Pet Insurance for Dog

Family, Education, Health and Pets
1
I have recently moved to Zurich and am bringing my chocolate lab over next week. Very excited! Can anyone give me advice about pet insurance.. Where to get it and is it the norm? Also, any good dog walks you can recommend would be great!

2
Hi,

Here are a couple threads on the subject:

http://www.englishforum.ch/search2.php?q=Pet+insurance

Pet Insurance?

Dog health insurance

Maybe meloncollie or summerrain will chime in on the subject as well

Good luck and welcome to Switzerland

3
Much appreciated.. Thanks!

4
i use anamalia.

They are ok, never actually had to submit vet bills as i am below the 500 marker.

5

I’ll say it again, don’t bother with pet insurance . How old is your dog? By the time he reaches 8 he probably can’t be insured beyond that age and barring accidents is likely to be perfectly healthy in the meantime. So that money is effectively wasted. The best thing to do is put a set amount away in a separate bank/post account each month to cover emergencies. It won’t stop when he’s past insuring age and will earn a bit of interest too, unlike an insurance policy. It also means you’re totally flexible in how much and how often you put money into the account. If you only put CHF100 a month aside, you’ll have CHF1,200 plus interest by the end of the year and it’ll only keep growing if you don’t use the money for anything. I’ve done this for years with our post account to cover all sorts of situations from vet bills (luckily never needed), deposit for a new car, paying the yearly tax bills, to keeping money aside for our house purchase deposit.

6
Disagree ..... when we acquired our 5yr. old Jack, from a Tierheim, she presented us with a 250 chuf vets bill, within a month, from eating some shit in the woods.

Now we have insurance for less than 20 chufs PCM (a years premium or one vets bill), plus an allowance for routine, annual jabs.

7

Yes, but I did say barring accidents (shit eating).

So tell me, what are you going to do when she reaches 7, or 8, or 12, or 16 TiMow? Your insurer only covers up to less than 7 years of age so how will you cover the bills in future? With my system you can continue to put that CHF20 a month away to cover any vet bills as she grows older.

8
The insurance continues till death, at any age.

You just can't take out a new policy, on dogs older than 7 yrs. old.

9
Only one of our dogs was eligible for pet insurance when we moved back here as she was below the age cut off. The vet checked her over and filled out the form. The vet's suggestion was not to bother with it. She said the premiums were high and we were better off to put that money aside every month in case we ever need it.

With most policies there is a cap on how much they will pay out in a year. So you may find you pay in for years never needing the insurance but if and when you do, you may find you still need to reach into your own pocket.

10
I'm sure not all pet insurances work the same way, but ours is a monthly fee and then you submit a claim and get the bills paid. For us, it was cheaper to have insurance for a year then the average yearly vet bills, we saved about $100 a year and that's without any major illness or problems, so if something arose, we'd save even more. MyPetHelper.com is a good resource for info on pet insurance.

11
We moved to Switzerland about 2 years ago and were told not to bother as the majority of Swiss do not take out pet insurance. It's not like in England where everyone takes out insurance.

12
I find the pet health insurance way too expensive. However, you should have a liability insurance. If the dog damages something, causes an accident or injury, you will be responsible to pay. Having a Great Dane, we have a coverage of 10 million. Just in case. The only incident we have had over close to 20 years owning dogs was a biker who fell and damaged his bike and thumb because our dog ran into the street and he had to brake hard.

13
I agree with you, liability insurance is the way to go here.

14
And in many cantons it is required by law.

15
Pet insurance costs is very high, and you need to be aware that the cheaper ones have many many exclusions. Best to put said money in a special savings account for use just in case.

BTW find a good vet by recommendation as soon as you get here, so you are ready ... again just in case.

A consumer magazine (Bon à Savoir in Romandie) recently published a comparisons of costs for Romandie vets. Basic consultation went from 25CHF to 71CHF- and a female cat sterilisation from 150CHF to 292 CHF. Very hard of course to know if the more expensive vets are better or not.

16
Also, many vets still bill their clients monthly, making the unexpected bills a bit easier to handle. Make sure you understand the Praxis billing practices as you are deciding which vet is the best fit for you.

Emergency or specialist clinics like the Tierspital (for instance) generally do require payment at time of service, though. Dog owners would be well advised to always have a few thousand tucked away for a rainy day.

I am another who looked into insurance and decided it made no sense for us given the ages of my dogs and exclusions due to pre-existing conditions. This was years ago, I have no idea what current prices or offers are, though.

As I have said on other threads I do not feel any need for insurance. I've actually found vet prices for routine care reasonable here - on par with or even less than prices in the US. Yes, specialist care can be expensive - but again no more so and possibly less than what I have paid in the US or UK.

17
We used to have epona but when we had a bill over 30k for our dog, they refused to cover anything at all so we cancelled our contract with them.

18
Prior to last Christmas a clever carpet salesman convinced me to take home three expensive oriental carpets just to " try out" and show my husband.

They were beautiful, but ridiculously expensive. Within moments, we folded them back up and put them near the front door. I sent a message to the shop owner to collect them, on Monday morning.

Monday morning I left for work and our 6 month old Bernese Mountain Dog was left with our kids,who were jet-lagged. While they snoozed, he decided to chew holes in ALL three carpets.

Boy, were we glad to have private liability insurance! This is also good for children!

19
Another point to consider in the decision whether or not to take out pet insurance:

Not all vets will accept insurance, you may find that you are required to pay out of pocket first and then claim. So even with insurance you'd still need to have several thousands at your disposal at all times anyway.

Work out the pros and cons for yourself, given your own financial situation and the age/health of your dog. As above, I found pet health insurance of no financial use to me.

Again - I strongly, strongly recommend keeping a well-padded 'rainy day' fund. (doG knows it's been raining a lot around here lately...)

20
Regarding liability insurance: are our dogs covered by our personal liability insurance or do they need a specific dog policy? If the latter, does anyone have any recommendations?