to not insure my pets?

[Chevrotains]

Does anyone here just put away savings each month for their pets? I'm aware there is definitely a risk to this as well, but just tired of the amount going up each renewal.

As I was reading that, I was thinking, "Hmmm...I bet that second dog's an Akita..." :D

We're lucky in that our Akita is an Akita/Akita Inu cross - in most other countries she'd be regarded as a pedigree, but here she's very clearly defined as a crossbreed...so insurance for her is about half what it would be otherwise. Weirdly, she doesn't suffer from any of the usual breed issues, although she does have a bladder problem after being spayed (see above), which means we're definitely on the winning side of the insurance policy.

I think it’s one thing if you start saving while your pets are young and relatively healthy. If I saved the amount I currently pay in insurance for the 8yo rescue dog I’ve only had a few months, it’s very unlikely to cover even half the vet fees for any emergency. So it makes sense for me to pay insurance,

I’d never not insure a dog.

With a cat it’s different, depending on whether they are indoors exclusively or allowed out.

My cat was a rescue and very much heard the call of the wild before I had him, never changed once I did, as much as his base home was with me. He was a known and loved character in my local area. Insuring him would have made no difference whatsoever in the end, he was run over and killed one afternoon in May this year. He was brought back to me in a box, by the people who saw it happen.

I agree

I hope all those saying they are uninsured are aware that without 3rd party liability they could easily be bankrupt.

I wouldn’t risk it I had insurance for our dog for years and never needed to claim thankfully I then stupidly decided to cancel and the little shit ate a whole fresh tampon as in paper applicator and actual tampon and the bill for his surgery etc were absolutely insane I kicked myself that I no longer had insurance and now I’ll never go without it I think it was neglectful on my part

Not addressed to me I know but in my friends case she was walking her dog off lead and he ran in front of a car while chasing a ball.

Car was a write off and an injury claim too. Think it was nearly £38k in the end.

People are risking everything not having 3rd party for dogs.

I have had pet insurance at times and other times I haven’t, I currently don’t.

Insurance for my two dogs was very expensive, pugs, about £250 per month for two and going up every year.. I once incurred a £350 bill when one of them ate something they shouldn’t and insurance company reimbursed me £60, I had paid thousands in premiums, so I cancelled after that and we decided we would pay anything out of pocket. Since then I have saved a good £15,000 - £18,000 on insurance premiums and neither has been to the vet other than for annual check up and jabs.

Five years ago ago my cat was hit by a car, when the vet found out we didn’t have insurance, they capped the expected costs at £5k. The total bill was £11k, I think we would have been in exactly the same situation whether we had insurance or not as most policies have a limit around the £5k mark and in this case I expect the insurance would have paid that and us the rest.

No. I did have it for one of my cats for a short time, but cancelled it. I had five cats at one stage, so too expensive to insure them all. I've managed to pay the vet bills out of money in the bank, with a bit of help for a very expensive injury to cat # 1. I'm pretty sure I would have paid more in insurance premiums than in vet bills for the others.

People are risking everything not having 3rd party for dogs.

I never had it for my three dogs, but they were never out off lead unless in a grassy area not near a road, or other dogs. I'm not in the UK and have never heard of anyone having 3rd party insurance for dogs, didn't even know it was a thing.

Wow, just wow I have been scrolling through this thread thinking that vet bills sound very expensive in the UK and that seals it. We had a dog with pancreatitis and it cost nothing like that to treat him (in NZ). We are going back a few years, but even so the treatment was not very expensive. I can't help but wonder if all these pets being insured is pushing the costs up? Vet fees are expensive here, but that is next level! I took a cat to the vet out of hours last year, and he had several tests, resulting in a $700 bill - he wasn't pts sleep but another one recently was and it was a little over $300 including the consultation and cremation. I must never complain again.

Two are, one isn't due to old age, by the time I could afford to insure him after a break due to finances, he was too old to make that viable.

Despite the fact we won't do anything invasive or treat catastrophic stuff, the little sod has cost me the better part of 1K this month, just in adding up blood tests, consults, xray and ultrasounds to find out why hes hot, flat and miserable. (He is fine now... on steroids but not on them he is distinctly not fine so 1K later we still don't actually know what is wrong).

So yes, generally I would insure - one of the others managed to rack up 3K in a matter of hours a few years back at a time when I certainly could not have put my hands on that at a moments notice.

Keep in mind too, out of hours vets fees, and almost all are now at an out of hours specialist company NOT your own vet, can be £300 for walking through the door and they will not treat your pet (even if they cover your vets OOH) without payment up front.

Something as simple as cleaning out a wound and stitching a layer of muscle and skin (ok not SUPER simple but not actually ground breaking cutting edge veterinary stuff) was quoted to me as £1600, that is on top of the walk through the door and the £50 to do the admin to submit claim to insurance (had he had any, he also, did not).

