to insist we have pet insurance?

[Springersrock]

We have a dog and a cat. DD has a pony. All 3 are fully insured.

I’ve always insisted on having insurance as I never want to make a decision based on what we can afford, rather than what’s best for them (plus DD has rider insurance, liability insurance, her tack is insured, if pony dies stuff like removal, etc are all covered as well as injury and illness).

Both vet practices deal directly with the insurance company so other than paying the excess, we don’t have to worry about anything.

Most people I talk to seem to think it’s a huge waste of money - we’d be better off getting an emergency credit card, or putting the monthly premiums away in a bank account and DH is coming round to this idea too

For me, putting the money away each month is ok once you’re a few years in, but if pony got colic tomorrow we wouldn’t have enough money put away yet, and I don’t want to be paying off a massive credit card bill for years to come

So, AIBU to think the insurance is non-negotiable?

I no longer insure my elderly dog as it got too expensive. Realistically, anything major at this stage, and he will be put down - he’s 15.

Do insure our young cat though - unlike the dog she goes out alone, and there’s the potential for road accidents.

I would always insure a horse.

I've claimed many times, for two elderly cats with ongoing conditions, when they were still alive, and for my dog at various times over the last 7 years.

I've never had a problem with them paying out or had to argue to get what I felt was due.

Obviously if you take out insurance on a yearly basis, or go with a new company the insurance company is going to exclude any pre existing conditions, in the same way health insurance companies for humans do, that's completely usual.

But if it's covered they won't argue about paying for it, if they do there's an insurance ombudsman that will sort it out.

@CaptainHarville

Animals aren't people. You can't explain to them that what they're going through is only for a bit. Veterinary treatment has improved and that is partly why treatment is expensive. Not convinced it's always right.

I agree with this so much. I've had cats pts when maybe they could have been treated, but they were suffering now, the treatment won't alleviate that suffering straight away, and there's never a guarantee that a treatment will work.

Our last cat that had to be pts, the vet was all for sending him off for diagnostic scans, but my gut feeling was thar he wouldn't survive the journey, so I went for palliative treatment instead which didn't help and that was that. Even if I had felt he was well enough to go I don't think I'd have made that choice anyway - it would have been for me rather than him, because having a cat pts breaks my heart everytime, no matter how clear cut it is that it is the right thing to do.

We also once had a cat with thyroid problems, we could have sent him away for treatment - two weeks, £2,000 - that would have completely cured him. Problem was he'd basically attached to me as his territory and pined away without me, and the ongoing treatment of tablets every day hidden in pate was making him happy. Why distress him unnecessarily when he was delighted with the way things were!

Health issues aside, what if your pet/animal causes an accident or damage?

@KC225

By the time he was 15 -I said if he got run over or cancer would it be fair to put an elderly animal through such treatment. She stopped the policy.

Our two elderly cats have cost us over £1,000 for dental treatment in the last two years. It's just luck whether you're better off with or without insurance.

Mirime & CaptainHarville I agree with that too. Just because we can treat doesn’t mean we should.

Quality of life is very important - we decided not to treat our previous elderly cat’s brain tumour, but, for example, when the dog ate tights, or had to have the end of his tail amputated after an accident, or when he shot out of the back door when we had all that ice back in March, slipped and ripped his dew claw we did treat. Each time the bill was £400+ and all in the space of a year.

His quality of life hasn’t been affected and he was back to being himself very quickly, but by the 3rd claim we would have struggled to afford it without the insurance

Exactly Venetia11

My £25 annual subscription to the Dogs'Trust gives me this benefit among others :

3rd party public liability insurance for your dog – up to £1,000,000 per claim if your dog causes damage or injury to another person, their property or pets (an excess of £200 applies for the UK and £500 in the Republic of Ireland)

Who has £1,000,000 saved in their "insurance" pot?

I insured my kitten with pet plan the day we got her. Our family dog developed cancer and had an operation and emergency treatment and luckily my mum had insurance.

I personally wouldn't risk not having it. We haven't had to use it I know plenty of people who have been left with £1000+ vets bills (only for their pets not to survive anyway) and we just couldn't afford to take a hit like that.

Never have insurance if you can afford to pay the bill, but look at all the likely costs. We have house, but not contents (nothing much expensive, though a bad fire or flood might be difficult), travel if going abroad, car. Have had small animals without but insured a vicious cat, horses are a liability so definately yes.

@captainHarville completely agree. It still makes me sad that I tried to save my cat for a week. He had a week of vets visits, tests, scans. In hindsight I should have let him go much sooner but I really loved him. Now I can see it was selfish on my part.

Good point re the public liability insurance.

We had a horrible incident at our yard about 6 months ago - one horse broke out of his paddock and went on a bit of a rampage, kicking and biting other horses. One horse was quite badly injured. Owner of the horse didn’t have any insurance at all as horse was old and wasn’t really ridden anymore. Fortunately owner of injured horse was insured so all was OK, but it could have been very different.

