# Pet Insurance



## Pytheis (Sep 23, 2016)

To anyone getting a new puppy or who just recently acquired a puppy, I seriously urge you to get pet insurance. I was one of those people that thought I couldn’t afford $50/month on something that I may never get back, but I decided to find a way to make it work. My dog tore his CCL last month. A TPLO surgery was his best bet a full recovery with the least amount of pain for him further down the road. A TPLO can cost between $3,000-$5,000. Because I had pet insurance, I didn’t have to decide between what I could afford and what was best for my dog. I just submitted my claim for his surgery and within hours heard back that they are reimbursing me 80%. I paid over $3,000 to the vet, but in the end am only losing $600. His sedation, x-rays, bloodwork, meds, and the actual surgery were all covered.

Of course no one expects their dog to get sick or seriously hurt, but because I had a backup plan in case something did happen, I not only was able to give my dog the best care possible, but it only cost me 20% of what it could have. I won’t ever have another dog that isn’t covered with insurance.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

I feel the same way. When you get really bad news from a vet, and they lay out options, we all want to be able to choose the "gold standard" option that's best for our dog. Having good insurance removes one piece of the stress of the situation -- it still sucks to go through it, but at least you can do so knowing your dog is getting best-of-the-best care, have the surgery done by the best specialist available, and not have financial worry. 

One of my dogs had gone 7 years without a claim -- seriously, he had nothing!  Now that he's at least 12 years old, the vet bills are all coming at once, and his arthritis care alone is running about $400/mo with chiro, laser treatments, acupuncture, Adequan, Dasuquin Advanced, etc. He sees a rehab vet who has really helped him. Could he live with out it? Sure, but with it, he'll live a _better _life for the time he has left. We'll have close to $5,000 in bills paid in this 12-month period for him, just to keep him comfortable and mobile, but it's making a huge difference in his quality of life, so I want him to have that. He's otherwise very healthy, so this could go on for a while -- and his pet insurance covers 90% of all this integrative care, because we have the right policy and got his hips insured before any issues arose, back when he was younger and spry.

Another of mine gave me a bloat scare a few weeks ago. At 4AM, he was pacing, his tummy was kind of round and hard, and he was painful. I rushed him to the emergency vet. Lots of diagnostics and $800 later, they decided he had an upset tummy from a chew that didn't agree with him, but no bloat. We got back close to $700 of that, a week later. I have absolutely no regrets about taking him in -- it had to be done to rule out bloat.


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## Dunkirk (May 7, 2015)

I bought insurance when I got Nitro, thinking I'd only keep it a year. That first year he had an expensive surgery, I kept the policy. My only regret is not getting a more comprehensive policy.


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## Biscuit (Mar 24, 2020)

I have pet insurance for Biscuit. I don't even have insurance for myself 🤦‍♀️


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## BigOzzy2018 (Jan 27, 2018)

I’ve had it since Ozzy was 9 weeks. Worth every penny. You just never know what can happen.


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## SuperAndre (Jun 28, 2020)

Is this like you talk to your insurance company or are there actual dog insurance companies out there you have to sign up with? 

Definitely going to look into this.


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## Pytheis (Sep 23, 2016)

SuperAndre said:


> Is this like you talk to your insurance company or are there actual dog insurance companies out there you have to sign up with?
> 
> Definitely going to look into this.


There are actual dog insurance companies. The one I use is Healthy Paws. They have an app for iPhone where you can just take a picture of the invoice for the vet visit, and they either send a check or deposit money straight into your bank account. It’s always been done within 24 hours of making a claim for me.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

@SuperAndre, we have VAST threads on which policies/companies are good (and bad) in the archives. One of them had lots of info on Canadian policies, I think. I have HealthyPaws too, but I don't know that they serve Canada. I think TruPanion might -- if you can find that thread, it's all there.


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## SuperAndre (Jun 28, 2020)

Pytheis said:


> There are actual dog insurance companies. The one I use is Healthy Paws. They have an app for iPhone where you can just take a picture of the invoice for the vet visit, and they either send a check or deposit money straight into your bank account. It’s always been done within 24 hours of making a claim for me.


I will look into that, thank you? Is it same price per dog? Or do they cover all your animals?


