Peace of mind is priceless (Pet Plan)

Member Name: pollee

Product:	Pet Plan
Date:	18/05/01 (273 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: peace of mind, speed of claim payment, cheap for level of cover

Disadvantages: will nor approve claims without the claim form

I know that some members are not entirely happy with Pet Plan, but being a broker I thought it would be foolish to go uninsured for my cat Pollee. (Familiar name?!!)

I pay £4 a month and after a year hadn't made any claims. The premium stayed the same so I decided to keep the insurance - and wasn't I glad I did!! Within a few weeks Pollee had developed some sort of eating disorder (only my cat would do this) and was continually vommiting. Other foods didn't work so she was carted off to the vets.

Her temperature was high, she was out of sorts and basically feeling very sorry for herself. This didn't stop her exploring by scaling the wall of the examination room just to have a good look around, but I think she was trying to make me look like an over protective owner at that point!

Despite the vets best efforts over the next few weeks nothing seemed to help, with or without their intervention. Eventually it was deemed sensible to have an endoscopy and biopsy to see if there was a more sinister problem.

I am always worried about general anesthetics but the vet assured me that in most cases thing were OK and I was not to worry.....he would call me to let me know what they had found.....

The vet called at 4.10 that afternoon, his first words were "I'm sorry to have to tell you". My heart sank as I expected the worst. he continued "that the bulb in the machine failed once Pollee was under the anasthetic and we were unable to complete our investigations because we didn't have a spare"

I was so relieved that it wasn't bad news that I forgot to be angry with them for their inefficiency for a few minutes.

Despite their best efforts we were never able to get to the bottom of her illness, and at Christmas she was so poorly and unhappy with life that the vet suggested I considered having her put down if she continued this way for much longer.

Pollee was put
on another special diet and, amazingly, six months later she has returned to her normal health. She is a tiny cat who will never grow big, she is friendly to everyone and popular with all visitors who come to the house. She is very dog like in her behaviour, she follows me around the house, watches what I do and acts as a guard cat when people knock at the door. If I am in the garden and someone comes round she will run in to the garden to let me know something is going on.

Without Pet Plan insurance I would not have been able to pay the bills of over £1,000 which mounted up very quickly. The endoscopy was over £400 and was vital to discount several conditions. There were other ways of investigating but they would have been more painful for Pollee and in her condition at the time would have been more risky.

I would have to continue to insure Pollee for 20 years before I had spent the money it has cost for this one claim. She still has eight lives left (as far as I know) and I have no doubt that she will end up in a mess during every one of them.

The people at Pet Plan were wonderful, cheques were sent very quickly and they were very helpful on the phone. To have to make a decision on a cats future based on economics is awful but without Pet Plan that is exactly what I would have had to do. carrying that around on my conscience would have been dreadful.

Pet Plan gives me peace of mind, they were there when it mattered, and it doesn't cost the earth for what I found was very comprehensive cover.

Summary: