Smart Pak ColiCare

[Hopeless]

With the few posts about colic coming up and the fact that every time I visit Smart Pak they tell me I should enroll my horse in their ColiCare program I am just wondering if anyone is participating in that program or if you have any thoughts on it.

Since my horse is not worth a lot of money (although he is priceless to me) I don’t have insurance on him. I almost lost my first mare to colic and the last mare I had was lost to colic after I sold her. The idea of some sort of colic protection is a nice idea.

[Scribbler]

Most horses never colic. Some owners have mutiple horses colic, and some owners have no horses colic. A huge component of colic risk is horse and stable management.

I gather than what SmartPak is selling is a colic surgery insurance that requires you to feed one of their supplement lines forever.

Some points. Colic is a very broad term for any kind of digestive tract pain. Some forms of colic resolve with minimal intervention, some resolve with tubing, some require surgery. The category of colic that tends to require surgery is a twist or a serious intestinal blockage, which are fatal otherwise. Surgery is risky, last resort, and has a very very long recovery time, up to a year. Some horses never fully regain past fitness.

But there are fatal colics that do not respond to surgery, such as ones caused by e coli or samonella infections, or if the intestine or colon is ruptured, or if there is a lymphoma, etc.

In other words, colic surgery is expensive, difficult, risky, and only appropriate for a narrow range of “colic.”

I notice that SmartPak does not insure the $350 Sunday afternoon emergency farm call to come out, tranq and tube your horse, and tell you everything will be fine now. They only insure the actual surgery.

I note they are also only accepting low-risk horses. In other words, most folks who come looking for a colic prevention supplement because their horse just colicked, are going to be ineligible.

Question: $7500 is on the low side for colic surgery. If your horse needed surgery but the costs were going to be over $10,000 , and the outcome unsure (as it usually is), would you be comfortable coming up with another $2000 to $5000 on top of the $7500? If not, the insurance is going to be useless because when the time comes, you won’t be able to afford treatment even with the Smartpak payout.

I think it is a marketing program on Smartpak’s end, and that they tend to have excellent marketing, and to oversell their products. The “packs” seem to work well for folks on full board as they can be easily dealt with by barn staff, but seem overpackaged and overpriced for people who do their own feeding.

[longlanefarm]

:encouragement: This ^^^^^

[scrbear11]

I just enrolled my horse in it. But I would not have added it if my horse was not already insured. It’s pointless.

In order to add colic surgery insurance to my mare’s standing insurance policy, it would cost an additional $15 a month. She’s on a similar digestive supplement already, so what’s $20 more a month to get the same amount of coverage.

Most horses may never colic. And I may never use this coverage. And would I do surgery. Absolutely. If the odds of success outweighs the odds of euthanasia, I’ll take my chances. It will cost far more than $12,000 (the average colic surgery and in hospital recovery) to replace my horse. And a reimbursement of $7500 is better than no reimbursement at all.

The average colic visit should be covered under the major medical/surgical portion of your horse’s current insurance policy.

[Scribbler]

OP has already said she has a low dollar value horse so she doesn’t have insurance and probably can’t get it.

[Jerme]

@scrbear11

I just enrolled my horse in it. But I would not have added it if my horse was not already insured. It’s pointless.

If there is risk of getting it (which can not be predicted), its better to get it covered. If you have major medical covers which includes treatment, surgery and medications, i don’t understand the point of having another insurance; that too when it pays only for the surgical cost.

The problem is that surgical cost might be just $4000-$5000 but how about post surgery care as they also bill you equal amount in pre and post care. The other component won’t be taken care by ColiCare.

The only advantage of having this is while Colicare/EQCO takes up the surgical cost; the regular insurance takes up the pre and post care expenses.

[Tigoli]

A friend of mine who’s a pretty well established vet has had trouble with SmartPak paying out the Colicare. She’s seen them look for ANY reason they can find to invalidate the claim. Sure, she hasn’t had that many claims come through, as most of her clients have major medical, but of the few claims she’s had, none of them have been paid out.

If you’re going to use it, read the fine print VERY carefully and make sure you follow all of it to the letter. Make sure you do the math as well, if it isn’t a supplement your horse needs, it might be better to put that money in a savings account for general vet bills instead.

[Hopeless]

@Tigoli

A friend of mine who’s a pretty well established vet has had trouble with SmartPak paying out the Colicare. She’s seen them look for ANY reason they can find to invalidate the claim. Sure, she hasn’t had that many claims come through, as most of her clients have major medical, but of the few claims she’s had, none of them have been paid out.

If you’re going to use it, read the fine print VERY carefully and make sure you follow all of it to the letter. Make sure you do the math as well, if it isn’t a supplement your horse needs, it might be better to put that money in a savings account for general vet bills instead.

Thank you this is exactly the type of information I was look for. I just had a feeling that they were going to be difficult when it actually came to a pay out.

Although the supplement you have to buy to get it seems like a good product, I am happy with what I have Tank on right now. If this program had been a good one, I might have switched him, just for peace of mind. Even if he is low risk, even if it wouldn’t cover the whole thing, etc, $7,500 is better than it all coming out of my pocket.

