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Insurance question

W

WelshBunny

Young Bun
Hi all,

I'm not sure if I'm being given the runaround here or not and hoped someone could shed some insight. I'm with Petplan and unfortunately the 14 day exclusion period was still in place when my boy came down with GI stasis appearing to be caused by stress and molar spurs. I called to confirm that this would be the case with Petplan and they said "maybe but you'd have to put in the claim to see" (they had my policy details). They kept repeating the thing about the 14 days over and over again but wouldn't let me know "no" (which is fine, if unfortunate, I just wanted to double check).

The problem is that they implied and said that any further condition related to teeth or the gut in this case would likely not be covered if they relate to this pre-existing condition. I did have his teeth checked just over a month ago when he was neutered (and unconscious, so they had a good look) and I'm not sure how on earth these molar spurs came to be in such a short space of time.

If this is the case...it looks like teeth or gut issues would be excluded going forward and this makes my insurance severely lacking, even if it's not much of a payout. Has this been the case for anyone who's insured a bunny after something like GI stasis? Perhaps if they've come into a rescue unwell, recovered and then been rehomed - do you then have exclusions on your policy for anything that the rescue made you aware of happened before you owned them?

Thanks in advance!
 
I deal with insurance that comes through working at a vets and it's a tricky one! Technically yes it is pre-existing therefore going forward it won't be covered, but since gut stasis is a symptom rather than a named condition you may be able to get away with saying any future causes of gut stasis are most likely to have a different cause to the one he suffered during the inception period. This would also depend on the vets notes/wording too. If your rabbit also has no other episodes of gut stasis within the next year, you could also ask the vets to write a letter to PetPlan asking them to remove the skirting exclusion and in all cases I've written letters PetPlan have agreed and removed the exclusion.
 
WelshBunny said:
Hi all,

I'm not sure if I'm being given the runaround here or not and hoped someone could shed some insight. I'm with Petplan and unfortunately the 14 day exclusion period was still in place when my boy came down with GI stasis appearing to be caused by stress and molar spurs. I called to confirm that this would be the case with Petplan and they said "maybe but you'd have to put in the claim to see" (they had my policy details). They kept repeating the thing about the 14 days over and over again but wouldn't let me know "no" (which is fine, if unfortunate, I just wanted to double check).

The problem is that they implied and said that any further condition related to teeth or the gut in this case would likely not be covered if they relate to this pre-existing condition. I did have his teeth checked just over a month ago when he was neutered (and unconscious, so they had a good look) and I'm not sure how on earth these molar spurs came to be in such a short space of time.

If this is the case...it looks like teeth or gut issues would be excluded going forward and this makes my insurance severely lacking, even if it's not much of a payout. Has this been the case for anyone who's insured a bunny after something like GI stasis? Perhaps if they've come into a rescue unwell, recovered and then been rehomed - do you then have exclusions on your policy for anything that the rescue made you aware of happened before you owned them?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately if he's had spurs during the 14 day period you're highly unlikely to be covered by them for that particular thing, as I found out earlier this year when my vets put the claim through "just in case". Her spurs had been diagnosed during those 14 days.

One of mine also had stasis as an exclusion but if I can prove after a year, I think it is, that she's not had further problems with this, they will take it off as an exclusion on the policy.

I too felt the same when I had all this, thinking is it really worth carrying on with the insurance, but have kept it anyway. Even though it's frustrating that all dentals have to be paid for by me, if anything else happens to her (fingers crossed it won't), then the insurance is worth it for me. For example last year, my other bunny was diagnosed with a heart condition and that cost £2000 on the insurance so was well worth having.
 
Hey guys, thanks for letting me know. It would be good to get the gut stasis removed especially as I could live with dental issues as they're a lot cheaper critters to treat than horses. I think, for the moment, I will not press the claim and will treat myself, then maybe do a hopefully clear dental check in a year and check for exclusions then. So annoying when you've taken out insurance and something happens in that interim period but I know I'm very fortunate to have had money set aside and thought ahead as it's probably nearing £1000 for the emergency stuff in total and the emergency vets were absolutely amazing (see other thread!).

Are there better companies than Petplan? A friend had a bad run with a dog and them, although they eventually paid out. Dog is insured with Bought by Many but they don't cover rabbits and horses with specialist equine insurance (don't ask me how much my best mare girlie has cost me past the insurance limit but she's alive and well for it). I saw one that I think was "Paws" that covered rabbits too. Or Pets at Home insurance?
 
If you make any claim in the future they will want a full medical history. The dental now will be counted as pre-existing and therefore become an exclusion.

My own experience of having a rabbit with stasis and dental before insurance was in place (with Petplan) was that they excluded everything gastro-intestinal and not just dental but dental, facial and eye abscesses. In Rudy's case he had just the one dental a few weeks after I adopted him at age one and lived to ten without any further dental problems! They wouldn't remove the exclusion. With the gastro-intestinal they removed that after a year without any episodes.

I did also have Barnaby who had a digestive upset during the 14 day period. Ironically he started eating in the waiting room just before we saw the vet!! I'm not sure how the vet worded it but we managed to claim for a pretty scary gut problem a few years later when it actually looked like it might be something life-limiting. ... then in the past 7 years we have also managed to successfully claim for two blockage surgeries. So, in my experience - stasis you will have a fighting chance with, dental you won't.
 
Thanks for the feedback, I'm feeling a bit disheartened by the fact that now I've got another animal with exclusions even though I'd taken out the insurance without even having a payout. It feels like it's not fair but it's not the right place to upset anyone else talking about that. I'll set extra aside too for bunny fund and make sure he gets regular check-ups so issues can be caught early, hopefully.
 
WelshBunny said:
Thanks for the feedback, I'm feeling a bit disheartened by the fact that now I've got another animal with exclusions even though I'd taken out the insurance without even having a payout. It feels like it's not fair but it's not the right place to upset anyone else talking about that. I'll set extra aside too for bunny fund and make sure he gets regular check-ups so issues can be caught early, hopefully.
Click to expand...

I don't see why you would upset anyone else talking about it. I certainly know that awful feeling of having taken the decision to get insurance then being scuppered in the first 14 days, it's quite a worry.
 
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