Finally insurence help for exotics!

So my cats have had pet insurance since they were kittens and it has greatly helped - one of my cats is now on an immunotherapy regimen that is ~$350 a bottle. Her insurance covers 90% of this. I have asked the insurance rep that comes the the vet clinic I work at regularly if they will ever add exotic animals and the answer is always a hard no. But, it turns out the Nationwide now offers limited exotics pet insurance - most common parrots, snakes, geckos, some lizards, ferrets, some amphibians etc. I haven't called for a real quote yet but the advertisement that we got at the clinic says $8 / month for reptiles on average and $16 / month for birds on average - prices probably differ by state. They offer discounts for multiple pets as well, but I don't know if that includes reptiles. I'm going to be calling them on my day off this week for more info.

If more people knew about this maybe there would be more people willing to take their pets to the vet.

Considering snakes if cared for properly are not very likely to have issues compare to other animals you will be better off paying for the cost of treatment in case this happened.

In the last 14 years out of at least 100 adults in my care I have had ZERO issue that means if insurance was $15 per animal per month and I had paid that I would have spend $21000

Now on a side note I wish I had insurance for my dogs especially since one cost me $1200 in surgery every two years but it's a gamble, and I have no issue paying the bill.

Very interesting, but I'm with you, Deborah...it's so rare for me to need a snake-vet these days, & it wouldn't pay for me to have insurance on them.

I don't even have dental insurance...I'd rather rely on savings to just pay my tab than sink money into a policy that I may or may not need. I'm not saying insurance
is a bad thing though, you just have to assess your own individual needs, & compare that to what you'll pay into the insurance, & usually there are still co-pays or other
"gotchas". It's a bit of a gamble either way, not "one size fits all".

I've had a couple of RI's over the years and they were super cheap treatments. Although the vet told be he had to perform surgery on a burmese once because the owner placed the FT rabbit on a towel and the snake ate the towel with the rabbit.

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Originally Posted by MasonC2K

I've had a couple of RI's over the years and they were super cheap treatments. Although the vet told be he had to perform surgery on a burmese once because the owner placed the FT rabbit on a towel and the snake ate the towel with the rabbit.

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Ouch, towel-removal surgery could set your budget back some. Insurance comes down to personal finance though...for people who can save some $ in the bank, or have
good credit to use for "surprises", you might pay into having the insurance more than if you'd just paid for any vet visits needed, but if the smaller regular payments for the insurance provide "peace of mind" for sudden large bills, then it's worth it. It's good to have the option, especially if you have a lot of pets.

How did your burmese do, sans towel?

I'm considering it for at least the snake (and I would def do it if I had birds). Even perfect husbandry can't prevent everything. Radiographs at my clinic are $210 for 2 views and $86 for each additional view, bacterial cultures can run $100-$375, etc.

I took my leopard gecko to a specialist in August and it was a $354 visit to run bloodwork since he had to be sedated to get a sample and then the cost to run said sample. It would have been nice to not have to put that on my credit card and have insurance cover most of it. Its easier for me personally to budget a few dollars a month rather than sudden large costs.

But it is at least now an option - you read it in posts all the time here "I don't have enough money to take my snake to a vet", the visit + diagnostics + medications only get more expensive with bigger animals. The vet costs for a ball python will be much less than for a 10 foot burm, simply because of the amount of medication needed to treat the same illness.