I'm seriously considering getting Pet Plan for Abby since her latest vet bill came out to be $132. She has an ear infection in one ear, but half the bill is for her ear...the other half is for 6 months of HW preventative.

I know pet insurance will be good for Abby in the long run especially since I plan on getting her health tested once she is legally mine - just for my own information; she's been spayed.

Abby appears to be full lab, but her papers from the shelter say otherwise, so should I risk it and get her insurance under "Mixed Breed" for slightly cheaper or just list her under Labrador?

Also, what does Pet Plan NOT cover? o_O Can I get opinions (pros/cons) from those who have their dogs on Pet Plan? ^^

I would put her under mixed breed.
I put my Deerhound down as a lurcher and got her insurance a full £12 cheaper a month.
As long as your vets and your insurance both say the same I am sure you will be fine.
As for petplan, they are certaintly a lot easy to get money out of than some other insurances I have used.

You must remember that there is an excess to pay.

For eg. With PetPlan, with whom my boys are insured - Diesel £35 a month and Banjo £42 a month - they have a £90 excess fee. SO, if the vet bill is under £90 (Which is way more than the average vet bill) there is no point in trying to claim.

SO, whilst the insurance is a must just in case of serious veterinary attention, they still will not cover your normal day to day illnesses and symptoms.

Both of my boys have had Giardia, which has involved LOTS of probiotics, antibiotics, repeat vet trips and fecal tests, probably all costing over £300 so far - but all separate charges and date periods and non claimable against the insurance.

Think of it like car insurance. You will not get pay outs for punctured tires, exhausts etc, but for a crash then the insurance will pay. Same with pet insurance. Unless its quite serious and or gonna cost a fair penny then you will almost certainly not be covered.

I read somewhere on the petplan website that if it's for a single illness, you can combine the bills for one claim and pay the deductible once? Or does the UK version work differently?

You only pay the excess once per calendar year for each illness.

I agree with Nick on his comparison to car insurance

However, I cant speak for pet plan but I have insured my dogs through Axa and now Direct Line and both have paid out for episodes of the same illness even though these spanned 18 months with only one excess payment e.g my estrela bitch suffered with a urine infection each time she came into season. When we finally decided to have her spayed we then claimed for the all the antibiotics and vet visits we had made for the same condition over 18 months less the excess (deductable) This amounted to over £200 even with the excess deducted so was worth doing. As long as the vet agrees that the illness is a recurrence then you should be fine.

The only thing I would point out is that I think all insurance companies will class things like hip dysplasia as one condition althought it can affect both hips, therefore treating a dog with both hips affected will only qualify once. eg my male estrela that died was insured for £6500 per condition but had to have hip replacements in both his hips but once we reached the limit treating one side we had to pay for the second hip ourselves.

We changed from Axa to Direct line when we got Onai because the premiums doubled when we wanted to renew. Direct Line have paid for Onai's major surgery that totalled over £4000 .

I cant recommend pet insurance enough! I would never have a dog and not insure it.

yes I claimed from petplan for giardia with Zuul, I paid the £60 excess and they covered all other bills, even though they were spread out over 2 or 3 weeks.