PET INSURANCE - WHAT's COVERED

Things you may not know about making a pet insurance claim

Before making a claim

Your pet needs you most if they become ill or get injured - we're here to help

You'll find full details in your policy documents, but we've covered some key points below

Here, we've highlighted some of the key aspects of your policy - you can find full details in your policy documents.

Start your pet claim

Pre-existing medical conditions

What's covered and what's not when it comes to medical conditions

Icon of a dog. Next to him is a document with a cross on it.

We want to help your pet on the way to recovery, but we can't provide cover for any pre-existing medical conditions. These include: 

  • Any signs of illness
  • Injury
  • Behavioural problems

 

When you set up a policy, you'll need to tell us about any injury, illness or symptoms your pet's had so we can advise you if it'll be covered.

We may place exclusions due to something you tell us about. Some exclusions are temporary and can be removed, if you ask us, as long as certain criteria are met.

If you'd like to know if a pre-existing condition will be covered, we're happy to talk to you about it before you set up a policy.

Good to know: there's a 14-day waiting period before illnesses are covered on your policy, and a 48-hour waiting period for accidents.

Percentage excess

As pets get older the risk of illness increases and therefore your excess may increase too.

Icon of a mature dog and a puppy
  • The excess is the amount you will need to pay towards your pets’ treatment.
  • We will notify you a year in advance if your pet is reaching an age where your excess needs to change to include a 20% contribution towards your claims.

 

Good to know

We have a choice of excesses available to help you manage the cost of your policy. The higher the excess you choose the cheaper the price but the more you will need to contribute when you claim.

Dental care

We don’t cover scaling or polishing teeth, or any routine or preventative dental treatments. Our Lifetime policies offer more dental cover than our Time Limited polices...

Icon of a dog at the vets

Time limited policies

We'll cover the cost of dental care if:

  • The treatment's needed because of an injury
  • It's to remove first teeth after your pet's more than six months old, as long as your pet was insured with us before they were 16 weeks old 



Lifetime policies

All the benefits of the Time limited policy as well as: 

  • Treatment needed because of illness (or injury).

 

Good to know

  • You'll need to make sure your pet has annual check-ups and any treatment your vet recommends is carried out within 6 months.
  • We dont cover scaling or polishing teeth, or any routine or preventative dental treatments.
  • There's no cover for pre-existing dental conditions. 

Related conditions

Health problems as a result of previous symptoms or conditions 

Health conditions can be related when one of a pair (e.g. eyes, ears, knees) is affected by an injury or illness. Let's say for example Kylie the Labrador ruptures her left knee ligament then seven months later ruptures her right knee ligament, we'd considered these as one condition.

Time limited policies

The Time limited policies cover conditions for 12 months and up to the chosen vet fee limit from when they're first treated.

  • You wouldn't have to pay another excess
  • In this example, you'd only have five months of cover remaining and however much of the remaining chosen vet fee limit for the treatment of her right ligament

 

Lifetime policies

The Lifetime policies cover the cost of all treatments covered up to the chosen vet fee limit per policy year and then resets when you renew.

  • You wouldn't have to pay another fixed excess as long as the treatment started in the same policy year
  • In this example, Any balance from your first vet fee claim left over would cover other claims for Kylie, until renewal, at which point the cover would reset to your chosen vet fee limit again.

 

Related conditions

Health problems linking back to previous symptoms or a previously diagnosed condition are also treated as related.

Suppose Kylie the Labrador goes on to get arthritis in her knees three years later because of her knee ligament repairs:

Icon of a dog in the vets

Time limited policies

  • There wouldn't be any cover for the arthritis as more than 12 months has passed since the start of the treatment for her first (left) ligament rupture

 

Lifetime policies

  • Assuming you'd made no other pet claims for Kylie that year, you'd have the full vet fee chosen limit of cover for her arthritis treatment

Frequently Asked Questions