How does Horse insurance work?

[alainax]

The vet said the ones none of us want to hear... " do you have insurance" When she was taking some skin biopsies of my boy.

He has some random little bumps on him, the come and go, don't really bother him as are not itchy etc, but is getting more and more under the saddle area ( but just on one side)

We originally thought they were fly bites, or some kind of reaction to something, but as they have persisted I wanted the vet out again to really check them out.

In February she made an educated guess at them being Folliculitis ( infected hair follicles) and he was given 1 week course of anti-biotics and hibi scrub baths. Now they are still here, I got her out again to see. She said we could either do a 4 week course of anti biotics, or get samples off to the lab.

I thought getting samples sent away would be best, then we would know exactly what it was, and treat accordingly. She said its definitely not melanomas or sarcoids

She then asked if I had insurance, I said "why how much is it?" she said " oh only about £60 for the test, then the treatment etc". I said well id rather just pay for it, as its not the end of the world. She said but why not claim, as come February next year he wont be covered for his skin anyway .

Huh?? So if he is 30 and develops a sarcoid, he wont be insured for it because he had some little rash as a 5yo?

She said it doesn't work like pet insurance, even if you don't claim for something, they aren't covered after 1 year of the first noticing it by a vet. does this mean just this one condition, or every single skin condition that could ever exist?

So what do I do? Start off a claims process? wont this put my premiums up, have to pay an excess etc. and then if i swapped companies in the future, would they cover his skin? Would the cover it if i don't claim, or not as its on his record?

Argh confusing!

Ill have a read through my policy wording, but any insight would be great, ty

 

[little_critter]

Your vet is right. If your horse has had a skin condition that required treatment then the insurance company is likely to exclude skin conditions in future. So you may as well get your money's worth and make a claim.

 

[Gluttonforpunishment]

Unfortunately vet is correct, even if you don't claim you have to inform your insurance company. If you don't and you need to make a claim your insurance company will see the treatment in your horses vets notes and just refuse to pay out. This is one reason why I don't bother to insure my horse anymore, the were excluding more than they were covering despite me never having made a claim.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

The way horse insurance works is they take all yor money and then when you claim for the horses leg falling off, they decline it cos they excluded 'leg and anything attached to it' when horse had a runny nose at the age of 4 months...

I don't bother any more...I'm not the claiming sort so they would just not have to pay out for the minor stuff and then exclude that body part for anything major, so no point!

 

[Hippona]

Exactly why I dont bother with it.
Just pay the bills....most of my bills were under the excess anyway....couldnt claim but then wasnt covered.
Might as well roll up the cash and set fire to it....

 

[MagicMelon]

OP, before you go further - has your vet thought about an allergy test? I had a horse who used to itch his mane out and generally itch all over (I thought it was sweet itch for years), he also would come out in a big rash occassionally like he'd rolled in a big patch of nettles (but big welts appeared, sometimes all over his neck and chest, sometimes on his back etc.). We went to a specialist vet who did allergy testing - basically injecting a selection of allergens into the neck in tiny doses and seeing what reacts. We found out ours had no sweet itch, he was allergic to most types of grass, hay mould and dust! Was impossible to keep him away from those things but at least we knew! Might be worth a go, before you consider more expensive tests/treatment?

 

[Slightly Foxed]

The way horse insurance works is they take all yor money and then when you claim for the horses leg falling off, they decline it cos they excluded 'leg and anything attached to it' when horse had a runny nose at the age of 4 months...

I don't bother any more...I'm not the claiming sort so they would just not have to pay out for the minor stuff and then exclude that body part for anything major, so no point!

You're so right, but I did have a huge vet bill years ago that my insurers were very fair about so I'm a bit frightened of jacking in my vet insurance all at once. My plan is to put into a savings account the 135 quid a month it costs me to insure three of my horses, but I need to do that alongside having my insurance for a year, if you see what I mean?