...hope you will get an responsible agreement with you vet, that you can pay the bill in instalments and that your dog will recover well and be happy again with even only three legs

s*it happens

...already afraid of, how often I just have to agree with you

I do have the intention of making a big fuss, at the end of the day the vets were wonderful, my dog is happy minus a leg, and she's alive, if the insurance company will not budge, I will try to pay the vet in instalments which i'm hopeful they'll let me do, as even though I work incredibly hard, with stupidly long hours we simply don't have £2000+ available,

Danielle xx

Your vet should be able to understand that you could not have foreseen this outcome. Combination of things occurring together turning out very badly for you. And you were not irresponsible in that you DID take out good pet insurance. Geez what rotten luck this is for you.

We have a member here with a 3 legged dog who does just fine. Your dog is lucky to have you for its owner. I wish your dog a speedy recovery and do keep us updated.

ACCIDENT:
"An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury"

I don't have a copy of the AF policy but check what they class as an accident. I agree with Losos that you should appeal in writing and contact the insurance ombudsman.

Exactly my point! The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating and if your dog never jumps over the fence, you could say that your considered opinion is that it is secure. As soon as the dog jumps over, you can no longer say that and the insurance company can refuse to pay up.

Just a point - it was a WALL not a fence. In my opinion it is much easier to see and know if a fence is 'secure' than to be able to assume that a wall might fall down unless you go around trying to knock it down?

I was thinking about this and wondered what the insurance company's response to paying up would have been if you'd been on the OUTSIDE of that wall and something made it fall and it fell on your dog? Either injuring her badly or causing her to bolt into the path of a car?

I'm sure you'd probly be covered in that case - even if there was a responsibility laid on the owner of the wall.

Just that it seems to me that it was the fact that the wall didn't hold out that is pivotal to what happened next.

As a matter of interest how high was the wall she jumped over, I would guess this may play a crucial part in your questioning their decision.

I queried that earlier saying that obviously SIZE of dog and HEIGHT of wall would be relevant. A short wall could keep a chi in where even a quite tall wall wouldn't safely contain a GSD. (My last GSD could jump up and over a 6ft fence)

But it's more the fact that it seems the dog didn't leap OVER the wall, or clear the wall - they appear to have leapt AT IT and it fell down! Well if it was in such a bad state of repair or built so shoddily that it could be knocked down by a big dog jumping at it - the height of it would seem irrelevant?

Unless this was a very low wall - I think the fact it collapsed is relevant.

I lived in a house with a strong low wall all around 3 sides. Perfectly sufficient to keep my CKCS inside. But not sufficient to keep a neighbour's Lurcher OUT. I ended up putting 4ft high strong fencing on top of the wall to do that (having despaired of the neighbour ever having any control over her destructive albeit not dangerous Lurcher).

And don't forget, the first response from all insurance companies is to deny the claim. They work on the principle that you may then just go away.
Persistence is all.