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## SuperAndre (Jun 28, 2020)

Magwart said:


> @SuperAndre, we have VAST threads on which policies/companies are good (and bad) in the archives. One of them had lots of info on Canadian policies, I think.


Will find that, thank you! Do you happen to have a link of the one you are thinking of?


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## Pytheis (Sep 23, 2016)

SuperAndre said:


> I will look into that, thank you? Is it same price per dog? Or do they cover all your animals?


Price is variable. For example, when I lived right outside a major city, I had to pay $52/month. When I moved to the country outside a small town, the price went down to $34/month for the same dog. Only my youngest dog has insurance. My old golden has waaaaay too many pre-existing conditions to make pet insurance worth it. She’s living the life though.


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## SuperAndre (Jun 28, 2020)

Pytheis said:


> Price is variable. For example, when I lived right outside a major city, I had to pay $52/month. When I moved to the country outside a small town, the price went down to $34/month for the same dog. Only my youngest dog has insurance. My old golden has waaaaay too many pre-existing conditions to make pet insurance worth it. She’s living the life though.
> View attachment 565786


Adorable. We have an older lab but I am in the process of talking with lots of breeders and trying to get a pup. So looking to definitely get it for the new pup. Unfortunately most of the good breeders in my area are not as good as I thought. Anyways that’s besides the point.
Your golden is adorable and remind me of our lab haha


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

SuperAndre said:


> Will find that, thank you! Do you happen to have a link of the one you are thinking of?


here’s one.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Here's one of them that had some of the Canadian folks posting about their Trupanion experiences...








Pet insurance recommendations?


I have Healthy Paws on one of my dogs. Absolutely no complaints. I have Trupanion on my other two. Their customer service is great and we get reimbursed quickly, but they raise our rates 20 percent every year, so I won't use them again.




www.germanshepherds.com


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Cava is the first dog we've had insurance on. I paid out of pocket for Keefer's bloat surgery just before his 12th birthday. He pulled through and lived another year and 8 months so it was money well spent, but at nearly $7000 it's more than most people could afford. I have no complaints with Healthy Paws other than the way they do the 80% reimbursement and deductible thing. For human insurance, the deductible comes off the top, then the co-insurance kicks in. With HP it's the opposite, they take 80% of the total, apply the deductible, and then pay the balance. Over the course of a year it may not matter if you have several covered claims, but it can be the difference between getting any reimbursement for a particular year or not. 

Cava had her spay/gastropexy surgery and OFA x-rays last month, none of which were covered because they're elective procedures. But because the vet found a small umbilical hernia and I opted to have them fix it at the same time, everything related to surgery that wasn't the non-covered procedures specifically was covered - the blood work, the anesthesia, the IV, and the meds. It took a little longer to get reimbursed because they had to go over the vet records first, but I got paid.


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## SuperAndre (Jun 28, 2020)

Cassidy's Mom said:


> Cava is the first dog we've had insurance on. I paid out of pocket for Keefer's bloat surgery just before his 12th birthday. He pulled through and lived another year and 8 months so it was money well spent, but at nearly $7000 it's more than most people could afford. I have no complaints with Healthy Paws other than the way they do the 80% reimbursement and deductible thing. For human insurance, the deductible comes off the top, then the co-insurance kicks in. With HP it's the opposite, they take 80% of the total, apply the deductible, and then pay the balance. Over the course of a year it may not matter if you have several covered claims, but it can be the difference between getting any reimbursement for a particular year or not.
> 
> Cava had her spay/gastropexy surgery and OFA x-rays last month, none of which were covered because they're elective procedures. But because the vet found a small umbilical hernia and I opted to have them fix it at the same time, everything related to surgery that wasn't the non-covered procedures specifically was covered - the blood work, the anesthesia, the IV, and the meds. It took a little longer to get reimbursed because they had to go over the vet records first, but I got paid.


I guess that is only USA though? I will look into it! Thank you!


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## Squidwardp (Oct 15, 2019)

We have it for current two pups. So far, so good. Even reimburses something for routine checkups and vaccinations.


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## Squidwardp (Oct 15, 2019)

Nationwide. They tend to process and pay pretty quickly, too. Vet visit last Wednesday, direct deposit reimbursement by this Tuesday. Don't have any competitor's results to compare, but that seemed pretty fast to me.


