Pet Insurance · Coverage

Does Pet Insurance Cover Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Tears?

A torn cruciate is one of the most common orthopedic claims in dogs, and one of the most expensive. Every major insurer covers it, but three clauses decide whether your claim actually pays: the waiting period, whether the insurer lets you call it an accident, and what happens to the second knee. This page compares all 11 on those. It is educational information, not insurance or veterinary advice.

Which insurers cover cruciate tears, and how long you wait

Every insurer below covers cruciate ligament injury under a standard accident-and-illness policy when it is not pre-existing. As with hips, the waiting period is the real variable, and for knees there is a second variable that matters just as much: whether the insurer will let you claim a tear as an accident.

For how accident, illness and orthopedic waits work across policies in general, see pet insurance waiting periods.

Checked September 2026 against each insurer's published policy wording and waiver forms (sources below). State law overrides the default in several cases, and insurers revise forms without notice, so confirm the cruciate and knee clauses directly before buying. Where a cell says confirm directly, we could not find authoritative published wording.

A cruciate wait is not a hip wait

This is the most common mistake in pet-insurance comparisons and it cuts both ways. At Pets Best and on Odie's main form, the widely-quoted six-month orthopedic wait is defined narrowly around a cruciate ligament in the knee, so it bites here but not on hips. At Fetch the opposite is true of the waiver: its exam waiver covers orthopedic conditions of the knees, so a cruciate wait can be shortened while a hip still waits the full 180 days.

If hips are your actual concern, the numbers are different and we keep them separate: see pet insurance that covers hip dysplasia.

Why calling it an accident usually does not work

Owners reasonably assume a dog who tore a ligament chasing a ball had an accident, and accident waits are short or zero at most insurers. Several insurers close that door deliberately.

Pets Best states that cruciate ligament events are always considered medical conditions rather than conditions caused by an accident, which means the short accident wait is unavailable. Fetch excludes cruciate ligament disease from being covered as an accident. Figo goes further and applies its orthopedic waiting period to accidents as well, so even a genuinely traumatic injury waits.

The reasoning is clinical rather than cynical: most canine cruciate rupture is degenerative, with the ligament weakening over time and finally failing during ordinary activity. Insurers write the clause to match that reality. The practical consequence for you is that the illness wait, not the accident wait, is the number to read.

The second knee is the real exposure

Cruciate disease is frequently bilateral, and a dog who tears one is at elevated risk of tearing the other. Insurers know this, and knees attract the harshest bilateral language in the market.

ASPCA treats knee conditions as bilateral and related regardless of cause, automatically. Pumpkin's bilateral clause is written specifically around the knee. Healthy Paws states that the cruciate ligament is the only bilateral exclusion in its policy. Trupanion's either-side clause names cruciate. Embrace and Lemonade both run broad bilateral clauses that reach knees.

So if one knee is already on record, assume the other may be excluded and ask the question explicitly before you buy. This is the single clause most likely to decide a five-figure claim.

Curable-condition resets do not rescue a knee

Many insurers will stop treating a condition as pre-existing after a symptom-free period, often 12 months. Almost universally, that relief is written to exclude ligament and knee conditions. ASPCA's 180-day reset excludes them. Figo's 12-month relief excludes them. Lemonade states that knee and ligament conditions can never qualify as curable. Embrace's reset does not reach orthopedic conditions.

Read plainly: a knee noted before coverage stays excluded. There is no waiting it out.

What a repair costs, and why the annual limit matters

Surgical repair can use a TPLO or one of several other stabilizing procedures, and the ACVS notes that some techniques cost less than others, so pricing depends on the procedure, the region, whether a specialist or a general practice does it, and whether rehabilitation follows. We are not going to print a national average that will be wrong for your zip code: ask your own clinic and any referral hospital for a written estimate, because the spread is large enough to change which plan makes sense.

What matters for plan choice is that a bilateral case means two of those bills, potentially in the same policy year. That is where a low annual payout cap fails, and it is the argument for a higher or unlimited limit on a young, active, large-breed dog.

Questions people ask

Does pet insurance cover cruciate ligament surgery?
Yes, at every major insurer, provided the knee was not pre-existing and the waiting period has passed. The waits range from about 14 days to 180 days depending on the insurer and state.

Can I claim a torn ligament as an accident to skip the wait?
Usually not. Pets Best classes cruciate events as illness by definition, Fetch excludes cruciate disease from accident coverage, and Figo applies its orthopedic wait to accidents as well.

If one knee tears, is the other covered?
Often not. Knees attract the strictest bilateral clauses in the market, and ASPCA and Pumpkin apply theirs to knees automatically. Ask the insurer directly before you buy.

Is there any way to get an existing knee covered later?
Realistically no. The symptom-free resets that rescue other conditions are written to exclude ligament and knee conditions at essentially every insurer that offers one.

Sources

1. Pets Best: policy booklet and waiting-period waiver form
2. ASPCA Pet Health Insurance: sample accident and illness policy (Alabama)
3. Pumpkin: what pet insurance covers
4. Healthy Paws: coverage and exclusions
5. Trupanion: Do you cover cruciate surgeries?
6. Trupanion: When does my coverage begin?
7. Lemonade: pet insurance waiting periods
8. Figo: sample accident and illness policy (Indiana)
9. Embrace: orthopedic waiting periods by state
10. Odie: sample policy (Trisura, January 2026)
11. MetLife Pet: policy and orthopedic conditions
12. Fetch: sample policy wording (GPTM 050)
13. Fetch: What is a waiting period for pet insurance?
14. ACVS: Cranial Cruciate Ligament Disease
15. VCA Animal Hospitals: Cruciate Ligament Rupture in Dogs

Large, active breeds tear cruciates most often, and the same dogs carry hip risk. Our guide to pet insurance for Labradors covers the knee and hip questions together.

This is educational information, not insurance or veterinary advice. Insurer details are gathered from public sources and change often, so confirm current terms directly with each insurer. Some links on this site may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you, and it never changes what we write.