Budgeting for Barking & Meowing: Pet Insurance Explained

Traveling with our furry companions can sometimes be challenging. But families wouldn’t be the same without them, so of course, bring them with you! When we launched, 6 years ago, we brought our 80lb dog, Lady, our 2 cats, Fiona and Irma. I’m going to show you some things that worked for us, that will hopefully help you in your travels.

Do you have a large dog that doesn’t quite walk up the steps naturally, instead just basically leaping, maybe touching a stair or two and then landing in your rig? When exiting the rig, the same happens, but in reverse? This was Lady. She was basically a bull in a china shop and never quite understood how to gracefully traverse the RV steps. RV steps are actually not good for a dog to go up or down - especially larger breeds. They really are just too steep for them to safely use. We learned this lesson the hard way, when Lady was 9 years old. She went to launch herself into the RV, and missed, landing on her leg and breaking it. The vet said it was very similar to a football injury.

We were in our home state, but not super close to our regular vets office. So, I called around to find someone first to initially see her and then again to find out how much surgery was going to be. One thing to take into consideration when finding a vet office to see your pet on the road, is that unless you take them to an emergency office, typically vets have a booked calendar and getting into a vet that’s not your established vet can take some time. Luckily the one I found had an opening pretty quickly to see her. The surgery was going to cost about $3700. Great.

We went ahead with the surgery and got her all fixed up. It was a bit scary for us to go through, due to her age and being put to sleep - there’s a lot of risk there - and because if there were any complications, it was going to stretch our budget even further. It is an awful feeling to “decide” whether your most loved pets’ life or body parts are “worth” the cost.

During the weeks of injury, surgery and healing, Lady was not able to use the RV steps at all. She could not hop in and out of the vehicles for traveling and she had to “take it easy” for several weeks. Again, Lady was a bull - there really was no going “easy” for her.

Good thing Dan is strong enough to pick her up to lift her in and out of the RV, because that’s exactly what had to happen. Every single time she had to go out, he cradled her in his arms and lifted her in and out of the RV and in and out of the vehicles. After a few months, I did some research and found Pet Steps. It was our first great investment for her!

We tried a ramp, but she couldn’t get her body up and down very well. The steps were much better for her. They are easy for the kids and I to use, so we could go back to taking her out regularly, without Dan having to lift her each time - which was also much better for her. Essentially, they are stairs that are not so steep. They work for the RV and both our Expedition and the F-250. We even bought an extra step to add on if we needed it to be higher/longer, but we never needed it.

Let’s fast-forward a couple years, to when we suddenly lost Irma. Both of our cats were adopted together, they were sisters. They were both feline-Luekemia positive. We knew that when we adopted them and knew that they could have health problems and/or a shorter lifespan. Irma was a totally healthy cat, until she wasn’t. All of a sudden, she wasn’t eating, she was incontinent, losing weight and just overall, took a turn for the worst, out of nowhere. We were in Florida at the time, which is not our home state - so nowhere near our regular office. We knew whatever she had going on was something she was not going to be able to recover from. I was able to find a Humane Society to put her down. Very affordable, I think I paid $50, but you cannot go in with your pet - so if that’s important to you, the Humane Society isn’t the right place for your family.

This leads us to 2022, when Lady started having other issues. She was certainly slowing down - as she was 10 years old now. We noticed over a period of a couple days, that she was having a lot of trouble getting up from a laying position and her legs were giving out on her while she was walking. And then one morning, she couldn’t get up at all. So, here I go again, finding a vet in the area to see her. We thought for sure it was going to be the end for her. We took her to the emergency vet in the area and they wheeled her into the building on a stretcher.

While we were in the waiting room, anxiously waiting on news of our dog, another dog was there being treated for cancer. When the nurse came out to tell the owner what they were doing today and the cost, he interrupted her and said “I don’t need to see it, he has insurance, just do whatever you need to, it doesn’t matter.” I was in awe. Here I am, sitting here wondering if Lady is going to survive or not - and if she does, am I going to be able to afford the cost of her living? Am I going to have to put her down simply because I can’t afford a big vet bill? And this guy’s is like “yea, whatever, it doesn’t matter”.

Lady was diagnosed with arthritis, put on steroids and sent home. The vet also recommended a harness for her so that we could assist in holding her up while she was squatting to go to the bathroom and hold up her back-end while her legs were not supporting her well enough to eat, get up or walk. The harness was also a great help when she just wasn’t strong enough to walk herself up and down those stairs. Dan was back to lifting her in and out of the RV again. This time though, he just lifted her by the harness, rather than having to cradle her and risk injury to her. The harness also made it so that the kids and I could lift her if he wasn’t home. Of course, it took two of us - but was still fairly easy and safe.

The harness was really a great assistance for her. The front detaches from the back, so if you only need the front, you can just use that part. It can stay on all the time and is easily removable and washable. We used that harness everyday for the rest of her life.

Once we got home and settled, I immediately started researching pet insurance. There are several out there, but the only one I would recommend using is Trupanion. First of all, it is very easily used in all of the USA and Canada, even if you’re not in your hometown. That’s important for us that are never in our hometown! Secondly, it’s the only carrier that can be processed while you’re AT the vets office. Meaning, if the vet can input the insurance on their end, there’s a chance the insurance will immediately take care of their part, allowing you to pay less on the spot! It’s important to know that not every vets office is set up to do this. In those cases, you pay upfront and then Trupanion will reimburse.