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## Pytheis (Sep 23, 2016)

Squidwardp said:


> Nationwide. They tend to process and pay pretty quickly, too. Vet visit last Wednesday, direct deposit reimbursement by this Tuesday. Don't have any competitor's results to compare, but that seemed pretty fast to me.


Healthy Paws has always taken less than 48 hours to get my refund back to me. They tell me I’ll be getting the refund within 24. It’s really nice.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

No dog without insurance for me. It pays back big time and it is peace of mind in daily life. Love Healthy Paws.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

SuperAndre said:


> I guess that is only USA though? I will look into it! Thank you!


I don't know if they're US only.


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## San (Mar 22, 2012)

We have Pet Plan. We get pet insurance on our dogs the day they arrive.

Dog #1, 8 year-old GSD that we adopted at 15 months of age. Had 2 separate dental procedures (one was for a cracked tooth, removed by vet dentist, then another tooth had some bone loss, again removed by vet dentist). He bloated last month and had emergency surgery (he is recovering well). After deductibles and co-insurances, insurance paid around $6K for the 3 procedures combined.

Dog #2, 6.5 year-old Malinois that we got at 7.5 weeks of age. She ran into a door frame at the age of 2 and broke a front tooth, it was too damaged to be saved so a vet dentist removed it. She developed severe epilepsy at the age of 3.5, MRI, spinal tap, acupuncture, Chinese herbs, 2 ER visits (with overnight stay), numerous blood-work and neurology visits. She is currently on 15+ pills/day for epilepsy. Insurance so far has paid more than $14K on her.

Dog #3, 2 year-old Malinois, so far, so good. I am totally okay with not having to file anything with her pet insurance 

Pet Plan did lower Dog #2's coverage when we renewed her insurance at the age of 6, they put an upper limit on per year coverage ($15K vs previously it was unlimited) and lower her coverage from 90% to 70% after deductible/co-insurance. I tried to increase her benefits but Pet Plan said that was the best they could offer her due to her epilepsy. I was a bit surprised considering that we got her on Pet Plan at the age of 7.5 weeks.


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## banzai555 (Sep 2, 2019)

I was skeptical of insurance and didn't have it for Willow until just recently, like two weeks ago. I went with Nationwide and pay $62/month for what appears to be really decent coverage (hopefully). She's 4 years old, no preexisting conditions.


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## SuperAndre (Jun 28, 2020)

San said:


> We have Pet Plan. We get pet insurance on our dogs the day they arrive.
> 
> Dog #1, 8 year-old GSD that we adopted at 15 months of age. Had 2 separate dental procedures (one was for a cracked tooth, removed by vet dentist, then another tooth had some bone loss, again removed by vet dentist). He bloated last month and had emergency surgery (he is recovering well). After deductibles and co-insurances, insurance paid around $6K for the 3 procedures combined.
> 
> ...


How much do you pay per dog?


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## San (Mar 22, 2012)

SuperAndre said:


> How much do you pay per dog?


Dog #1, $75/month, $500 per condition deductible, 80% coverage after co-insurance, unlimited coverage.

Dog #2, $43/month, $500 per condition deductible, 70% coverage after co-insurance, $15K maximum coverage.

Dog #3, $33/month, $500 annual deductible, 80% coverage after co-insurance, unlimited coverage.

Dog #1’s policy is up for renewal next month, Pet Plan is increasing the rate to $150/month.


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## kr16 (Apr 30, 2011)

For all of you that have Nationwide. You better have the one good plan they have. The other one is garbage and it is the old VPI plan which they bought out. It works off of a schedule of benefits, which is terrible. If you are not sure, find out and either get rid of it or switch to the better plan before you dog has issues. I included a link to it below scroll down to page 6



https://www.petinsurance.com/images/VSSimages/media/pdf/CA_Major_Medical_Plan_2015_SAMPLE.pdf


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## SuperAndre (Jun 28, 2020)

San said:


> Dog #1, $75/month, $500 per condition deductible, 80% coverage after co-insurance, unlimited coverage.
> 
> Dog #2, $43/month, $500 per condition deductible, 70% coverage after co-insurance, $15K maximum coverage.
> 
> ...


Wowza. I’m thinking of going with Pet Plan. I got the quote thing. Gonna talk it through to make sure it’s a good one with some family. I appreciate your help!


