Petplan and bone spavin

[Achinghips]

Speaking to them on the phone yesterday, I was told that as hock arthritis is arthritis, she is now no longer insured for any type of arthritis even if it occurs elsewhere in the body, like front fetlock. Also told, that if she does something else like pull a suspensory, chances are it'd be related to how she's going as a result of the arthritis, ditto back problems, so no claim possible there. The onus would be on me to prove otherwise.
Really thinking of cancelling my £35 a month now, esp as she has another leg excluded too (3 altogether)
What we think?

 

[ladyt25]

Personally I think that's quite harsh. I can fully understand them excluding spavin in bolth hinds (even if it was only evident in one currently) but excluding arthritis altogether is going OTT and then staing susp ligament injuries etc would be deemed as being related to the spavin is quite ridiculous. A horse that DOESN'T have spavin can get suspensory ligament problems and equally a horse that does have spavin does not make it predisposed to ligament issues.

I am talking as an ex equine underwriter and i did the job for nearly 7 years and I would never have excluded conditions like that based on that sort of logic. I would look at moving if i were you as another company may well not be so OTT. You would have to advise any other company though of the exclusions PP were applying.

 

[Holly Hocks]

I'm with Petplan and my horse, like yours Achinghips, she was recently diagnosed with bone spavin. They have done the same to me. However they did put an exclusion on something on my other horse in the past, so after about 18 months and no further problems with the injury, I got my vet to do a letter to them explaining that as no further problems had arisen, there was no reason to expect that it would affect anything further in the future. they removed the exclusion from the policy without question.

My other horse also had all tendons and ligaments excluded in both front forelimbs as he had injuries from racing. My vet did a letter to them explaining that it was only the superficial flexor tendon that was damaged, and again they removed the exclusion.
Personally I can only speak well of Petplan Equine. There is a part on the claim form where your vet has to say whether he/she thinks that the illness/injury you are claiming for is linked to anything else, and if the vet says it isn't, then it isn't!

I am hoping that my horse won't show any more symptoms for the next year or so, and then I intend to ask my vet to do a letter to explain that there have been no further episodes and ask if they will just exclude the bone spavin.

 

[unbalanced]

That's a bit worrying. I notified them (Petplan) of my claim for bone spavin last year (September) just before my policy came up for renewal (October) so on the new policy they had just excluded spavins, not arthritis. I hope that is it and I don't find an exclusion for arthritis on my new policy in October!
That said, I have had some silly exclusions in the past, like when my pony was vetted she happened to have a rubbed tail so they excluded sweet itch. In fact in 12 years she has never shown any sign of sweet itch so after two years the vet wrote and said so and they got rid of that one with no quibbles. I agree with the other posters who have suggested you do the same for the arthritis - get the vet to talk to them about it and they could well change it for something more sensible. Sometimes it can be because your vet has given them insufficient information - they put a blanket exclusion on and narrow it down later. I have had that happen before as well (speaking as someone with an accident prone horse and a whole page of exclusions).

 

[StormyMoments]

urggg dont tell me about exclutions with petplan -.-

my horse had fluid in his hocks from standing in so they excluded his tendons and ligaments in his back legs

3 feet excluded because of puss in the foot

1 front leg (fair enough) which he denerved his heel and has large scaring but they paid out well for it!

he isnt covered on his front shoulder due to a kick causing a hematoma so he isnt covered for them either

his tounge isnt insured because he bit it

i pay £69 a month and there isnt a lot left of him insured

but they are cheeky with their exclutions they defo dont want to pay out if they dont have to!

im having insurance vetting this year when my insurance is up for renewal so i can get rid of some of the exclutions wish me luck hope dont find anything else they can exclude