We have three extra-large dogs in my household and after several very expensive treatments, we decided to purchase pet insurance for them. Recently, Spice, our bull mastif/French mastif mix, was a very sick girl! She had something called MMM which made opening her mouth very painful and could have resulted in her jaw being locked, if our wonderful veterinarian hadn't diagnosed it correctly and began treatment right away! Turn out to be an expensive problem with her having to spend a week at the Vet's and having a bunch of treatments! The insurance covered a large part of the expenses - and it was great not to have the "money" issues influence what we were able to do for Spice!