5k surgery and you’ve only got $1128 saved from “pocketing” the monthly premium the last 2 years.

So now you’re in the red.

Even team “oh just get a $5k emergency fund for your animal” peeps don’t often realize that just 1 emergency can drain that entire fund and what if you had 2 emergencies in a year?

Yet again in the red

What if your dog got cancer – as boxers are prone to?

Cancer treatments can be multiple thousands per year.

You’d literally have to choose between treating and putting your dog down all from saving $47/month.

Or what if they need prescription food that’s $90/bag and 1 bag only lasts 2 weeks?

Not everyone can afford $180/month on dog food for the remainder of the dogs life.

Unless you’re comfortable putting your dog down over treating whatever illness may come their way, keep the insurance – but also do have an emergency fund for them because many insurances requires payment up front then getting reimbursed.

[Lori]

Why not save the $47 per month in your own account? Then self insure?

[Rayleana]

In my opinion, it is not a bad idea to keep pet insurance on your boxer.

I just helped my friend with expenses related to euthanization and cremation of her boxer due to cancer.

The cancer was not caught early.

The vet said boxers are known for it.

[Celena]

I would definitely keep it being that boxers tend to be susceptible to cancer a little more than some breeds.

I know it’s an upfront expense, but I have two dogs, now six years old, and between seizure meds and allergy meds, anxiety meds, their medication is $300/mo.

I’m willing to bet if I had insurance, it would pay most of that.

I really wish I had gotten it when they were young.

They also have both had torn CCLs — equivalent to ACL in humans — and their TPLO surgeries were $13,000 in 2020 and 2021.

Three surgeries.

I could have invested that money instead.

[Meredith]

I would pay it. I looked into pet insurance when we adopted our now 2 year old pup when she was a 12 week old rescue.

It seemed expensive and unnecessary to me at the time.

Fast forward a year and she tore her ACL at 15 months.

Overnight she went from a very healthy and active baby to needing TPLO surgery by an orthopedic vet surgeon.

That surgery cost way more than many years of the premiums I had balked at just a year earlier.

[Meghan]

Pet insurance is such a scam. Just start a sinking fund and add to it. This is a FIRE group.

There’s nothing FI about pet insurance.

Period.

[Tatiana]

Couldn’t hurt to shop around. As dogs get older they are bound to her sick and need more care so premiums will only go up. $47 is nothing.

I’ve had my boy since 2012 and I started off paying about that much.

Then as he got older I was paying about $80 for him.

My girl was born on 2013 and for her they were charging me about $70.

Every yeah it went up by about $10. Back in 2019 maybe?

I decided it was ridiculous to pay the insurance company that money and decided to open a savings account and deposit thay amount into it monthly.

It’s a buffer to help with immediate expenses.

My girl got cancer and I just paid for things on a CC and then paid it off with emergency fund and their bank account.

Seemed to make more sense.

[Laura]

My employer-sponsored Nationwide pet insurance went from an annual premium of approximately $850 to an annual premium of $2100.

My dog is 15 years old and I had to cancel the insurance.

This change was crazy.

[Kit]

I’m apparently in the minority, saying having insurance is a good idea. We elected not to get it, and our dog (who SEEMED perfectly healthy when we rescued him) developed epilepsy and a heart condition.

It’s been expensive, to say the least.

[David]

Personally, I look at pet insurance like any insurance. If you can self insure I am team self insure and invest that monthly costs instead.

[Margaret]

Honestly that seems like a pretty good deal depending on your coverage for a large breed dog.

A single stay at an emergency hospital for 2-3 days or a single major surgery is easily going to cost you $6000 if not more.

I think you are wrong in your assumption that most dogs cost less than $9k in vet bills in their lifetime especially as they age.

If your coverage has a 10k annual limit or the deductible is high with a lower reimbursement then maybe shop around but I don’t think you’ll find lower than that.

[Marina]

I have nationwide and it went from $ 45 to abt $ 130, with bigger deductible & less coverage.

[Annamaria]

I don’t think that’s bad at all. I am a fan of pet insurance unless you can afford a $5-10k emergency surgery tomorrow.

I’m a vet and I do all the preventive care, do everything right, and even I have stuff pop up unexpectedly with my own dog- cancerous skin masses 3x cured with surgery at ages 3, 5, and 8; random bout of pancreatitis and needed to be hospitalized, got attacked by an off leash dog, had an allergic reaction to a bee when hiking… stuff happens.

Be prepared for emergencies if you have an animal (either insurance or savings)

[Tonia]

Mine as escalated significantly for my two to a whopping $636 a month for both of them.

And they have health issues so we don’t want to switch for fear of them not covering it because of preexisting illnesses.

Definitely shop around.

[Kevin]

I’m amazed so many people have had such large expenses. I’ve had over a dozen dogs in my lifetime.

None have had such crazy medical issues.

Our most recent 13 year old Boxer developed hip dysplasia and could no longer walk.

We put him down In October.

It was tough considering he was really healthy otherwise, but we couldn’t justify spending crazy amounts of money with no guarantee of improvement.

We’ve never had pet insurance, but we utilize a rural house call veterinarian that focuses on livestock and horses.

He has a small office on his ranch land. Much more reasonable prices!

[Brandy]

$47 a month is $5640 if she lives another 10 years. That’s a good investment if you ask me.

I have 5 dogs, so it’s easier for me to self insure the monthly premiums lol cuz $500 a month over 10 years is $60K.

[Shannon]

I have pets best for my 120 lbish dog. Got the policy when she was 5 months old and it was $500 a year.

I think we’re up to $600 now in year three

[Author]

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