Pet Insurance

Approximately one in three pets needs veterinary attention each year.

Veterinary medicine has made wonderful advances in recent years. However, modern, high quality treatment can be expensive and insurance gives you peace of mind that you will be able to afford whatever might be necessary for your pet. The Willow Team strongly recommend that you insure your pet but we want to caution you that not all insurance policies are the same! As with most things, you get what you pay for so do please read the small print before choosing a policy.

Most policies;

 - cover for accident, illness and third party liability. They do not cover for preventative care e.g. vaccinations; worming, neutering and different policies may have further exclusions.

-  have a maximum age up to which you can begin to insure your pet.

- are renewable annually.

- exclude pre- existing conditions (at the discretion of the company)

- set an excess payable for each condition and may charge this each year.

- exclude any condition previously claimed for if you change insurance company.

What specific types of policies are there?

Lifelong Cover.

The huge advantage of a lifelong policy is that common conditions such as arthritis, heart, kidney and skin disease requiring long- term treatment are covered. However, that does mean that these policies are more expensive.

Individual Condition Cover.

You can claim up to a maximum amount for each condition without a time limit. Once the amount has been reached the condition will be excluded from further cover. The disadvantage is that your pet may run out of cover for a particular condition.

Annual Cover.

These policies may cover a condition either from onset for the following 12 months or only until the next renewal date. These policies are often cheaper and can be excellent for accident and short- term illness cover but the disadvantage is that conditions requiring long-term and sometimes lifelong treatment such as arthritis, heart, skin and kidney disease will not be covered beyond a maximum of 12 months.

For lots more information visit www.willowvet.co.uk or www.insureyourpet.co.uk for impartial comparisons of insurance companies and policies.