Public liability insurance is a must IMO

Dog: Dogs Trust £25 annual membership for 3rd party cover. Anything else pay up front to the vet (often cheaper as they know you have no insurance. Is a type of active dog a rescue that has issues, if anything long term or difficult to recover from we'd just put down instantly.

Horse: BHS Gold membership/daughter's Pony Club or Riding Club membership for 3rd party cover. NFU for everything but 3rd party cover & tack.
Tack for horse - is covered while in or out of home, even if kept at the yard which it is sometimes. by our John Lewis insurance. Includes saddles, and any one item of sports equipment can be up to £5K so also includes bikes etc

I do both insure and self insure.

2 ponies, 1 dog. Dog and 1 pony insured. 1 pony not insured but I pay £260 a year to our horse vet to give me a slush fund. And show vet I am good for installments should the need arise. I also have a spare credit card I could use.

Uninsured pony is a small kids pony. I love him to bits but I wouldn't have anything other than a basic op done on him. Had a small pony.operated on before and the subsequent box rest and recovery basically blew her brains.

And in the nicest possible way he is replaceable.

Other pony was a lot more expensive to buy, would cost a lot more to replace and even if was unridable would probably still be a brood mare. So has a much greater value.

Dog is insured as out.of the 3 would be more likely to want expensive treatment and want her to have it.

We have cats and dogs not insured. Spent 7k on a vet bill a couple of years ago, but was still cheaper than insurance over the years. Riding horse insured (but with an insurance firm that does pay out rather than one that doesn't cough up). Companion horses not insured but happy to pay vet bills. Gold member of BHS for public liability.

Also, I wouldn't put any of my horses through surgery that might involve long periods of box rest, whether they were insured or not.

I have a cat and I pay around £100 for her annual insurance. About £2 a week. It's nothing. I can't understand why people don't have it. My friend has a dog and no insurance. This year alone he's cost her over £1000 in vets fees and she STILL thinks 'there's no point' taking out insurance.

I have 6 animals (2 dogs, 4 cats) and some are insured and other are not.

Cat 1 is 14 years old, has arthritis and a heart murmur, his insurance used to be £18 a month when he got to 10 that jumped to £94 a month. I have stopped insuring him, it’s cheaper for me to pay the £30 consultantion fee plus treatment. Normally pay £60-£80 per vets visit (every 3-4 months sometimes longer) so way way cheaper. I cancelled his insurance and put £18 a month aside to help pay the vets bills. If anything serious happens to him now he will be put to sleep.

Cat 2 is 13 years old, same again insurance went from £18 to £94. No health conditions and as above if anything happens I will put to sleep. I also save £18 a month for vets bills.

Cat 3 is a rescue cat and is about 18 months old she’s has insurance.

Cat 4 is a rescue too and he’s 10 months old and insured.

Big dog is 8, he was insured until his premiums went to to £122 a month, he has Pre existing health conditions, and that was the cheapest I could find for him. I cancelled his insurance and he’s at an age now where he will be put to sleep if anything happens to him or my savings exceed the treatment cost. As long as I can control his health condition and he’s not in pain I don’t see any issue.

Little dog is 7 she’s still has insurance as it’s not made that jump yet. Luckily she’s never really needed the vet bar, inoculations, and an annual check.

Why would I pay £96/£122 a month for a cat/dog who’s 14 and 8 they have had a fab life and to be fair neither are long for this world, I love the bloody bones of that cat and my dog, my cat I’ve had him longer than I’ve been with my dh and he is bloody lovely still he’s at an age now where it wouldn’t be fair on him to be operated on if anything happened and the chances are he wouldn’t make it anyway (heart murmur)

If you can afford all of that then good for you, and probably the easiest option. Unfortunately a lot of people can not afford that regular outgoing so to say it is non-negotiable is unfair.

We got our dog Oct 2016. December 2016 he needed a stay in hospital due to a leg injury. £900 odd quid later I was grateful we paid that £25 a month!

I'm part-insured. The two dogs, one of whom is a working sheepdog, have 3rd party liability and accident insurance, so if they get hit by a car they're covered, but if they develop an illness, they're not. The three horses have 3rd party liability only. I live in a very remote area, the nearest vet with facilities to operate on a horse is 4 hours away at towing speed - basically if a horse or pony has a serious injury or illness up here they usually have to be put to sleep, so I'm unlikely to run up huge vet bills with them.

Surely if the cost of insurance is non negotiable then you can't afford a hefty vet bill either?

And you can't afford to be sued, yep.

If you can afford all of that then good for you, and probably the easiest option. Unfortunately a lot of people can not afford that regular outgoing so to say it is non-negotiable is unfair.

But in order to pay for a vet bill you'll need to have £££££ in cash savings. If you can't afford the monthly insurance, where's the money found to come from if your animal gets unwell? How do you pay the vet bill for their treatment?

Well it's not unfair as in general if your outgoings are so tight you can't afford the relatively small amount for insurance it's unlikely you could afford a massive vet bill.
For your pet that could be disastrous.