Pet Insurance and Cushing's

[lilosmom1508]

Not sure if anyone knows this but if your dog is diagnosed with Cushing's before you get Pet Insurance will they cover any diseases or issues that occur after Cushing's? I know they won't cover direct treatment of the Cushing's but will they just say that all other issues that my dog now has are due to the Cushing's and nothing else? Anyone have any experience with this? All help would be appreciated. Thank you.

[dsbailey]

I applied for insurance for my girl before Cushings was diagnosed, she was 9 years old at the time. Here's a blurb of the response that I received:

"Thank you for applying for a VPI Pet Insurance policy for LOLITA. We regret to inform you that your pet is not eligible for coverage under the medical plan you selected. The information provided indicates that LOLITA has out of range liver enzyme and is therefore ineligible for medical coverage."

Her ALKP was in the 400's, everything else was within range.

I hope this helps.

[labblab]

This is a very good question. You'll see that I've moved it, though, to our "Everything Else" forum. That's because we like to keep our main forum focused on discussions related to specific dogs. ;)

I have no personal experience with this, but I think you'd do well to personally contact any insurance plan that you're considering. Perhaps I'm being pessimistic, but I'd worry that with a disease like Cushing's, the insurance company would deny coverage for a whole variety of issues that might result from that original diagnosis (e.g., problems with kidneys, liver, ligaments, skin infections, etc. etc.). It's possible that they would not even issue coverage at all for a dog who has been diagnosed with Cushing's.

But as I say, I'm just speculating here and I hope that perhaps some other folks will have more positive experiences to report!

Marianne