Pet Insurance
It’s easy to think that “it could never happen to my pet”, but we all know that dogs and cats can get sick despite our best efforts, and that accidents happen. My own cat came to us when the RSPCA picked him up off the road after an accident. A young stray Burmese cross, he had a fractured hip, fractured thigh, and skin injuries. After a pin and wires were placed in his thigh, and his hip was removed, this cat, now called Simeon, lived in our living room in a crate for 6 weeks, and, of course, we adopted him. That was more than ten years ago, but if the accident happened today, his surgery would have cost well over $1000.
Veterinary care can be expensive. We use much of the same equipment and techniques, and have similar years of training, as the medical profession, but without the support of Government funded hospitals and Medicare programs. It's not unusual for a sick pet’s medical bills to cost $750-$1500, for specialist surgery (for example, cruciate ligament surgery in a medium to larger dog, or spinal surgery in a smaller dog) to cost more than $3000, and for a course of chemotherapy for cancer to cost $2,500 on top of the costs for diagnosis.
We know you want to give your pets all the care they need and deserve, and yet money for large bills like this is hard to find. Insurance can give you peace of mind knowing the financial worry of a sick or injured pet can be taken away. If only we could deal with the emotions so easily!
Pet insurance pays about 80% of any one bill, with a cap of $6,000-10,000 per annum. Premiums start from $11.40 per month, although about $20 per month is more common.
We are neither qualified nor allowed under Australian Law to recommend any policy over another (only registered Insurance Brokers can do that), so we have put together a pack of information from a number of insurance companies which is available from the Hospital. The table summarises a number of major companies and gives contact details.
