I see a lot of posts online with people talking about how much they struggle to find the right pet insurance that covers all of their French Bulldog’s needs. So I thought I’d make a more detailed post about my experience with The Co-operative pet insurance.
Stella’s been on their insurance for six years now, ever since we adopted her.
The great news upon joining was that they were willing to fully cover her under their lifetime insurance, even though she was a two-year-old rescue. At the time Stella had no medical history that we were aware of, but this felt lucky because some insurances seemed a little funny about covering a dog who wasn’t a puppy on a lifetime plan.
The good – her history
Insuring Stella was ABSOLUTELY the right thing for us to do, because oh boy have we needed this insurance. Stella has had a ton of medical issues since we got her, honestly it’s horrible and most of it comes down to genetic Frenchie issues.
BOAS Treatment
Firstly, The Co-operative Pet Insurance covers BOAS! But, only if it’s requested by medical referral. I’d honestly recommend any Frenchie owner got BOAS surgery for their dog, it improves their lifestyle so much it’s priceless.
Stella’s breathing difficulties came up when we were trying to get her spayed, our vets refused to do the treatment until after she had BOAS surgery as it was far too high risk without it, and luckily our insurance with The Co-operative would cover it at that point.
IVDD
This was the big one. A few years ago Stella slipped a disc in her back, she had Intervertebral disc disease, which is another unfortunately common French Bulldog genetic issue.
This was the first time the limits of our insurance shone through, Stella was only covered for £5000 (the maximum we could get at the time), so her £7000 surgery did hit our savings too, but without the insurance we’d have been stuffed and possibly considering a timeline where Stella had wheels.
Important shout out to the INCREDIBLE staff at the ‘Small Animal Teaching Hospital’ in Liverpool who performed her surgery. The North West of England is fortunate enough to have access to vets who specialise in French Bulldog care, the vet in Liverpool being one, but there’s also French Bulldog specialists in Vets Now Bury. Honestly, they’re a godsend.
Pyometra
Stella very recently had a pyometra. More on that soon, basically this is a womb infection, and it happened because we’d made the decision not to get her spayed. I wasn’t aware this was something that could happen, but she was really ill with it.
The cure of a pyometra is getting an emergency spay, once again, our insurance came through for us. Spaying isn’t something most insurers will cover full stop, but because it was a medical emergency The Co-operative Pet Insurance did cover it. We’re really lucky on that front.
Smaller issues
Because Stella likes to surprise us with BIG issues, we’ll usually foot the bill for the smaller issues. Her excess is £200, so it’s not worth it for a lot of the smaller things. We did claim on some stomach inflammation one year when she needed medication but the claim and excess wasn’t a huge amount of difference.
The bad – Costs and cover
I’m gonna be balanced here and talk about some of the things I don’t love about the insurance.
Firstly the fact that we could only cover her for £5000 a year, this is not enough for a French Bulldog. Luckily The Co-operative now offer plans up to £10,000 a year, so this has improved for new insurance buyers. Back when we took the insurance out £5000 lifetime cover was the highest end cover she could have.
Lifetime cover comes at a cost
The problem with lifetime cover is that the premium increases every year, but honestly it’s been so much better for us to have it than to not.
When we first took out Stella’s insurance, we were paying just under £70 a month. This has steadily increased over the years (a little more in the years that she had major surgery), and six years down the line we are paying £130 a month.
£130 a month on pet insurance is steep, but when I think about how much we’ve needed it I can’t even care a little bit. It’s saved Stella’s life and our savings account on numerous occasions.
Would I recommend them to friends?
The best thing about it the insurance we have is that they actually cover what they say they will cover. We’ve never had any trouble claiming on this insurance. Even on things where we’ve been unsure if they’ll be funny about it, they have always come through for us.
There’s so many other insurance or item type cover things where, the second you try to claim, they try to get out of it. I’ve never had that experience with The Co-operative and it just saves us so much stress. So would I recommend them? Yes, but be weary of what you can afford monthly.
Hopefully we won’t need to claim much more going forward, Stella’s pretty settled in her relaxed life these days, but I know we’ve got really good cover if we need it.