Insurance Exclusions and Removing Them

[Maesto's Girl]

Hi all

Hoping someone may be able to help

So my horse has 4 exclusions, 1 for a penetrative injury to the chest (fine this happened) and then 3 for anything gastro-intestinal, anything related to wind sucking or anything relating to crib biting. The last 3 are all because at the vetting, they said she may have had a history of it due to the wear on her teeth, but not ever confirmed. Now I have carefully looked after her teeth, getting them regularly checked, and there are no more irregular wear patterns. I also have not seen any indication of crib biting or wind sucking from her. So it seems these were never 100% clarified

So my question is, would I have a case for getting the 3 exclusions removed? Would be happy to send a dental/veterinary report backing this up to the insurance company. Reason I ask is I am deciding whether or not to continue with the insurance or not, and as it says 'any gastro' I am not even sure this would cover the dreaded C word should that happen - which is the main reason for insuring given the potential cost of surgery.

Any help would be great
Thanks in advance

 

[be positive]

It certainly does exclude colic at the moment and would be worth trying to get the exclusion relating to cribbing removed, I sometimes wonder what vets are thinking when they put something such as that on the certificate, if the horse did crib it should be a "fail" as a vice or have already been declared and you would have been buying with full knowledge , wear on the front teeth can be due to grazing close cropped grass or on abrasive soil such as sand, if your vet will assist it may be easier to get it lifted.

I expect a few cribbers will stop given a change in management but not many that have done it long enough to wear the teeth down, I had one livery that moved from here to a new area, started cribbing, probably due to being stabled too much, returned 12 months later and did it for the first week then stopped and never did it again, this was before the known connection with ulcers so I expect it was going back to having plenty of forage and turnout that made the difference to her but the other 2 I had here continued despite being out most of the time, I wish it had been possible to treat back then.

 

[Maesto's Girl]

I thought it would be the case RE the colic. And the vet was obviously not 100% sure about the cribbing as she was passed! I am pretty sure the vet/her equine dentist will both back me up (thankfully). I spend hours with her and have seen nothing...nor any signs of biting around the stable door.

 

[Orangehorse]

Worth a try.

 

[LadySam]

With regards to the gastro - if the horse has been clear of any kind of gastro episode for 12 months or more, make that clear. If the horse has never actually had colic, say so. By which I mean get your vet to say so in a report dated within 14 days of approaching your insurer.

The "all gastro" wording is very loose. While I'm sure it includes colic, I'd be asking them to define exactly what conditions it does and doesn't include. I suspect it includes ulcers due to the suspected cribbing.

 

[HashRouge]

Certainly worth a try! I have had an exclusion removed (by NFU) so it certainly is possible, although this was over ten years ago. It was a leg injury (serious cut to the knee which required 4 weeks at Leahurst) and originally the whole leg was excluded for everything as the insurers said she would be more prone to arthritis etc. But we got the vet out about 6 months after she'd come home and they did a flexion test and then wrote a letter saying that she was sound as a pound, and the exclusion was removed.

 

[suffolkmare]

I can’t help with advice re. cribbing, and don’t know how you prove/disprove it unless you have cctv on the horse for a set amount of time?! BUT, I have successfully removed exclusions for a minor leg injury-the vet reported the cut had completely healed and no lameness- and a colic exclusion. My boy suffered a sand colic from a build up of silt after years grazing short grass on a light soil. He narrowly avoided surgery and was in hospital for a few days. Following vet advice we moved him to a yard with much more lush grazing and used psilium husks to clear his gut until he’d had clear poo for a couple of months. After a year or so I asked my insurance (Carriagehouse) about it, and sometime later when the vets had sent details to show he hadn’t had further issues, they agreed to remove the exclusion. This was because I was clear it was a specific type of colic and I had done everything in my power to prevent a recurrence. It’s always worth a try!