How do pet healthcare plans work — and do you need one?

🐶🐱 Is your furry friend sending your veterinary bills through the roof? Then you’re probably not the first pet owner to wonder why pets don’t get health ins. the way humans do. That’s the gap Leona Pet Plan set out to fill when it launched Egypt’s first pet medical plan. But what does it actually take to make veterinary care more budget-friendly — and could a pet healthcare subscription be the future of responsible pet ownership?

A bone to pick

Leona Pet Plan was born out of a late-night veterinary emergency. After her dog had developed an ear infection and required an unexpected surgery, co-founder and CBO Heba Al Moghazy (LinkedIn) found herself facing steep medical bills and wondering why pets couldn’t have health coverage like humans. A search for a fix eventually led her to Leona and its founder and CEO, Dina Zorkany (LinkedIn). The pair soon found themselves aligned on a mission to make pet care easier for pet parents, bringing to life the Leona Pet Plan as it is today.

“Dogs and cats need annual vaccinations. They need doses of deworming and anti-flea [treatments] — things that are considered very regular care, and with the devaluation, these have become a burden, especially for multiple pet households,” Al Moghazy tells EnterpriseAM.

Costs aside, Al Moghazy highlights a current lack of awareness in Egypt’s pet care scene. She says a pet care boom that took place in Egypt during the pandemic took the number of pets in Egyptian households from 8 mn in 2022 to presently around 12 mn. Many pet parents lack awareness of vaccination schedules, routine check-ups, signs your pet requires medical attention, indicators that they need deworming, food allergies, and other essentials, which Leona addresses through educational content.

More affordable pet healthcare seems increasingly necessary, given the many misconceptions pet owners still hold. Al Moghazy says some of the most common include the belief that indoor cats don’t need vaccinations because they never leave the house, or that dogs and cats can safely eat table scraps when, in reality, their digestive systems are very fragile.

Between unexpected veterinary bills, widespread healthcare misconceptions, and the absence of pet ins. options, the conditions were ripe for Leona Pet Plan’s launch — and subsequent growth. So, what exactly does Leona offer?

Purr-sonalized care

Not ins., but a holistic pet-care package: Al Moghazy stresses that Leona Pet Plan is not an ins. product that kicks in only during emergencies and unexpected illnesses. Instead, it offers a comprehensive pet-care membership that aims to offset the daily costs of pet parenting, covering everything from grooming, food, clothing, and accessories to pet-care markdowns, vaccinations, deworming and anti-flea treatments, routine checkups, and even surgeries when needed.

The emphasis is on preventative and proactive care. “It helps decrease or minimize any emergencies,” Al Moghazy says. “So instead of the medical bill reaching EGP 20-30k in surgery fees, there are things we can catch very early on.”

Three care package tiers for different kinds of dog and cat parents: The basic tier, priced at EGP 340 per month, serves as a financial safety net for emergencies, while also offering markdowns on vaccinations and lifestyle pet care products. The second, premium tier, goes for EGP 495 a month and extends that coverage to include proactive care and additional markdowns. The elite tier is the most comprehensive option, priced at EGP 840 per month. It’s designed, as Al Moghazy puts it, “for people who consider their pets part of their families,” and includes all the benefits from the previous tiers in addition to perks such as physiotherapy, emergency boarding, and everything that falls under holistic care coverage.

Becoming an everyday partner in pet care: “The annual subscription gives you privileges inside a network of [over 120] clinics,” Al Moghazy explains. “We [also established] another network of [around 50] service providers like pet shops, groomers, kennels, daycares, dog taxis — like Uber for pets — and pet-friendly places. All these services give us special rates and markdowns — up to 25% and sometimes 50%.”

On top of that, all membership tiers receive customer support through access to Leona’s Pet Expert Chat and dedicated vets who can answer questions via WhatsApp. Leona’s own app is also in the works, which will feature facial biometric identification for pets. Al Moghazy says the technology offers an alternative to the pet ID microchips widely used abroad, which she argues can be an invasive and more expensive than other forms of biometric identification.

No walk in the park

Building a full-fledged pet healthcare system was no easy feat, especially in Egypt, where no blueprint existed and reliable data was scarce. Al Moghazy describes a grueling six-month period in which she and Zorkany collected raw, on-the-ground data from scratch. The pair spent their days frequenting clinics, pet resorts, and pet shops “day in and day out, dealing with dogs and cats and pet parents every day,” asking about ownership patterns, causes of death, breed-specific health issues, age-related illnesses, life expectancy, and more.

The goal was to collect enough information to build a model tailored to Egypt’s pet care landscape. The challenge was exacerbated by the prevalence of mixed-breed and baladi dogs in Egypt, whose health profiles often differ from those reflected in international data. Baladi dogs are known to be “the healthiest and least maintenance dogs of all breeds,” whereas other breeds may require heavier care.

A little trial and error later, Leona Pet Plan has found its footing in Egypt’s pet care space, at least until a clearer regulatory path emerges for a proper, dedicated ins. product. Early on, Al Moghazy says, “we sat with several ins. companies, and they were bringing copy and paste products from England or France — pricing was very high compared to our own.”

Trust posed another challenge. “The main problem is that a product like a markdown card, care card, or an ins. [plan] is not trustworthy in Egypt. Customers usually perceive them as scams,” Al Moghazy says. Between regulatory obstacles and consumer skepticism, a full-coverage care membership appeared more practical and more appealing to the Egyptian market than a traditional ins. model.

Paw-sitive outlook

With Leona Pet Plan in the mix, Egypt’s pet-care landscape is moving in a promising direction, according to Al Moghazy. She points to a shift in pet ownership demographics and patterns, from the once-common practice of keeping dogs tied up in garages or on rooftops to better living conditions for pets, attributed to the rise of open spaces and gated communities. “The matter shifted from ownership to companionship. They are part of the family.”

Leona’s mission is also in line with Egypt’s broader policy agenda. One of the country’s stated goals is to eliminate rabies by 2030, making vaccination awareness for both owned and stray animals increasingly important. Al Moghazy believes that improving animal welfare will also support Egypt’s ambitions as a global tourist destination.