So my rescue pittie has really bad separation anxiety. Like destroying blinds, howling for hours, peeing everywhere bad. Our vet recommended a veterinary behaviorist which is apparently a whole specialty. The consult alone is $350 and the full treatment plan with follow ups could be $1500-2000. Does pet insurance cover any of this?? I have Embrace and ive been looking through my policy but cant figure out if behavioral stuff is included or not. Anyone have experience getting this covered?
7 Comments
So it depends a lot on the company and plan. Some insurers cover behavioral therapy if its prescribed by a vet and done by a certified veterinary behaviorist. Key word is veterinary. Regular dog trainers usually arent covered. I have Pets Best and they covered about 70% of our behaviorist visits for our dogs noise phobia. Call Embrace directly and ask them what counts as a covered behavioral condition
wait so theres a difference between a behaviorist and a trainer in terms of coverage? i didnt even know that was a thing. gonna call them tomorrow, thanks
Vet tech here. Yes a veterinary behaviorist is a board certified specialist (DACVB). Totally different from a dog trainer. Most insurance companies that cover behavioral issues require the treatment to be recommended or provided by a DVM or DACVB. Some plans also cover the medication portion which can help a lot. Fluoxetine for dogs is pretty affordable tho even without insurance tbh. The behaviorist visits are the expensive part.
We went through this exact thing with our lab mix. Embrace actually does cover behavioral conditions as long as theres a vet diagnosis. We got separation anxiety officially diagnosed and they covered the behaviorist consults and the medication. i think we paid like $400 out of pocket total for everything after reimbursement. It took a few months but honestly our dog is like a completely different animal now. totally worth fighting for the coverage
omg this gives me so much hope. ok so step one is get an official diagnosis from our vet and then find a behaviorist. did you need a referral or could you just go straight to the behaviorist?
we got a referral from our regular vet which i think helped with the insurance claim. like it showed it was medically necessary not just us wanting training. definitely go that route
Just a heads up that even if insurance doesnt cover all of it the medication alone can make a huge difference and its cheap. our pittie is on trazodone for anxiety and its like $15/month. the behaviorist helped us with a desensitization plan too. rescue dogs with separation anxiety break my heart but it really does get better with the right help