Last Sunday, Marge scheduled a play date for Maeby at a local dog park. Maeby’s been to dog parks before without incident. She loves to sprint and run around for a few minutes, either letting other dogs chase her or chasing other dogs. Other than that, she stands around and watches. I don’t think greyhounds understand “play,” only running.
An ideal day out for Maeby is a solo run followed by enjoying some nature smells.
On her way out the door, Marge said, “I hope nothing bad happens.” I have no idea why she said this, and neither does she. I thought she was just worried about getting lost on the way to the park since this was a new one she’d never been to before. Well, they made it there fine, but something bad happened anyway.
Right after arriving, Maeby ran off with some other dogs. And when she came back, someone said, “What is that on your dog’s side?” And Marge said it was a scar, because Maeby has always had a scar on her side since we adopted her six years ago. It’s slowly grown hair and you can’t really see it anymore. But this was on the other side. Maeby had a fresh new gaping wound.
Post stitches
One of the other dogs must have put a paw on her and ripped off a piece of skin. It wasn’t a fight or anything, but greyhounds have thin skin, and she was left with a pretty big wound. The muscle was exposed. It was pretty nauseating. Incredibly, Maeby didn’t react. She hardly ever expresses pain. Apparently this even extends to getting her skin ripped off. They came back and we went to the vet.
There are worse reasons to go to the vet, but this was still really stressful. Maeby hasn’t needed much in the way of medical attention over the years. Greyhounds are healthy dogs, aside from their teeth, which is a whole nother issue.
This was not the way I wanted to spend my weekend. As you know, I am a huge fan of the Eurovision Song Contest, and the grand final was on Saturday. We had nothing scheduled, so I was looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend making complicated meals and basking in the glory of Eurotrash all weekend.
I did not expect to be at the vet shelling out $547 to have my dog put under sedation and operated on. After the operation, the vet recommended we put a t-shirt on Maeby instead of getting one of those cones. Maeby, always in search of warm comfort, definitely prefers the t-shirt lifestyle.
T-shirt lifestyle
Was cancelling our pet insurance a good idea?
For the first few years we had Maeby, we bought pet insurance. May Mr. Money Mustache strike me dead! Why were we not “self-insured”??
Well, Maeby was our first major pet, unless you count the rabbits. And like new parents, we were scared of what could happen. Will Maeby get out of our control and get hit by a car? Will she get an incurable disease? Will get into the raisins and be poisoned?
As we got used to having Maeby around, clearly these didn’t have to be big concerns. You are not supposed to let greyhounds off their leash ever, so getting hit by a car was very unlikely. Greyhounds are very healthy dogs, and she hasn’t come down with anything worse than a bladder infection. And the easiest way to keep dogs out of human food… is to keep human food out of the reach of dogs. Maeby is a very lazy dog and will not go out of her way to get into food.
Paying for pet insurance made less and less sense over time, just as the price kept going up and up. Here’s what our premiums looked like:
| Year | Premium |
| 2010 | $271.20 |
| 2011 | $302.17 |
| 2012 | $336.17 |
| 2013 | $424.66 |
| 2014 | $530.83 |
| Total | $1,865.03 |
Curly park tail
The premium for 2015 was going to be over $600, and that’s when I stopped it. You can imagine the 2016 premium being even higher. What would that insurance gotten us?
Well, we went with the cheapest plan (yes, that is the cheapest plan at this provider) just for emergency-only sort of situations. Hopefully you can see the appeal when it was only $271. The deductible was $200, and above that amount, 80% would be reimbursed. Until this incident, I don’t think we had a vet bill over $200, except the teeth cleaning, which isn’t covered anyway.*
So out of a $547 vet bill…
$547 – $200 = $347 x 80% = $278
$278 would be reimbursed. If we had continued paying for the insurance, our total out-of-pocket premium expense would be over $3,000. In fact, that one procedure still wouldn’t offset the single-year cost of the insurance in any year we had it except 2010.
Maybe it works for some people, but not us. Consumer Reports first analyzed pet insurance about two years, and they basically made an unequivocal recommendation against buying it. This year, they found just one pet insurance plan that would’ve paid off for one of their hypothetical dogs, so things haven’t gotten much better.
Some pet insurance companies don’t give you a straight percentage back. They limit the amount they will pay for each procedure. And I’l tell you this: If your dog goes bald, they will not pay for a wig. We had to buy this wig for Maeby out-of-pocket.
Careful with your doggies
One more thing. I hate to be a helicopter doggie parent, but this incident will make me re-think bringing Maeby to a park with other large dogs in the future. Even a well-behaved dog can do damage, especially if it’s to a thin-skinned dog with no fur like a greyhound.
*Sad note about pet insurance and dental cleanings: If we let Maeby’s teeth rot, this insurance would cover the extractions. Since it wouldn’t cover cleanings, it would be most financially responsible to let your dog’s teeth rot and fall out rather than keep them clean.