So what do you do if you want the best for your pet without the worry of being unable to afford expensive treatment?  Pet insurance is the answer. By taking out pet insurance, you’re not only helping to cushion the costs of expensive veterinary procedures but also ensuring that your pets will get the treatment they need.

“With pet insurance, everybody wins,” says veterinarian Alex Melrose of the Vet Care Animal Hosptial in Grey Lynn, Auckland. “It makes a big difference to the clients who are not of high income to be able to do what you really want for a member of your family without cutting any corners or going through the anguish of not being able to afford any proper treatment. And I’ve seen the reverse, where everybody loses. For example, where people don’t have income that can afford pet treatment, you’re going to have to euthanize 7 out of 10 road traffic accidents. The pet loses because it’s dead, the owner loses because he’s got a dead pet and you lose as a veterinarian because you’re not able to do what you were trained to do and what you want to do.”

In fact, Melrose feels strongly that pet insurance should be an essential part of being a responsible owner. “If you’re going to have an animal, you should look after it to a certain level – that’s part of the responsibility of choosing to have one right from the start. Pet insurance just provides that compulsory saving – putting aside money which will cover costs that you’re going to incur in having a pet over several years – it’s part of being a responsible owner.”

Unlike other parts of the world, especially the UK, pet insurance has not been common in New Zealand: despite having some of the highest pet ownership levels per capita, less than 2% of the country's pets are insured. This might be due to under-exposure to the concept (Kiwis simply don’t know or think of insuring their pets, whereas the average British pet owner considers pet insurance as normal and standard) – or a misconception that pet insurance is only necessary for expensive pedigree breeds.

“Yes, certain breeds are predisposed to having a lot more problems – such as any of the brachycephalic breeds,” says Melrose. “But to be honest, you can give me any breed and I can say something that’s more likely to go wrong with it. Even with mix-breed dogs and cats, there can still be a lot of issues not connected to breed, such as abscesses, problems with its teeth as it gets older, wounds from fighting, possibly allergies, skin conditions or diseases from socialising – these are things we see all the time, plus the injuries and accidents that no-one planned for.”

And although larger breeds will generally cost more as many treatments are calculated based on weight, it doesn’t mean that if you have a small dog, you can safely skip on insurance either.

“These toy dogs and toy-dog crosses that everyone’s getting now – they’re in the clinic all the time!” laughs Melrose. “They’ve got crowded mouths, squashed faces, can’t breathe that well, injure their eyes a lot because they’re quite protruding; often they’re carried a lot so they’re dropped – drop injuries – a whole subset of things that are unique to small breeds.”

New Zealanders’ attitudes to pet insurance are changing though. Interest has been growing, with increased marketing activity from pet insurance companies giving the industry a much-needed boost.

“In the last 12 months, a lot of new clients coming to the clinic have been asking if there is such a thing as pet insurance and whether we have any info on it...certainly a year or two ago, that wasn’t happening at all,” observes Melrose, adding that they recommend pet insurance to all their new pet owners.