# Pet Smart Health Insurance



## BabysDad (Nov 2, 2010)

Calling around to get Baby and appointment for a physical check up and a dental cleaning!!!! A deeeeeeeep Dental Cleaning.....

Pet Smart has a Health insurance plan for $69 a year which covers unlimited doctors visits, shots and discount on prescription products. The Dental Plan is $32 a month which includes x rays cleaning and maintenance, we failed to ask about extractions etc...

Does anyone have any experiences with these 2 plans? Opinions?

We met the vet on staff a couple of times and we really like her, so do all 3 of our dogs... and Buddy the Golden Retriever is really hard to please....... but he likes her.

Also, I hope I posted this under the right heading, if not, Moderators please feel free to move it and correct me, I'll learn, just takes longer to teach old dogs new tricks.. Thanks all.


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## LDMomma (Mar 28, 2009)

You mean at Banfield?

We had their Wellness Plan (it is NOT insurance) and found it to be more of a rip-off than money saving. It does cover shots, visits, and what not but they charge WAY more for everything else to make up the difference. Also, we encountered a hard sell every single time we went in there. With their plan, we ended up spending over 3k the first year in vet fees and that's not including the premiums for the plan. We never went to another vet and the only odd thing that popped up was one skin infection and one ear infection. Also, it was like $22 per month not $69 per year.

We currently have PetPlan which is true insurance (can be sued at any vet) and not a limited amount of benefits. It has been a MUCH nicer experience.


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## BabysDad (Nov 2, 2010)

Just checked with my wife, and yes, the name of the Veterinary group was BanFeild........ Thanks for the advise.

The dental plan seemed reasonable based on the other local vets that we called, and we asked them about this plan at Pet Smart (should I be mentioning their name on line?), and they didn't say anything negative about it. 

Local vets all mostly start around $180 for a cleaning, but xrays. extractions and followups are all extra......... a lot extra...........


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## LDMomma (Mar 28, 2009)

I'm not sure if you can buy the dental plan alone.

Only my one dog has had a dental cleaning. The rest have not needed it.

I'm not saying that the plan can't work to your advantage just that they (Dr.s and nurses) are under a tremendous pressure to sell, sell, sell. We were often advised to get things done that were not necessary or even really related. When we declined them, we were treated like we didn't love our pets. 

I'd have to pull out all of our old invoices and such but I know that when I call to get a quote for a spay I was told $1200 most places are like $300-400 max. 

Like for the discount they offer, the HW meds they sold (WormShield) was $30 per 6 months through them. I can get it from my vet for $38 for the whole year. 

If you decide to go for it, just be prepared for the hard sell. I would say that the quality of care received was good in most cases during the year that we visited their office. The main complaints are the hard sell making it hard to know when you can trust the drs advice and when something is being recommended for revenue and that every single appointment took at least one hour- even if it was just for a shot.


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## BabysDad (Nov 2, 2010)

Looking back on a couple of conversations that we had with the vets there, Your advise is dead on. Last week we took Sugar, our Yellow lab there after a call to our vet because she had an ear ache, again. The doctor advised us to use a regiment of cleaners and enzyme solutions that we could get off the shelf. The previous doctors visit for this was $50. While at pet smart, they said they could look at her ear for $90, and would advise us what to buy for her..........


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