We have a Basset Hound. We took out our pet insurance with Direct line, almost immediately after collecting him from the breeder.
When he went to the vets, the day after we bought him, to have his first set of vaccinations,the vet found he had a slight ear infection. The vet mentioned how bassets are prone to these (which we knew) and mentioned that he had unusually large ear canals- even for a basset.

He has since had several ear infections. On two occasions the vet wrote in the notes how large our dog's ears are.

Anyway, July this year, he started shaking his head, so we went off to the vet again and the vet said it wasn't an ear infection and that the skin inside although inflamed, wasnt at all infected. He examined our dog and said his skin was inflamed and asked if he had been itching- and he had.
So the vet said that it was probably an allergy and suggested allergy testing. All in all, the visit coat us £240.
The allergy tests all came back negative.

So we made our first claim to direct line. They said that they would email us the forms, get the vet to fill them in, then email them back and within 10 days, they'd have the claim sorted.

FIVE WEEKS later, I had to ring them and ask what was going on. I was told a letter is being written to us detailing that the claim has been rejected because our dog had an ear infection within the first 14 days of the policy, and their vet nurses have deemed his ear infection as a puppy is linked to his inflammed skin- two years later. I am fuming!

Bassets are prone to ear infections! As are spaniels and any other long eared dog. Our vet even said that this complaint is not like the previous ear problems.

I'm now awaiting my vet to return from annual leave and asking him to contest the decision.

Direct Line are a bunch of cowboys who will use ANY excuse to wriggle out of paying.