I immediately enrolled Lady and Fiona in insurance and that was an immediate weight lifted off my shoulders. Now I knew that whatever happened, I wouldn’t have to choose life or death over the cost of the procedure/care. Enrolling is a breeze. You input the information it asks you about your pet, and then it gives you a slider for you to choose your deductible. Obviously, the lower the deductible, the higher the monthly cost. You choose what you’re comfortable with. For Lady, we went with a $500 deductible. She was older when we enrolled her, so the cost of her coverage was higher. Fiona only had a $200 deductible because she was younger and was more affordable. The great thing about the deductible, is that it is a deductible per illness, rather than per year. Meaning, if you have insurance before your pet is diagnosed with arthritis, let’s say - then you would pay that deductible one time and then the rest of their life, they’re covered with a 10% co-insurance. So yes, there is still some out of pocket - but 10% co-insurance, means that if we would’ve had this when Lady broke her leg, we would’ve paid $500 deductible + $370, totaling only $870 rather than $3700.

I’m sure to many of you, $3700 isn’t the end of the world. For us, having Lady since she was 6 months old, and being the first emergency she had, it wasn’t the end of the world for us - but being older, having multiple emergencies can get costly fast.

While traveling through Texas, at the end of 2023, Lady was out of her arthritis medication and we weren’t going to be back to our regular vet for a few more months. So, I found another vet in the area that would see her. Note that insurance does not pay for the exam or vaccines. That’s a minimal cost that you will always be responsible for. Anyway, while at the vet, the doctor found that Lady had a cyst on her abdomen (We noticed she had something growing there and was going to be addressed at our regular office when we got home) that was concerning. She drew fluid from it and sent it off. Sure enough, it came back cancerous. I made an appointment with our regular vet to be taken care of once we were back in town.

Our vet did her own exam and ultrasound and confirmed it should probably be removed. Of course we got it removed, and thanks to Trupanion, paid under $1000 (For original fluid screening, and then all the care at our vet - it all counted - not just the surgery) when the total was several thousand. In addition, if that cyst grew back or spread, her deductible was already met. Luckily, the vet was able to remove all the cancer and we were back to living life like normal.

Unfortunately, we had to put Lady down in March of 2025 due to suspected cushings disease and old age.

Let’s switch gears and talk about Fiona for a minute. She was really a healthy cat, so we never had any problems with her, until she was suddenly not ok. Dan had just walked out the door, and hadn’t closed it yet, so Fiona was walking to the door to decide whether she wanted to go out or not. She did escape, from time to time. Vincent saw her and picked her up and put her back on the floor away from the door. When he did, she immediately fell over and looked like she was struggling to breathe. Dan knew it was her time, but I was convinced it was just something silly like a cold, and we should go get her checked out.

So, off to the vet again! This time, we were not in a populated area and the only emergency vet with an opening was 1.5 hours away. So we all piled in, and took her to the vet. It turned out that she had a huge tumor attached to her heart that was making it hard for her to breathe. Being that it was attached to her heart, she would’ve needed to see a specialist and have surgery pretty immediately, and probably wouldn’t survive, anyway. To see the specialist, and have the surgery and treatment, it would cost somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000. We decided not to put her through that, seeing it was really unlikely she would survive, and put her down that day.

This office made putting her down much more special than the humane society. We were able to sit with her in a care room, and hold her until her last breath. They also provided her ashes, ink paw print and clay paw print for us. Of course those were additional costs, and insurance doesn’t cover that. But, if this is important to you, call around. Different offices provide different things, and going to the Humane Society isn’t your only choice.

Do you know what I was so thankful for, though? When the vet came in and told us the news, we were able to decide if we were going to put her down based on her quality of life and whether or not we wanted to put her through the treatment it was going to require. Not on how much it was going to cost. Our out of pocket expense if we were to go through with it, would’ve been at most, $3200.

The feeling of truly deciding what was right for her in the situation was so different then the feeling I had while sitting with Lady when she got carted into the emergency vet and not knowing if I would be able to afford to allow her to live.

So, to sum it up, insurance is definitely worth the monthly cost for the peace of mind you get when caring for your beloved pets. You will have a deductible that is per illness, not per year and will be responsible for 10% co-insurance. Trupanion is the only company that will allow you to file the claim while you’re standing at the vet or pre-authorize coverage so that your initial out of pocket cost is less. If you need to pay up front and get reimbursed, (this was the case for Fiona) they reimburse very quickly and is deposited directly in your bank account. You are able to get care for your pets Nationwide and in Canada with no trouble. I believe I’ve used our coverage in 5 different states.

Oh my gosh! I didn’t even talk about their customer service! Top-Notch! I have had tons of questions while dealing with our pets, and I’ve just simply logged into our account online, clicked the chat button and chatted with an agent online immediately - 24/7! They are so helpful, and I never have to wait for something to be answered or taken care of. Also, when a claim goes in, I get updated by email every couple days letting me know the status of the claim and if there’s anything else I need to provide. By the way, submitting claims is easy too.

Here is the referral link for you to check out what it would cost for you to insure your pets. https://refer.trupanion.com/dealoras-2

I truly cannot say enough about Trupanion and what it’s done for us. We now have 3 new cats in our family, and they were each added to insurance the day we brought them home! Their deductible is only $100 each because they’re so young and affordable, and my peace of mind, bank account and their lives are protected.

In loving memory of Lady, Fiona and Irma