To think pet insurance is pointless!

I have insurance for my cat. We claimed first year of having her as she had an accident and had to have two ops - cost was around £1K. No ongoing conditions so I shop around every year as it always goes up staying with same insurer. Am sure as she gets older we will have to think about it as premiums go up massively but she’s only 6. I pay less than £20pcm for lifetime cover.,

@onlyonmumnet it happens, and the dog owner is liable as the dog is not under control in a public place. It's rare, fortunately, but I've seen it 3 times in the 10 years I've been working in the veterinary industry. Pet insurance comes with hefty third party liability cover for a reason.

Our cat had a genetic defect which sadly cost him his life last year. However it was diagnosed at a year old and he was insured.

Through the next 7 years it has paid out 5-10 X more than we have paid in, including the excesses. This bought him 7 more years of life with us and there is no way we could have afforded it otherwise.

Pet Insurance is amazing

I pay £30/month for old dog and claim £150 month in drugs alone. He’s also had surgery at a cost of £1500 last month.

Young dog costs me £30 and had a 3k MRI last year.

Horse has never had a claim in 21 years but I am scared to cancel it as knowing my luck he will break a leg the next day.

I’m unlucky though

I called Petplan to see if there was anything they could do with the premium and they said no and I should expect it to increase by about 15%pa as he gets older so I will find someone else. Apparently it is the right premium for the risk he presents - looking at him sleeping in a giant patch of sunlight he doesn't look that risky to me but....

@JugglingMummyof2 - it might be worth ringing PetPlan again and asking if having a slightly higher excess would keep the premiums down a bit.

I expect pet insurance to increase each year as it's more risky as the pet gets older (just like private health care tends to increase as people get older).

Depends what your bank balance looks like. If you're lucky your £600 a year in a jar will just sit there (if you decide to do that instead of insurance). If you're unlucky that £600 in your jar will be a drop in the ocean & you'll be left trying to find potentially thousands.

It does ime depends on the age of your pet too. Our 9 year old staffy rescue we took on was basically uninsurable due to previous medical history. A few ummed about her breed too, and her age was a huge factor. We paid out about £1300 in vet fees in the 6 months we had her.

There are some decent insurance plans with a really big recurring budget for ongoing health issues. You just have to research a bit more. And £600 isn’t going to cover much with a major issue. Some cover is very expensive for certain type of breeds, especially pugs, Boston terriers, French bulldogs etc but then that’s the deal if you pick a breed with so many major health issues. But in general, the benefits very much outweigh the monthly costs. People who do not budget for insurance for their pets irritate me as much as those who go on expensive long-haul holidays but don’t spend a little bit extra for adequate insurance. Cue all the bloody Go-fund me appeals. And it’s not just paying for treatment for your own pet but also to cover any injuries your dog might cause. One of my dogs was badly hurt by an out of control and completely unsocialised dog and I made the owners pay for the surgery. It came to about £750 in total. They were whining and told me that meant they could not go on holiday this summer. Tough! They even asked if I would go through my own insurance. Errr no! That is to cover accidents and illnesses that weren’t caused by someone else’s pet!

My uninsured cat is 18.5 years...she looks frail and is slowing down...if she gets poorly then i will have her put to sleep....no tests....no scans....nothing.....vet bills are only so high because of pet insurance.

@myusernamewastakenbyme vet bills feel high because it's private medicine. They're not subsidised and there's no pet NHS. They're significantly cheaper than private healthcare for humans.

Just looking at private healthcare charges at the private hospital up the road....

Giant dog (40-60kg) bitch spay: £350
Human hysterectomy: £8345

Giant dog inguinal hernia repair: £520
Human inguinal hernia repair: £3010

Endoscopy dog: £254
Endoscopy: £1800

Molar extraction dog: £250-300 inc. full general anaesthetic
Wisdom tooth extraction conscious: £2175

Think I'll stick to vets bills .....

My cat Troy was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at 5 years old. His vet bills and medication amounted to nearly £4,000 in the 4 months from diagnosis to death. The insurance I paid out for him in his short life was around £630 and £90 excess when I claimed. I could have afforded the lump sum but as he was insured I didn't have to use my savings.

To put it very bluntly, it is okay to have your pet put down in many of these circumstances rather than having ££££ treatments.

If treatment can extend or improve your pet's quality of life - not the amount of time left - and you would have them PTS because of money then you should get pet insurance imo

My friend was (successfully) sued when her dog ran into the road and caused an accident resulting in injuries to driver. So not "only on mumsnet" actually.

My cat cost £3000 last year in vets bills! 😲

I pay £14 a month and if I'd not had it I'd have had to have her put to sleep.

We always used to have our dogs insured, but the premiums were going up a fair whack each year, despite having never claimed; one of them was on daily arthritis medication that always fell below the excess; and when we finally did make a claim they said it had to be treated as 2 complaints so out of a £700 bill we were only able to claim £290 back! That was after having paid out for 10 years' worth of insurance. At that point, we decided that it was a total farce and now just have savings and a credit card to fall back on instead.