Did you say Medical Aid for your dog?

After recent trips to the vet (twice in one week...) my mind has been working overtime as to how I can deal with the vet bills better. While I was waiting for Salvador to come out of the operating room on the one occasion, I found a pamphlet for pet insurance and I think this is the answer.
Accidents will happen when you have a pet! Don't ever kid yourself and think 'my dog/cat is young and I can handle paying for the initial shots. If we get past that we'll be fine right?' Wrong...Salvador has been to the vet thrice this year alone...keep in mind I've only had him for a year and these don't include going for his routine injections...So medical aid it is for him!

When we were at the vet for the second time around the other day, due to the dreaded grass seed incident, I asked the vet to microchip him - this is one of the prerequisites for getting medical aid. You do not need it to sign up initially, but your pet will have to be chipped if you are going to claim. This seemed like a relatively pain free procedure where the vet just injects a small microchip into the dog's neck, you fill out some forms and you're off. They send the forms away and you stick your pet's code in the front of it's vet book.

Next thing I did was to go online and find a pet insurer. I used Rogz Pet Insurance and I chose the plan that I thought best suits Salvador's needs. At first I thought of going with the cheaper first option, but then there isn't much difference in price between the first plan and the third, I filled out the very easy application and almost immediately I was informed that Salvador was on his way to be covered. I received a final mail yesterday saying that Salvador is now on medical aid!
The only little annoyance is that you can only claim 1 month after you made your first payment...so here starts the countdown and let's hope I can keep Salvador out of trouble till then!