What does the Trupanion policy say about waiting periods, hereditary conditions and the second side?
Read from policy form TRU-00001 (08/11), underwritten by American Pet Insurance Company. Every row below cites the section it came from.
The Trupanion rules, by condition class
These are the four rules that decide whether a claim is paid in the first year: how long the waiting period runs, what happens to the second side of the body, whether hereditary conditions are covered, and when a cured condition becomes insurable again.
| Condition class | Waiting period | Second side of the body | Hereditary and congenital | Where it says so |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| accident | 5 days Injuries from an accident that occurs within the first 5 days from the policy enrollment date are not covered, unless waived by endorsement. An accident during those 5 days is then treated as a pre-existing condition. | Not stated in the document | Not stated in the document | Exclusions & Limitations 5.b(1), read together with 5.c(1); page 3 of 9 |
| other-illness | 30 days Illnesses that occur or recur within the first 30 days from the policy enrollment date are not covered, unless waived by endorsement. An illness during those 30 days is then treated as a pre-existing condition. Separately, any condition whose evidence or symptoms already existed at, or in the 18 months before, the enrollment date is excluded. | Not stated in the document | Not stated in the document | Exclusions & Limitations 5.b(2) and 5.c(1); page 3 of 9 |
| orthopedic | 30 days No separate orthopedic waiting period is stated in this specimen; orthopedic illness falls under the general 30 day illness waiting period. | Second side counts as pre-existing | Not stated in the document | Waiting period at 5.b(2), page 3 of 9; bilateral exclusion at 5.c(2), page 3 of 9, which names luxating patella by example; definition of a bilateral condition at 7.c, page 6 of 9, which names elbow dysplasia including fragmented coronoid process, ununited anconeal process and osteochondritis dissecans, cruciate issues, luxating patella, hip dysplasia, cherry eye, entropion/ectropion, panosteitis and cataracts |
| cruciate-ligament | 30 days No separate cruciate waiting period is stated in this specimen; it falls under the general 30 day illness waiting period. | Second side counts as pre-existing | Not stated in the document | Waiting period at 5.b(2), page 3 of 9; bilateral exclusion at 5.c(2), page 3 of 9, which names anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) weakness explicitly; definition at 7.c, page 6 of 9, which names cruciate issues |
| ophthalmic | 30 days No separate ophthalmic waiting period is stated in this specimen; it falls under the general 30 day illness waiting period. | Second side counts as pre-existing | Not stated in the document | Waiting period at 5.b(2), page 3 of 9; bilateral exclusion at 5.c(2), page 3 of 9; definition at 7.c, page 6 of 9, which names cherry eye, entropion/ectropion and cataracts |
Everything on this page comes from the policy document Trupanion publishes itself. We have not bought this policy and we have not filed a claim under it.
Source: Trupanion policy form TRU-00001 (08/11), read on 2026-09-02. Section references are given per row. Oldest check date on this page: .
What stands out in the Trupanion policy document?
Two things in this nine page document are unusual and neither appears on any comparison site we have seen. First, the pre-existing exclusion at 5.c(1) reaches back eighteen months before the enrolment date, not to the enrolment date itself. That is a long look-back and it means a dog can be excluded for something recorded well before you owned it. Second, the definition of a bilateral condition at 7.c is unusually explicit: it names elbow dysplasia and its three forms, cruciate issues, luxating patella, hip dysplasia, cherry eye, entropion and ectropion, panosteitis and cataracts. Most policies say bilateral and leave you to work out what qualifies. This one hands you the list, which is worth more than a shorter waiting period. What the document does not say anywhere is whether hereditary and congenital conditions are covered; the words do not appear.
What does this document leave unsaid?
The largest gap is hereditary and congenital conditions. Neither word appears anywhere in this specimen, so the document neither promises cover nor excludes it, and our rows record that as not stated rather than guessing a default in either direction. For a purebred dog that is the single most consequential silence in the whole policy. Two smaller gaps are worth knowing about. There is no separate orthopedic or cruciate waiting period, so those fall under the general thirty day illness clock; that is favourable compared with insurers who single them out, but it is inferred from absence rather than stated. And the document sets no symptom-free period after which a cured condition becomes insurable again, so nothing here tells you whether a resolved problem can ever come back into cover.
Who actually pays a Trupanion claim?
The name on the policy is not the name on the advertising. This cover is underwritten by American Pet Insurance Company, and that is the entity whose financial strength stands behind a claim and whose filings a state regulator reviews. It matters for two practical reasons. If you want to look up the rate and form filings behind this product, you search for the underwriter rather than the brand. And if you are comparing financial ratings, the rating belongs to the underwriter as well. Trupanion is unusual in that the brand and the underwriter are part of the same group, which is not the case for every company in this register. One further note on the document itself: Trupanion publishes several form versions of TRU-00001 side by side, and they are not interchangeable. The 05/10 form runs to seven pages and excludes hip dysplasia unless waived by endorsement; the 12/12 form runs to thirteen and carries no defined list of bilateral conditions at all. Everything in our rows is read from the nine page 08/11 form linked above, re-opened and checked line by line on 2 September 2026. If the form code on your own declarations page differs from that one, read your own document rather than this page.