Does everyone here insure their pets?

[dangirl]

Am getting new puppy in 4 weeks!! So excited!

Thinking about insurance. Is it really worth it? (silly question I know - how long is a piece of string etc.) But do you generally find, that you have got the money back again? Is there a minimum legal requirement such as 3rd party?
Am I right in thinking that the average price is aprox £20 pr month?

[EccentricaGallumbits]

yes. have just finished paying off bank loan I had to take out 2 years ago when cat got squashed.

[LaurieFairyCake]

Ours is £15 per month. Has paid for itself twice over so far and dog is only 7.

About to take him in tomorrow and am guessing that he will need an operation to remove a huge cyst - probably cost about £800.

[FabBakerGirlIsBack]

It is definitely worth it.

My cat is 15 and I could not make a claim until 4 years ago and then I claimed £2500 and can claim the cost of her meds back for life.

You could argue I might have paid out that sort of money in fees but who has £2500 to spare with no notice?

I would say get insurance unless you can be truly disciplined about putting money aside each month.

Poorly animals can be very expensive.

[LaurieFairyCake]

One time I didn't have insurance for a cat it cost £1000 to have a pin put in her hip when she got run over.

It was worth it, she is now 16.

[Ripeberry]

Don't know what you mean about getting the money back again. Think of it as car insurance, gets you out of a tight spot when you need it!
Unfortunately, I'm going to have to claim on my cat's insurance soon as he's been missing for over a month now, but I have to allow 90 days before claiming.
He is a Bengal and I think he's been nicked .

[JRocks]

My (large) dog insurance is £9ish per month, and although we haven't had to use it, he is tremendously clumsy and daft, so it's peace of mind really. I use Healthy Pets

[LadyMuck]

No, we don't. It is one of the areas where we self-insure (ie would dip into savings if needed). The main reason is that quite often there are a number of limitations put in place if you do have to make a claim.

If we had no savings then we'd probably insure.

[dangirl]

Ripeberry, that is awful! Feel for you.

Thank you for all your responses - so quickly - I love mumsnet ;-)

We are the type, that never extends any kind of household insurance. Just categorically say No thank you. And we feel that is worth it. DH was thinking, that the dog would come under the same category, I was not sure... the dog of course won't be disposable like the washing machine :-)

Will look into the different options. Would still like to hear if anyone doesn't pay.

[FabBakerGirlIsBack]

Do you mean me Ripeberry?

The insurers paid for the cost of the scan my cat needed and they refund us the money we pay out each month for her tablets.

[MoominMymbleandMy]

No, we don't pay. We prefer to make sure savings would cover vets' bills.

The problem with the policies we looked at is that they have an age cut-off which comes into play just when your pet is most likely to need expensive treatment.

With cats it is around 10 and sure enough we did have to pay a hefty bill for one of our cats when she was 12, by which time she wouldn't have been covered by pet insurance anyway.

[NoahFence]

YES YES YES

afterour feline incident involving cage rest for 6 weeks

[FabBakerGirlIsBack]

My cat is 15 and covered by insurance so you are wrong.

[LadyMuck]

Are there any limitations to the treatment Fab? And how much does it cost?

[FabBakerGirlIsBack]

The cat just has to have blood tests every 6 months and she is on daily tablets. Blood tests are about £50 and a 3 months supply of pills are about £19. The insurance is about £12 a month. It went up a bit once she turned 10. We stayed where we were for insurance once she was 7 as that is the usual age when insurers don't want to take on a new animal.

[throckenholt]

we have never had insurance for any of ours.

If it came to a huge bill we would probably have to decide to put down instead. At the end of the day even a much loved pet is just an animal and not worth spending a fortune on (IMHO).

Having said that in 12.5 years (our old girl we had to put to sleep a few weeks ago) we didn't have any really big bills - one of about £300 I think.

[FabBakerGirlIsBack]

That is really throckenholt.

[notevenamousie]

No

I rescued my cat from my ex's a little while ago where he was being neglected (left in the house for up to 6 days with no one going in), and have nursed him back to health.

Prior to him being with my ex, could afford health insurance but now I can't. I am sure it is wise though. Cat is 9 and well. Have savings to dip into in extremis.

[beautifulgirls]

Moomin - the age cut off for insurance is for taking out a new policy. They will not refuse to renew an existing policy on an insured pet simply because of age however.

You are not "likely" to get insurance money back - think of how the insurers are going to make any profit from this if that was to happen to all their customers. Insurance is there for the accidents and illnesses that cost a lot of money to get sorted out, to allow you to make the best decisions possible about the health care of your pet without the money being a deciding factor (eg repair fractured leg vs cheaper option to amputate)

If you have a couple of thousand pounds to use in a hurry should it be needed then you are the sort of person who could afford to take a gamble that your pet will not be needing any cover but know it would be ok should the worst happen. If you dont (not many do!) then you cant afford not to.

When looking for a policy make sure you get a cover for life policy - not a policy that will only cover a certain amount per condition or a certain time limit per condition then place exclusions on the policy for that. You need to know if your pet developed a chronic problem such as diabetes that the policy will continue to pay out for the rest of the life of the pet (to a max each policy year) without excluding things.

[LadyMuck]

So you can only get a 12yo cat insured if you have always had insurance? Or had it for at least 5 years.

[MoominMymbleandMy]

Ah, thank you beautifulgirls. I wouldn't describe it as taking a gamble, just that we preferred to put money aside rather than pay more in premiums over the years.

I certainly wouldn't describe us as rich

[ZippysMum]

Our insurance has been fantastic.

In the first 2 years we had our dogs they paid out nearly 2K (one broke her leg, the other was attacked by a bull terrier type and needed 41 stitches).

We're with Pet Plan - they have been absolutely brilliant.

[madusa]

we had our newfoundland insured and because of this (possibly?), the vet used to tell us our dog needed lots of treatment and the bills were horrific - we only paid the £50 excess each time, but there were several huge bills a year.

The new vets never gave our newfie anything more than an annual health check and jabs.

So if you're insuring, make sure the vet doesn't over medicate to get the money.

Having said that, our dog now is also insured but this is more in case she escapes and causes an accident or damage.

None of the 5 cats are insured.

neither was the hamster

[GoneCuckoo]

Yes.
I would pay it at any cost.
But fortunately is only £9 a month for my 5 year old Boxer bitch.
In May she had to have a massive operation on her eye. It would have cost me over £2,000 and the cost is still mounting due to medication for the same condition.
I only payed the excess of £120.
I expect next years insurance premium to be very high due to her claim, but I will pay whatever.
This is with Tesco BTW. They have been very good.