Here are the best pet insurance companies for older dogs to help make the costs more manageable

Having a senior dog can be uniquely rewarding. But helping your pet age with grace isn't always affordable.

The expenses can add up with an older dog. According to the American Kennel Club, older dogs should see the vet every six months for a wellness check, as opposed to every year or two for younger adult dogs. Special diets or prescriptions in their older years can become costly over time. Adaptive equipment at home like ramps or stairs could help improve your senior dog's quality of life, too, but add to the costs.

Pet insurance premiums tend to reflect these realities, too. According to data from MarketWatch and PetInsurer.com, the average price to insure a mixed, medium-breed dog is about $29 per month at one year old, while the cost of insuring the same dog at 10 years old would cost an average of $77 per month.

Not all companies offer the same coverage for the same price. To get the best pet insurance for your senior dog, you'll want to get a few quotes and compare them. To help you get started on the process, CNBC Select has picked some of the best pet insurance companies for senior dogs based on maximum age limits, premiums and customer satisfaction. (See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best pet insurance companies.)

Pets Best offers some of the most affordable premiums for our sample senior dog and offers accident and illness and accident only policies in addition to wellness coverage. Most exam fees are covered, and Pets Best doesn't have an upper age limit for enrollment. Plus, there is a 5% discount available for people with multiple pets.

Metlife Pet Insurance policies are friendly to older pets and offer an affordable sample premium compared to the others we quoted. This pet insurer offers chronic care coverage and no lifetime or per-incident limits in addition to exam fee coverage. There are several discounts available to further cut costs, and the availability of family plans allows pet parents to manage all of their pets under one policy.

Spot Pet Insurance doesn't have any upper age limit for enrollment, and its accident and illness and accident-only policies both pay for exam fees. The company scored the highest of those that we reviewed for customer satisfaction with the Better Business Bureau, earning an average of 3.82 out of 5. Spot accident and illness policies cover more than just things like emergency hospitalization, X-rays and skin, ear and eye infections — this pet insurance policy also covers microchipping, prescription medications, and alternative therapies.

Embrace allows dogs to be enrolled in accident and illness plans until they are 15 years old and has no upper age limit for accident-only plans. It provides extra office visits for senior pets and has a 24/7 pet helpline available to customers. It stands out for offering a 10% multi-pet discount, plus a Healthy Pet Discount, which rewards policyholders with claims reimbursements of $300 or less in the year prior. You'll get a 5% discount in the first year you qualify for the Healthy Pet Discount and a 10% discount in the second year, per pet. The savings are automatically applied.

Insuring an older dog can be more complicated than insuring a puppy or even an adult dog. To get the best pet insurance for your older dog, consider companies without upper age limits, and pay attention to the types of policies available, reimbursement rates, deductibles, and maximum annual coverage limits. The sooner you enroll your senior dog for coverage, the better, because fewer preexisting issues will be excluded.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every pet insurance review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of pet insurance products. To research the best pet insurance companies, we compiled over 100 data points on more than a dozen pet insurance companies. We also interviewed Dr. Zay Satchu, co-founder and chief veterinary officer of Bond Vet, for more insight. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best pet insurance companies.

To determine the best pet insurance companies, CNBC Select analyzed dozens of pet insurance companies that cover senior dogs and compared them based on various factors.

While narrowing down the best pet insurance companies, we focused on a sample premium for an example pet. Sample premium data was based on a dog that is:

• 9 years old
• Beagle mix
• 25 pounds
• Living in zip code 10017

We collected data for these sample policies with the following qualities (or as close to them as possible): 

• $5,000 annual limit
• $500 deductible
• 80% reimbursement rate

We also gathered data on the maximum age for new coverage, the type of plans available, whether or not the plan covers veterinary exam fees and options for deductibles, reimbursement rates, and maximum annual coverage limits. We considered the number of discounts available, any applicable waiting periods, and ratings from the Better Business Bureau.

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