Lassie, your dog surgery insurance.

Yes. For our surgery and health insurances, your pet must be clearly identifiable with a microchip or registration number.

Please note that if your pet is not chipped, we will not be able to process any claims submitted until a chip number is available. Chipping can be covered by the yearly preventive budget available in each of our full health insurance packages (up to €35 in Mini, €100 in Midi, and €140 in Maxi).

Lassie surgery and health insurance policies have a general waiting period of 30 days and a special waiting period of 18 months for specific diagnoses from the start of the insurance. There is a reduced waiting period of 2 days from the start of the insurance for accidents. However, there is no waiting time for the usage of the preventive care flat rate, or for telemedicine. If you have chosen tomorrow's date as your start date, your insurance will be active from midnight.

Waiver of waiting periods:

If your puppy or kitten is no more than 120 days old at the start of the insurance and a Lassie health certificate filled out by your veterinarian shows no indications of illness, the waiting periods are waived. Your insurance will then be valid immediately from the start date stated on your policy. The health certificate must be issued within the first 10 days after the insurance begins. Without this certificate, the standard waiting periods apply.

General waiting periods for the surgery and health insurances may also be waived if your pet has been previously insured for at least 12 months with a comparable insurance coverage, and the switch to Lassie was made without any gaps in coverage. Special waiting periods will be credited, provided that the benefit was also covered by the previous insurer.

For further details, please refer to paragraph 2.2. of the general insurance terms and conditions.

There is no waiting period for dog liability insurance.

There are some operations and procedures that the OP insurance does not cover. These include, but are not limited to:

• Treatment measures and operations due to previous complaints that existed/began before the start of insurance - i.e. something for which your pet has been treated, medicated, examined or shown symptoms within the last 24 months. Provided your pet has not shown symptoms for 24 months and has not been treated, medicated or investigated for this pre-existing condition, costs for treatment and surgery will again be covered under the Insurance Terms & Conditions if medically necessary.

• Treatment measures or surgeries for injuries/illnesses that existed/began prior to the effective date of coverage or during the waiting periods and are considered chronic (i.e. illnesses that have existed for 8 weeks).

• Treatment measures or surgeries due to congenital, genetic hereditary diseases as well as breed-specific diseases (e.g. correction of malformations or deformities), regardless of when the disease was first observed. This exclusion does not apply to the diagnoses and associated conditions of the special waiting period specifically listed in 2.2.1. of our Terms and Conditions, e.g. brachycephalic syndrome, hip joint dysplasia (HD) or elbow dysplasia (ED). A complete list can be found in our insurance Terms and Conditions.

• Treatment measures or operations to remedy serious impairments of the animal that already existed before the insurance took effect and are expected to exist for more than one year, i.e. improvement is not expected (disability).

• Treatment measures or operations that serve to improve breeding or establish the breed status of the animal

• Treatments and surgeries for diseases that normally could have been prevented if subsequent vaccinations had been given without gaps:

  • For dogs: Distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parvovirus and rabies.

  • For cats: Calicivirus and Rhinotracheitis virus (feline rhinotracheitis), Panleukopenia (feline epidemic diarrhea), Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), feline leucosis, and rabies.

• Preventive or elective examinations and treatments not directly related to a disease or health condition, or preventive examinations used to diagnose a disease not covered under the policy.

• Non-exclusively pain-relieving dental treatment, dentures, fillings and treatment procedures or surgery for dental or jaw abnormalities.

• Spaying and neutering without medical indication (in the surgery coverage, as well as in the Mini and Midi medical plan).

• Care accessories and supplies

• Transport costs for the animal or the veterinarian

• Supplementary and dietetic feed

For a full list of excluded procedures, please refer to our insurance terms & conditions.

Yes, you have several ways to get a discount with Lassie.

1. Save through our Prevention Bonus Program: Take courses and answer quiz questions in the Lassie app and get a discount on your insurance premium - every insurance year! At Lassie, we want to help you prevent illnesses and injuries in your pet before they occur! That's why you can take part in prevention courses where you learn how to care for your dog or cat - e.g. what diet is suitable for your kitten or how to socialize your dog. You can test your knowledge with subsequent quizzes. If you answer all the quiz questions in a course correctly, you will receive points that you can use to get a discount on the price of your cat health insurance. Save up to €50 per insurance year on dog surgery or health insurance per insurance year and up to €25 on cat surgery or health insurance.

2. The Lassie Refer-a-Friend program: We also want every pet owner to benefit from a preventative approach to pet care. That's why we have the Lassie referral program, where you can invite others to join Lassie and get extra discounts for yourself and others! Get €30 off your next Lassie invoice for every successful referral. Learn more.

3. Multiple pet discount: Would you like to insure more than one pet with Lassie? Then you can benefit from the Lassie multi-animal discount, which gives you a 10% price reduction.

Lassie’s surgery insurance for cats covers medically necessary surgeries, as well as examinations within 10 days before the operation and 30 days of aftercare:

• Operations required by veterinary medicine (e.g. under full or partial anaesthesia) up to 4 times the GOT rate

• Preoperative examinations in the period of 10 days before the planned operation

• Follow-up treatment up to the 30th calendar day after the operation

• A subsidy of up to €500 for the use of prostheses, provided they are necessary for veterinary purposes

• Outpatient and inpatient treatment, including room and board in a veterinary clinic 10 days prior and 30 days post operation

• Medication, consumables and aids, if prescribed by the veterinarian 10 days prior and 30 days post operation

• Travel cancellation costs of up to €500 if you are unable to take a booked vacation trip due to an accident-related operation on your insured pet.

A complete list of the benefits included can be found in our insurance terms & conditions.

You can book an appointment with a professional vet from our partner Firstvet, right from the Lassie app. For the appointment you’ll need to download the Firstvet app where the video consultation will happen. If this is not possible for you, you can also specify in the booking that the veterinarian should reach you by phone. You will get the data you need to access your video call via text message shortly before your appointment. Use the access information to log into the video call with an experienced vet, where they will be able to take a close look at your dog and give you advice or care recommendations right away. The majority of your concerns can be solved directly through the call. However it’s important to note that prescriptions for medication cannot be given, so in that case an appointment at a vet practice will be necessary.

At Lassie, we don’t want you to face financial hardship to keep your pet healthy. Costs for operations are difficult to predict. However, should an emergency occur, the costs can quickly run into several hundred or even thousands of Euros. Common surgeries for dogs and their costs include:

• Removing tumors €450 - €1,000

• Repairing ligament tears €1,500 - €2,500

• Repairing broken bones €1,000 - €2,500

• Fixing gastric torsion €1,500 - €2,500

• Fixing joint issues up to €1,000

With Lassie’s OP Schutz you can get these life-saving operations for your dog without a second thought - Lassie takes away your financial worries.

Nobody wants their loved one to have to go through multiple surgeries in a year. Unfortunately, this cannot always be avoided. With Lassie’s surgery insurance, all of your cat's medically necessary surgeries are covered, as many times as is needed. Any tests or preparations that need to be made 10 days prior to the operation, as well as 30 days of recovery procedures post operation, will also be covered for all operations.