Pet Insurance? Sailing on Saturday...

[Garn]

We're sailing on the Sun on Saturday (flying down Friday morning), and my in-laws' two dogs must have eaten something nasty in their backyard... in any case they both have pancreatitis, and one is at the vet with an IV.

 

We have travel insurance (Travelex), but I'm assuming the definition of "Immediate Family Member" doesn't include the four-footed kind (although I'm sure many of you would agree that they are most certainly part of the family).

 

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? I'm assuming that if they decide that they can't leave with their dogs in the pet hospital that they are out the entire cost, correct?

 

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[lvtotrvl1]

Believe me, I love my pets :), but sadly I think they may be out of luck. I would recommend them calling the insurance company....they know more than all of us put together about their policies. Good Luck and I hope the kids get better real quick!

[MacAndrews]

LIE to the insurance company.

 

If husband and wife can't go on the cruise due to dog illness, just tell the imsurance company one of the humans is sick.

[Garn]

Thanks for the good wishes... I'll call the insurer in a bit, but I've found with other insurance, there tends to be issues where they'll cover if you say "fell", but not "tripped", so I figured if anyone had had experience is was worth finding out (obviously, faking an illness for a human is a possibility, but we wouldn't do that).

[KatWag]

My heart goes out to them. When we planned our Star cruise in Feb we knew our elderly lab might fall ill and we'd have to cancel. We were lucky and she was OK. But I think they are out the money in most policies.

 

I'll be praying as hard as I can that their pets are "out of the woods" and doing well enough for your folks to go on their trip.

 

Kathy

[msmayor]

LIE to the insurance company.

 

If husband and wife can't go on the cruise due to dog illness, just tell the imsurance company one of the humans is sick.

 

Considering that proof of illness will be required to obtain coverage, I can't see this as a viable alternative.

[Jiminkcmo]

Be VERY careful with what you are doing.

 

The insurance co. may ask for a doctor's note.

 

And, there is a small item called insurance fraud to be considered.

[WatchHill]

The insurance company will investigate after you have submitted the required claim forms, medical records, doctor's signed statement, etc. So, before you do anything, check to see if you have a "cancel for any reason" clause.

 

Darcy

[katiel53]

LIE to the insurance company.

 

If husband and wife can't go on the cruise due to dog illness, just tell the imsurance company one of the humans is sick.

 

You are kidding, right? Why would you ever tell someone to lie. Your ideas are something else---did fraud ever occur to you?

[lvtotrvl1]

You are kidding, right? Why would you ever tell someone to lie. Your ideas are something else---did fraud ever occur to you?

 

I'm hoping the poster was just really really joking...but sounds to me like the OP is an intelligent human who would take that post with a grain of salt....

[zebster15]

We have had that happen to both of our Rottweilers. The male had it twice. He spent almost 2 weeks the first time in ICU and a week the second time. He lost 20lbs in one night. THe female was in for a week. They are now both on prescription food, or boiled chicken. The male can not eat ANY human food, except for the chicken. Never found out what caused it, but (knock on wood) the last bout was 2/07.

 

Good luck with the dogs and hope you make your cruise.

[slotaddict]

I hope the dogs are OK. I know how I would feel if it was my dog. I really do not think that I could cruise knowing she was home sick as a dog (so to speak). Our animals are members of our family.

 

Good Luck.

[CC Help Michell]

I used to own, show, breed, train... and love... a certain breed of dog. I don't any more, but will skip the particulars on why as they are still extremely emotional to me.

 

However, in this context, I would say that if I still lived a daily life involving 7-12 dogs whom I loved and who loved me, any travel plans I made, or would make now, would take them into account. For cruising, I always did (and still would) book "cancel for ANY reason" insurance. That way there's nobody who can pooh-pooh or question me for cancelling, even if the reason is "Rover bloated and had surgery!"

 

But to the OP, it seems your inlaws didn't have that kind of coverage. Even so, I still wouldn't recommend they perpetrate insurance fraud (hello, it's a FELONY!) as some other dimwit here did. <boggle>

 

Play it by ear, give them the space they need to handle their concerns and the physical condition of their dogs. It's only Tuesday -- you have 4.5 days or so before your flight before it becomes a "loss" situation. Hopefully their dogs will have improved enough that the inlaws are comfortable leaving even if the critters are still in the hospital -- most vets have a "boarding" rate and a "hospitalization" rate. Their dogs would have needed boarding anyway, so that expense was a given -- I'll keep fingers crossed that it just becomes a matter of the inlaws sail while the vets mind the pooches' recovery at the hospital.

[unboringuy]

I have had to cancel cruises before due to ill pets. The first time, I had no insurance all all, so I was out of luck. After that, I booked with insurance that let you cancel for "any or no reason" and have had to make claims before.

 

As an aside, most of the cruises are going out full these days, so it would be worth a call to the cruise line to see if they would be interested in the cabin to satisfy an oversold condition. It could work.

[Cruzin2paradise09]

LIE to the insurance company.

 

If husband and wife can't go on the cruise due to dog illness, just tell the imsurance company one of the humans is sick.

 

Oh yeah, good morals and values here . . . lie??? Good grief. When you lie, especially about something like this, it WILL come back and bite you in the behind - every time!

 

 

To the OP, make the call to the insurance company and find out what the story is and don't listen to people when they tell you to lie!

[Garn]

Thanks everyone for the ideas, prayers and good wishes.

 

Don't worry, I never considered insurance fraud a viable option.

 

As of this morning, the dogs seem better, but still not great- they are taking the sicker one in to get another IV (he lost 2 out of 35 pounds the first day).

 

We're fortunate in that we made plans to have the dogs (their two, plus our one) stay with a private dogsitter who we'd trust to give them a special diet and notice if something looked wrong... but I think we'd only go that route if it looked sure that they were on the mend.

 

Funny, I was thinking about how careful I was getting trip insurance- it never occurred to me that there was such thing as "cancel for any reason" insurance. Fortunately, it's not that expensive of a cruise- I think it would be more the disappointment than the cost that would be the harder hit. But we're still keeping our fingers (and paws) crossed.

 

Thanks again!

[garycarla]

LIE to the insurance company.

 

If husband and wife can't go on the cruise due to dog illness, just tell the imsurance company one of the humans is sick.

 

Easy now folks. Do not be so quick to judge. I know that if our dog is sick my wife would be terribly sick. She is so close to him, I would suspect her illness might be almost the same.

 

Not encouraging fraud, mind you, but humans do get sick along with their pets.

[BeachBumMama]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for all the humans, and the humans with fur.:) Let us know how it goes!

[hank_freid]

Hi,

 

Well, Thanks for all for good wishes. Be VERY careful with what you are doing.