justincredible;403377 wrote:Our 2 year old schnoodle had a little episode tonight. He got really wobbly and when he tried to walk would fall over to his right side. After a few minutes of just being wobbly he started to shake really bad and making a whining noise like he was having a stroke or something. We jumped in the car to run to the emergency vet clinic but by the time we were on the road for about a minute he had stopped shaking and was perfectly fine. We kept driving to the clinic since it was only 10 minutes away just in case he started up again. After sitting in the parking lot for a few minutes and him showing no signs of being anything but perfectly fine we headed back home.

He had the wobbly thing happen 3 other times in the past, but it was usually a lot shorter and a lot less violent with the shaking. No problems ever showed up in routine vet visits but I am going to take him in tomorrow and have them run some tests to figure out what is up, clearly he's got something wrong with him.

On the ride back home my wife and I started talking about pet health insurance since it seems like we might have some ongoing vet/medications bills in the future. Anyone else out there have it for their pets? If so, any recommendations for insurance companies?

LJ;403395 wrote:Oh, and her first guess to your dog's problem is epilepsy provided that the seizures have happened over the whole course of the dog's life

Cat Food Flambe';403426 wrote:--If-- you can get insurance for this dog, that is... With the known issue, it's going to cost you quite a bit.

justincredible;403453 wrote:Yeah, I figured as much.

LJ;403469 wrote:If it's just epilepsy that doesn't happen very often, they will cover your dog but not cover any treatment for any seizures. If it is secondary epilepsy, they will not cover the underlying condition.

Pet insurance isn't like human insurance. They will cover every dog, but decide whether or not they will reimburse you. Remember, they don't pay anything upfront, it's all a reimbursement program. So they will not deny your dog because it has epilepsy, they will just refuse to reimburse for epilepsy treatment.

Manhattan Buckeye;403458 wrote:Unfortunately there probably isn't a real on point answer for this, just educate yourself with the coverage and limitations on pet insurance, and probably LJ and his girlfriend are good sources for info.

justincredible;403483 wrote:So assuming he does have epilepsy, is it just "treated" by taking medication?

Strapping Young Lad;403597 wrote:Haha, I'll admit that I've never in my life thought of pet health insurance let alone heard of it. But, now I may wanna get some. What's like a ballpark monthly premium I'd pay for my dog???

Writerbuckeye;403809 wrote:When I checked into this (admittedly it was quite a few years ago) the costs vs what they would actually cover was ridiculously weighted in favor of the monthly premium.

So why bother?

I have not checked it out lately, however. Perhaps things have changed as the market has grown.

With three cats (I had four but we had to put down our 17 year old male in November), vet costs can run high sometimes -- but I put money aside knowing an expensive vet bill will happen at least a few times each year. However, when I adopted these animals from shelters, I made a pledge to care for them as long as they live, and I intend to keep that pledge.

I'm wondering: Last year, one of our cats had to be treated for hypothyroid disease where they go in and use radiation to destroy the thyroid gland. It's an expensive treatment (about $1,000) but very successful. Our cat is fine and her old self again with (hopefully) many healthy years ahead of her. Would this insurance have covered something like this? Because years ago, it would not.

justincredible;403377 wrote:After sitting in the parking lot for a few minutes