Pet Insurance For Guinea Pigs

Last month, we talked about how expensive veterinary bills for your guinea pig are. If you found those prices to be a little high, you may be wondering what you can do to keep your vet bills under control. Aside from weighing your guinea pig to detect health problems early on before they become more serious, there are several options you can explore when it comes to pet insurance for guinea pigs:

Pet Insurance For Guinea Pigs

One option is to get pet insurance for your guinea pig. In the United States (where we live), the only company we found that offers this is VPI, who offers an Exotic Pet Insurance option. Unfortunately, when we searched for reviews of VPI, what we found was mostly negative. People reported rude customer service, low coverage amounts, and dubious claims of pre-existing conditions to deny coverage. In the U.K., there are other companies, such as Exotic Direct. We haven't found the same horror stories for the U.K. companies, but guinea pig owners in the U.K. don't seem to think it's worth it.

Credit Cards For Vet Bills

There are also non-insurance options, such as a Care Credit card. It's a credit card that you can use for medical bills, including vet bills, with no interest for a grace period of 6, 12, 18 or 24 months. However, if you don't pay it off before the grace period ends, the interest rate will be 26%. Ouch!

Pet Discount Cards

Another non-insurance option is a discount program, such as Pet Assure. According to their website, the way it works is that you present your discount card, and you get 25% off your vet bill. In terms of price, you can sign up one guinea pig for $79/year or up to four guinea pigs for $149/year. However, before signing up, make sure you check if your favorite vet participates. We did not find our favorite vet on the list, for example, and others have had this problem as well.

Given the problems with these options, we told our humans to just make sure they've always got a little money set aside in case of emergencies. We welcome your feedback if you know of any other options, or if you'd like to share your experience with any of the options we've mentioned.

If I get sick, I'm going to blame Lola for always stealing my food and monopolizing the water bottle!