But you are right Tigoli, I think I will start a special saving account just for Tank, because you just never know what these crazy creatures will get into.

[Obsidian_Fire]

I’ve been wondering about this myself. My mare is on it, because my gelding was, but like the OP she’s low $$ (altho well loved) and frankly I don’t have the money up front or behind or anywhere else to pay for colic surgery if it came to that, sooooo… why am I forking out nearly $50 a month for what amounts to free shipping on a minor handful of items I order once in awhile… and a small discount on store branded products I almost never buy…

Hmmmm.

[TullyMars]

I am the idiot that did the Platinum Performance Colic program…It is 10k of coverage, but again, only if they cut the colic. I was going to be using platinum anyway, so it was silly not to add it. I do hate the little foil packets though! I find them constantly flying out of the trash and the dumpster!

[My_Two_Cents]

I have my horse on Smartdigest Ultra. She looks really good using this product. Prior to using it she looked a bit un-thrifty. Adding Smartdigest Ultra was the only change we made at the time. Since I am going to feed it to her anyway and I’m not having to do any thing different with a vet than I usually do, I enrolled in ColiCare and I hope I never have to use it.

So I am buying the product and the colic insurance is a bonus.

[Tigoli]

@Hopeless

I think I will start a special saving account just for Tank, because you just never know what these crazy creatures will get into.

I have a savings account for mine… even though he’s insured! I may have taken a chunk out of it last year to buy the pony some transportation :lol:

Either way, have a chat with your vet before you commit to the ColiCare. I’m sure they have an opinion!

[warriorhorse]

I just put money in saving every week for paying vet bills. Even putting 25 dollars a week into a savings account will add up pretty quick. Colic surgery isn’t a sure fire bet they will survive either. Can have big $$$$ into it to have a dead horse in the end. Know of someone who had colic surgery done on a high dollar horse, he died a year later on the surgery table. Owner was 15,000 in the hole and no horse to show for it. So really need to weigh the risk if survival rate is lower than 50 percent. I’d opt to pts over surgery on a low dollar horse.

[MysticOakRanch]

It costs $45/month? That is about $550/year. A major medical insurance policy can be purchased for that price, and will cover EVERYTHING.

[Scribbler]

@MysticOakRanch

It costs $45/month? That is about $550/year. A major medical insurance policy can be purchased for that price, and will cover EVERYTHING.

Can you buy insurance for a low dollar horse? If your horse is worth $1000, can you get a payout for $10,000 worth of surgery? Or is it like cars?

[My_Two_Cents]

@MysticOakRanch

It costs $45/month? That is about $550/year. A major medical insurance policy can be purchased for that price, and will cover EVERYTHING.

You are also getting product included in that $45 a month. I don’t think an insurance company would think my trail horse is very valuable and that I would be able to insure her but I think the world of her. If I pay an insurance company for her the money is just gone at least she gets a little something out of Smartpak. Other horses with more dollar value I consider different insurance plans but for this little mare this plan makes sense.

[findeight]

No, you cannot get a 1k horse insured and collect 10k in benefits. Actually nobody writes a policy on a 1k horse anyway.

That SP thing does not automatically pay out on any colic surgery, there are many reasons for colic no supplement or worming protocol can help with. It’s all there in the fine print, you must read and understand that before deciding it will be worth any anticipated benefit. Like somebody above, my vets say they’ve never had one pay out as they could not prove the specific cause was something the product should have prevented or that a pre exsisting condition or previous scarring or damage did not contribute.

Theres also some routine vet care requirements and frequency that must be adhered to and proven to collect. Last time I looked, no administering your own vaccines. I remember a feed through wormer with a similar promise to pay but you had to provide receipts that you regularly bought it, prove all routine vet care was done by a vet on schedule and prove that specific type worm caused the colic. This was before everything was digital, they never paid anybody I knew.

Just be sure you know what you must do to collect.

[bt1]

Mine are in it and on the supplement since they are TBs… I am constantly trying to find time to search for an “equivalent” supplement where I pay for the ingredients and not some insurance I will probably never use. As others already posted it only covers surgery and that is only appropriate in a small percentage of colics. Content with supplement, but no where near over the moon happy and really really would rather pay for “just the ingredients” my guess is I am paying an extra at least 30$ a month per horse for something I most likely will not use. Last I looked the smart digest ultra was costing me 'round $100 a month give or take just a few bucks PER BEAST and the “next step down” digestive supplement would cost around $50…I figure most of that differential is because of colic care and just a tiny portion because ingredients are more expensive.

[bt1]

and hmmmmm no smartpakker comment yet…hmmmm

[Scribbler]

Has anyone ever heard of anyone collecting on the Smart Pak insurance?

Sounds like it isn’t really insurance at all but rather like an extended warranty. If you can prove the supplements didn’t work they will pay out.

Can you not buy the supplement without the “insurance” or is the cost of the individual insurance rolled into the cost of supplement regardless if whether you qualify?