We waited the 7 hours for our vets to open, with me holding a pad on his leg to stop the bleeding. And that still cost me £300 for the OOH consult (which did assure me he would not bleed out, which is why I went there as that is what I feared).

My own vet fixed it for a further £280. Instead of £1600.

If you have access to a credit card you can pay off, and a few K in the bank, then yes - if you do not, then no, I'd get insurance.

Also remember that insurance includes public liability - if your dog causes an accident or injures someone, or their dog, that could cost you ££££ to £££££££.

I have two indoor only cats and put away money per month for them. In 4 years they've each had a dental clean and just random vet visits.

Given my cats are indoors only I didn't think pet insurance was worth it. If they went outside I'd at a minimum have emergency cover.

My two late cats ran up bills of £24k! Completely covered by insurance.

My view is, if you’re rich as fuck then don’t insure. If you’re not, then I would.

My cats are/were mainly indoor. Only allowed out when I’m at home, never left the garden. One, literally no issues. The other (sadly gone) had autoimmune issues which resulted in fairly hefty bills. Between them, costs have balanced out, but I prefer knowing that I’m covered well and never have to worry about potential problems re funding treatment.

My dog was a giant breed, so costs are huge for fairly simple matters due to size of the breed. I would have been an idiot not to have her insured, she could have bankrupted me!

Personal view is that, if you’re on typical salary, then insure your pets (ie don’t get a pet if you can’t afford to insure them).

The thing is op, if you cancel your insurance now it will take a long time to build up enough savings to cover a big vet bill. We decided to self insure a few years ago as we were paying so much. One of our dogs ruptured his cruciate ligament a few weeks later and we had to find £4k for his operation. We've since gone back to insuring our dogs.

Even if over a pet's lifetime you pay much more in premiums than you've ever claimed, you've had that peace of mind. It's the same with any insurance - holiday, buildings, contents, car (though obvs that's a legal requirement) etc - chances are you won't need it. But the consequences of not having it could be devastating.

In an ideal world everyone should have insurance and I wish that was the case. But in reality isn't it better for a pet to have a loving home than be in a shelter or on the streets?

We don't insure our cat, but probably would if We had a dog or pedigree cat. Our cat is a standard domestic cat, no breed, and has never been ill in 7 years.

I had actually considered cancelling my insurance then my pet got very ill, involving a hospital and intensive care. I was so glad to have insurance as it meant that I could tell them to do all they could. Thankfully the pet pulled through, the insurance paid out close to £10k and I also paid out of pocket for some follow up. Even if I'd put aside money every month it wouldn't have covered it.

Don't forget even mundane things can cost a lot in animals.

If you can afford it I'd continue to pay.

Every pet I've insured I've more than covered the cost of every premium in claims. So essentially, I have received more from the insurance company than I've paid them over all.
It is a risk not having it, but if you have a big savings pot then might be ok.
Also had a relative whose dog caused an accident and they had to use the insurance for a big 3rd party pay out.
I've just shopped around to renew my insurance as the renewal quote was eye watering. Managed to find a decent policy for less then I was paying last year.

We've got £12k saved up (more if needed but we've barely touched it) instead of having vet insurance which I was quoted £30+ per month about 13 years ago. It's ridiculous just like vet fees are now. I don't want to have vet insurance and be persuaded by large pay outs for unnecessary, often painful and upsetting treatments for very old dogs which ours are now. They've had brilliant lives, no way will we be amputating limbs/ putting them through complex operations etc at their age.
Feeding and exercising animals properly goes a long way to good health.

@ntmdino ha! Yes!

do they ask what cross she is? That's very interesting. Was the first dog that fell down the stairs an Akita too?

We are lucky in that so far he has had no issues but definitely had some sort of allergy thing this year that has either passed or the expensive yumove supplement is working.

I pay £27 a month for a 4 year old moggie with £7,000 yearly limit.

I had a 5 year old cat with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and he was insured up to £4,000 a year. He died just before it hit the £4,000 limit but if he hadn't I would have had to find money for 6 months of vet bills until the policy renewed.

I didn't want to have to think about that again, the stress was awful hence the higher limit for this cat.

It's interesting reading these posts about third party. My dog is never off the lead and I think there is no way I would need to use this cover because he is always under control due to the breed and the risk associated. Obv I have the cover but never thought of it before.

My dog has been attacked a few times - always by black labradors but that would be me claiming on theirs

No - the dog that fell down the stairs was a Chihuahua. When she died, it completely broke us...she'd healed from the neck break brilliantly, and then one day (almost exactly a year after the accident) she started having seizures one after another, and they just wouldn't stop no matter what the vet tried.

As for the Akita, yes - they asked her component breeds when we took out the policy. There was a raised eyebrow, figuratively speaking, but no problem and they paid out six months later when she was spayed and developed the bladder problem with no questions.

I know that feeling. It broke us with the first dog to the point we said no more dogs but I also felt the empty home too much. I'm so sorry you went through that, especially to the point of hope you had. I thought it might be the clumsiness of an Akita that caused it.