Insurance Companies and Euthanasia

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Flicker

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Just heard something disturbing from a friend about another friend of ours who has a horse who injured itself in the field and has been on box rest for months. Injury was muscular-skeletal and serious by all accounts. Due to the location, vet doesn't think it would withstand the journey to a more specialist centre and adopted a 'wait and see' approach.
Things don't seem to be improving and consideration was then given to having the animal pts (vet and owner in conjunction) but the insurance company said that they would not pay out because the horse was 'standing on all four legs'.
My concern is, just how serious does it have to be before insurance companies pay out for euthanasia on humane grounds? While it is not about the money, this must be a terrible burden on someone's mind if they have spend serious money on a horse and it suddenly is in a position where it has zero quality of life, but you risk losing it all if you want to do the humane thing and put it out of its misery.
What are everyone else's thoughts?
 
I hope very much that my insurers would take a vet's receommndation, evne if thye wanted a second opinion.
I wonder which ins co this is?
 
If it can live in a field as a field ornament, they generally wont pay up from what i can gather unless it is insured for loss of use.
 
It has to be a case for immediate humane destruction. The problem with company not agreeing to pay out is generally when someone has already had their horse PTS and then try and claim when the horse wasn't necessarily a case for immediate humane destruction.

The best way forward for your friend is to go on the vets advice. If the horse is insured for vets fees then presumbaly the insurance company are covering these costs? The vet would basically have to confirm the prognosis for the horse is hopeless and that it does indeed warrant euthanasia. The insurance company generally will go from vets advice and may even get a second opinion vet to assess the case.

In many cases it works out cheaper for an insurance company to pay for the death of the horse than the continuing vets fees for treating it or the vets fees for treating it when the inevitable thing is going to be to have the horse PTS.

I would advise your friend to not give up with this if the vet believes the horse should be PTS. A friend of mine is/ was in a similar battle with his insurers but unfortuaely they had already had their horse PTS (following veterinary advice) but the insurers would then not pay out as they weren't consulted prior to euthanasia.
 
My insurance agreed to my horse being PTS last year.
He had seriously injured his suspensory ligament months earlier and showed no improvement, in fact he deteriorated and was miserable.
My vet spoke with the insurance companies vet and they gave me permission to have the horse PTS on humane grounds.
They also paid out in full after his death.
 
Its a terrible situation to be in let alone having to quibble with insurance.

I cant help I am afraid, but I sympathise.

Lady T says it all.
 
Thanks for really good advice. I really hope she gets a positive result from this situation. It is so unfair because she is one of the few people I would trust with my own horse and hers are treated like royalty.
I will pass on your recommendations and I am sure she will be really grateful.
 
My friend is going through an awful experience at the moment trying to get the insurance company to pay up for her TB who we lost to colic in Feb.

He recovered from the inital bout of colic after about 1 week in the vet hospital but had a second bout a few days after returning to the yard. He was again taken to the vet school and given fluids to try and alleviate the problem - surgery was never an option due to the horses difficult temperament and the vet treating the horse admitted that he didn't think surgery was the best option and the horse was PTS.

Now the insurance company are reluctant to pay out as they claim that the owner had not exhausted all options. The sad thing is that she was so close to having him PTS during the first bout - even the vet suggested it was the only option but she fought so hard to keep him going only now to have it suggested that she didn't do everything to save him. My learning from all this is to keep in touch with the insurance company at every stage to ensure you're covered.
 
Baby bear - tell your friend not to give up on that one - colic surgery would have been costly anyway and the insurance company will be well aware, had the horse gone through the surgery the likelihood is the end result would not have been any different and the insurers would have ended up paying for the surgery AND the loss of animal at the end of the day.

If the vet reiterates that surgery would NOT have been an option and the outcome would have been the same only the horse have suffered unecessarily, I think they claim will get settled. generally colic death claims are pretty straight foreard (although there are certain - well 1 - insurance companies who will try and argue otherwise. Keep at them!)
 
I am in kind of the same situation at the mo, my boy was PTS on 29th April due to arthritic changes in his spine and possibly hocks at 13 years old
frown.gif
My vet told me he would not last another winter so I decided to let him go after having 2 weeks on Bute and thoroughly spoiling him rotten.
My insurance company have said that they will not pay out if he could of been maintained on painkillers which for the first week he was on Bute he was acting like a 5 year old but by the second week on a higher dose we noticed him looking uncomfortable again. My vet has wrote to the insurance company stating that although at the time he was PTS he didn't meet BEVA guidelines he is certain it wouldn't of been long. I didn't want him to suffer and couldn't of let him go to that point as I felt I owed it to him to do what was right. Just got to wait and see what they come back with I suppose.
 
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