Serial sock eater and pyromaniac cat: NZ's bizarre pet insurance claims

Always find your pet in a tangle? Yeah, you might need pet insurance. Photo / Getty Images

From a pooch who swallowed a pin cushion, to an Ocicat that took a right hook from a blackbird, here are Southern Cross Pet Insurance's 10 most unusual claims of 2019:

If you've ever found your moggie going toe-to-toe with the neighbour's tomcat, or pulled a pair of knickers from your Labradoodle's jaws, you'll know the weird and wild situations our fur babies can end up in.

As New Zealand's collective love for pets grows, it seems increasingly important to safeguard our finances and ensure their health with a pet insurance policy. Of course, we can run the risk of answering the question of how much your pet's life is worth, or fork out a whopping $30,000 like Carley Kaizen did for her beloved cat Alvin. Poor Alvin.

While New Zealand has one of the world's highest rates of pet ownership, insurance rates here are reportedly low compared to other pet-loving nations.

Southern Cross Pet Insurance General Manager, Anthoney McPhail, believes people underestimate how much vet bills can cost and can be left with costly consequences when Barry the Boxer tucks into Easter eggs.

• A Persian cat fell into a swimming pool while being chased by another cat. The
waterlogged feline was taken to the vet and diagnosed with hypothermia ($1,065).

• A Labrador swallowed a pin cushion, complete with pins, while the owner was sewing.
The pin cushion and pins had to be surgically removed ($3,488).

• A Hungarian Vizsla dog had bad breath and was 'zonked out' in the evenings. Eating
sheep pellets sprinkled on the garden as fertiliser were the suspected cause ($352).

• An Ocicat came off second best from a fight with a feisty blackbird and was treated for a scratch to one eye ($103).

• A Boxer ended up with a bellyache after it raided the family's stash of Easter treats and
ate five chocolate kiwis ($270).

• An overly enthusiastic Bernese mountain dog ran straight through a closed sliding door
and sustained a serious wound to one of its legs ($1,101).

• A Labrador's trip to the beach turned sour for its owners when the dog discovered a pair of shoes and socks on the sand and promptly swallowed the socks. The serial sock
stealer was taken to the vet to have them removed ($2,789).

• A Tonkinese cat played with fire by jumping up on the wood burner at home and burning its paws ($177).

• A Labrador Cross was so eager to escape from the boarding kennels, it ate through a
fence, but was foiled at the next hurdle when it got stuck in a second fence. A vet treated
the dog for a spinal fracture along with multiple wounds and abrasions ($6,999).

• A cat arrived home with a fishing line tangled in its tail. The moggy sustained a tail
wound which required treatment by a vet ($271)