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

sigh. i’m still on the fence and may end up learning the hard way. of the dogs that i’ve been solely financially responsible for - i’ve had two 13yr olds that cost me less than $1k _combined_ in vet bills over their entire lives!! i have not been so lucky with my current guy. that said, all of his conditions and injuries (8) have been fairly cheap to diagnose and treat. i did the rough numbers, assuming i got pet insurance for him at the time of adoption (7months).... and would now, at 7.5yrs old be breaking even.

leaning towards yes, especially if i get a puppy, but like i said, still technically on the fence.


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## kr16 (Apr 30, 2011)

Petplan has extremely high renewal rates. Great company thu


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

@Squidwardp - unfortunately, I disagree with that advice, to the extent it's about insuring wellness. Routine care is relatively cheap -- you don't need to insure cheap stuff. It's FAR better to get a plan that doesn't cover wellness but will be there for you with unlimited coverage for BIG bills. 

Some companies, like VPI (when it was still around) had a reputation for attracting people with coverage for annual wellness to make it feel "comprehensive" since people are familiar with paying those bills already -- and then often having CRAP coverage on very expensive stuff, with lots and lots of exclusions. So, yeah, they'll pay for your rabies shot but not for your TPLO surgery or hip replacement. And they might give you $500 toward a $3500 bloat surgery. 

You honestly do not discover whether you have a good plan until you send them a huge bill -- the ugly "gotcha" that VPI was known for on some of its policies was having a list of how much they paid for each condition that was less than half what real vet bills for that condition cost. I think kr16 linked to the list of how much they paid per condition on one of those threads -- and I went through and compared and what I actually pay with a rescue discount, since I've got vet bills going back years for lots and lots of dogs, so I have the data. The amounts were shockingly low some were half what I pay in a cheap part of the country with a 30% rescue discount -- so if you were paying full retail, you'd be really mad. There is apparently only one good plan that Nationwide offers -- again, we've hashed that out previously -- so please be sure you read your fine print to make sure you've got the coverage you will need, in an emergency.

I'm pretty sure kr16 went through the fine print of a Nationwide policy in one of those threads.


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## kr16 (Apr 30, 2011)

Similar bad health insurance for Humans is called Freedom Life or US Health group. They sway you in with the upfront cheap little things they cover than cover nothing in a hospital. Any plan that has a schedule of benefits, run away fast


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## SuperAndre (Jun 28, 2020)

kr16 said:


> Petplan has extremely high renewal rates. Great company thu


But otherwise good?


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## kr16 (Apr 30, 2011)

SuperAndre said:


> But otherwise good?


Better than great, they were amazing. I since have both mine on Healthy Paws due to prices. Petplan was horrible on the rerates every year, so one was healthy and I switched her to Healthy Paws. New pup, just signed him up for HP as well.


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## SuperAndre (Jun 28, 2020)

kr16 said:


> Better than great, they were amazing. I since have both mine on Healthy Paws due to prices. Petplan was horrible on the rerates every year, so one was healthy and I switched her to Healthy Paws. New pup, just signed him up for HP as well.


How is healthy paws in comparison?

Never mind, only a USA pet insurance.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

@San, a per-condition deductible is actually problematic for me, esp. with a fairly high deductible, as you can easily end up paying that deductible several times in the same year, in an unlucky year -- there are good plans that offer per-year deductible which is better overall coverage (since you only pay it once, no matter how many different things go wrong during the year). I'm curious why you chose that option?


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## San (Mar 22, 2012)

Magwart said:


> @San, a per-condition deductible is actually problematic for me, esp. with a fairly high deductible, as you can easily end up paying that deductible several times in the same year, in an unlucky year -- there are good plans that offer per-year deductible which is better overall coverage (since you only pay it once, no matter how many different things go wrong during the year). I'm curious why you chose that option?


I don't remember  I bought the policies for Dog #1 and Dog #2 in 2013 and 2014, I can't recall if I was given a choice when I purchased it, or that I chose a per-condition deductible due to the difference in premiums. 

