As cancer chic suggested, be sure to do your homework. Read those plans VERY thoroughly - especially the small print! There are lots of different exclusions, surcharges for specific breeds, etc. that can make the cost unreasonable for some dogs. We've shared our lives with giant breeds (Great Pyrenees, Irish Wolfhounds, Tibetan Mastiffs) for over 30 years (mostly pets, but also shows/trials & breeding) and the cost of the insurance plans, even the cheapest with the least coverage, were simply prohibitive for them. In some cases the insurers won't cover certain breeds at all. We had a Wolfhound who had to have emergency surgery (and 10 followup days of 24 hr monitoring & treatment) for bloat, followed a year later by a torn left ACL, followed immediately by a torn right ACL . Anyone who's paid vet bills for these issues on any breed, let alone a giant breed, knows that's just huge dollars all around. But for curiosity's sake we pulled our quotes from the different insurers and figured out what we would have "saved" if we'd had pet insurance to cover - the end result was we were still AHEAD of the game by well over $2000 compared to what we would have paid out for premiums, deductibles and "non-covered" items if we'd been paying for the pet insurance for his lifespan. Basically it's buyer beware : Some pet insurance customers are quite happy with the product, but many are not.
