9149 Pet Insurance in Italy

Leading on from the For those with Pets here in Italy thread, I have a particular question that I would like to see answered. Has anyone here any experience of insuring their pet here in Italy for vet fees, etc. I am thinking of the same sort of policy as you can get in the UK from people like Pet Plan, etc. As you may have gathered, I live here in Italy full-time and do not have any address in the UK that I can use to insure my dog (a mastiff, by the way) in that way (by lying, I mean). So - does anyone have any actual experience of pet health insurance here? Thanks.

Category
General chat about Italy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 04:16

I think the question might be Nardini, do you need to insure them at all? Vets bills in my experience in Italy are tiny in comparison to the UK, especially the South where we used to lived.
One of our cats was very ill as a kitten and spent 10days with our lovely Italian vet, it had xrays, drips, injections the works! and she was embaressed at the end of all this loving care to present us with a bill for 150e, I cannot begin to imagine what that would have cost in Sussex.
I am not suggesting that you should not take out insurance, just that vets fees here are very small in comparison, and it might be an option you could consider.
A

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 05:18

I agree, veterinary fees are very small in Italy compared to those in the UK or even other places in Europe. I had a look at [url=http://www.dogwelcome.it]Viaggiare e fare vacanza con il tuo cane o gatto - Dogwelcome - Vacanze e viaggi in Italia ed all'estero con cani e gatti - Hotel, agriturismo, campeggi, trasporti, accesso spiagge dove gli animali domestici sono ammessi[/url], but, although there is a lot of information regarding pets in Italy and travelling with them to other countries, there is no mention of pet insurance. Perhaps, you could write to them and find out.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 05:07

Thank you both for your thoughts. Sadly, vets charge much the same as in the UK when it comes to larger dogs and especially so if there are any operations involved in the treatment. Also, of course, with a large dog - even though it is not on the dangerous dogs list - it is still important to have 3rd party insurance protection in place. So, I have to have insurance to cover that part and it seemed logical to try and get the vet fees covered at the same time - if possible. I am trying to convince the local insurance office to ask - and have asked CIM and ENCI for help/advise. If I get any answer, I will post it here.

Thanks again.

P.