I bought Dog #3's police in 2018, I really don't remember given a choice when I bought it. All I remember was when I looked at the policies in my account after I purchased it, I realized that the first two policies had per-condition deductible and the third policy had a annual deductible.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

The worst gotcha I ever saw was with a company that used to advertise with the Garfield cartoon cat -- Petshealth Care Plan or something like that. They would cover a condition in the year in which it arose, and then they considered every renewal a "new policy" that excluded whatever they had covered last year -- so if your dog got diagnosed with cancer in December, and chemo was supposed to start in January, they wouldn't pay it. The January bills (and all future cancer bills) wouldn't be paid because cancer was a pre-existing excluded condition for the new policy year, based on it being diagnosed in the last policy year (never mind that there's no lapse in coverage). They claimed to have a "continuing coverage rider" available for an extra fee (but only when you first sign up, as they wouldn't add it to existing policies). That was 20 years ago or so, and that experience taught me to read the fine print and take it seriously.


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## Squidwardp (Oct 15, 2019)

I appreciate the heads-up about Nationwide. When it's time to renew, we'll consider other options. 

That said . . . My wife, official procurer of insurance policies at our house, says we have Nationwide's "Cadillac Plan," which supposedly covers catastrophic as well as basic wellness.
I say "supposedly," because you really don't know until it is seriously tested, and you are hoping it isn't seriously tested. My wife has worked in insurance for 30 years, so she knows her way around a lot of the fine print. 

There usually is no free lunch with insurance. Their legal teams and actuaries have crunched the numbers and massaged the policy terms to ensure they make money. So a policy that is better about covering the catastrophic stuff is going to cost you a lot more in premium dollars over the life of the pet. 

A couple of posts here say Pet Plan has high renewal re-rates. How does Healthy Paws compare, if anyone knows, for renewal increases?


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## Sabre's Mom (Jul 27, 2018)

I have Nationwide Whole Pet with Wellness. $250 annual deductible, 90% reimbursement, and it's direct deposited into my account in less than a week. I'm happy with it. They covered Sabre's laparoscopic spay & pexy, Recon's hip & elbow x-rays (of course I had to pay SV fees), titers on both dogs, etc. They also cover Sabre's appointments with the veterinary chiropractor. Recently, Sabre had 3 vet visits within 2 months for an ear hematoma, including one at the emergency vet, and they reimbursed all of those as well.


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Healthy Paws seems to do its rate increases based on the age of the dog. I had very mild annual increases (no more than 10%, and often much less) until mine were 7+. Then the increases ratcheted up considerably. I'm up to $210/mo for three dogs that are all seniors. When we started out with young adult dogs, it was about $150/mo for all three. It will not surprise me if it gradually rises to $300/mo., once the dogs become geriatric. (I have a $250 deductible on each dog, 90% coverage. The deductible is tracked per dog, so there's no high "family deductible" that has to be met.)

The game that ALL pet insurers play is that they use premium increases to drive you away when your dogs get old. They know perfectly well that most of the big vet care bills come late in life. Some people fall for it because they get mad when the rate goes up, and so they shop rates and discover a new company will offer a sweetheart rate in the first year and switch. Then they find out that all their dog's stuff is pre-existing and excluded from the new policy. Oops! Once you have coverage and have a dog with a covered, chronic condition, you are basically locked in with that company -- and the companies know _that _too.


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## PeterCameron (11 mo ago)

It's great that you tell people about this because many people don't understand how important pet insurance is for every pet owner. Especially if you have several animals, now you can apply for multi-pet insurance, which comes out cheaper than if you would apply for each of your pets. I have two labradors, my friends advised me to apply for pet insurance for them, but I refused, citing that I would not have to spend a lot on their treatment. And at one point, my labradors got sick with stomach poisoning, and I had to pay a lot of money to veterinarians for their treatment. However, if I had read about pet insurance on this site, gathercover.co.uk earlier, I would not have had to pay the full amount for their treatment.


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## calebgilk (Oct 15, 2021)

When your pet swallows some random things, going to vet won't be cheap.


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## connormassena (8 mo ago)

calebgilk said:


> When your pet swallows some random things, going to vet won't be cheap.


This one. It happened to me a few times that I was walking my dog in the park, and he ate some expired food, or I don't know what, and we ended up going to the vet because he was feeling really bad. My dog is very important for me, it's not only my pet, but my friend and emotional support animal, so when something happens to him, we go to vet instantly. I just can't afford to lose him, he is like a member of my family and I take him with me everywhere, no matter what I do.


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## calebgilk (Oct 15, 2021)

All the time...


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