[Jo Jo]

Now I have four pets, I really think I should get pet insurance, and was wondering if anyone can recommend any companies? Are there any companies that offer discounts for multiple animals?

Sorry, I know I should be able to google for this info, but I'd really appreciate some personal recommendations and pointers.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Eve & Paul]

Hi JoJo,

My understanding is that pet insurance is not very popular there yet - certainly not in comparison to the UK. (I work in veterinary medicine so I decided to pop into a local NZ vets to find out more about the NZ veterinary industry when I was there last month)

As far as I can tell, there seem to be only 3 main providers - Pet-N-Sur, Ellenco and Pet Medicare Ltd. I haven't had a chance to look at the policies in great detail yet but from experience, can only advise you to ensure you are comparing apples with apples. Some policies provide true lifelong cover while others just give you a set amount (say £5000 towards diabetes for example) towards a condition and when you use that balance up, they will exclude that condition from your policy. Just be thorough and make sure to read the fine print.

I'll try to have a look at some point this week and will let you know which one appears (to me anyway) to be the best policy. Alternatively, feel free to ask if you have any queries and I'd be happy to help. :)

Eve

[Jo Jo]

Thank you, Eve; this is really helpful. The information about lifelong cover vs set amounts is particularly useful. I now know what to start looking out for - I really was completely in the dark before.

Jo Jo

PS Whereabouts in Colchester are you? I went to school there.

[Myrkk]

One thing I noticed about pet insurance in NZ is that cruciate failure is covered for one leg only. Given that 2 out of 3 dogs who develop cruciate failure on one leg will go on to develop it in the other that seems somewhat unfair.

[Hippywench]

One thing I noticed about pet insurance in NZ is that cruciate failure is covered for one leg only. Given that 2 out of 3 dogs who develop cruciate failure on one leg will go on to develop it in the other that seems somewhat unfair.

Ah great! One of ours is about to have cruciate surgery. Though on the bright side, at least that means he'll have at least one leg done before we get there so won't need them to pay for more than one leg!

[Myrkk]

I've not gone through the full policies in NZ but I think you will find that when you declare it as a previous condition they may put it on the policy as an exclusion.

Hope it all goes well