WTF do I pay pet insurance for?!

[Savemykitchen]

Looking at the FIFTH tooth extraction for Dcat. It's happening once a year now.

Years ago I naively didn't know that our insurance didn't cover teeth. Longtime cat owner since childhood never known dental issues in all those years. So, once the first issue happened Dcat insurance would not cover as it's seen as preexisting condition.

Honestly not sure we can afford it this time. I'm at a loss, they're saying it'll be over £2k, we only just paid £700 and that's on top of £££ monthly insurance which does sweet FA.

Even when Dcat had a leg issue a few years ago, the vet couldn't fucking figure out the issue to treat it (Dcat slowly improved but still not 100%). So although nothing was treated, initial care was covered by insurance and now ANYTHING potentially leg related is "preexisting".

Honestly don't know what I have to achieve by this thread other than to vent.

Had a very negative experience with pet insurance so now I have the ‘vet fund’, which is a bank account where I paid in the ‘premium’ each month that I would have paid the insurance company for my really healthy dogs. As long as a bill isn’t over £10k, we are fine. This has accrued over years though.

My bad experience was my old Jack Russell sliced her paw open, on some glass, while hooning about in deep snow, quite a lot of years ago. She was operated on - it was a heck of a cut, deep and very long - and the insurance company paid out. The following year, my premium skyrocketed and they said anything cut or leg related was pre-existing. I contacted them and pointed out that cut paws on glass are hardly hereditary or a ‘condition’, it was a freak accident. They were not budging. Hence the ‘vet fund’.

I have saved a fortune, over the years. Just my take on it and I do appreciate that I have been lucky with nothing dire occurring.

How much....... in shock.
My dad's cat needed a few teeth out, overnight stay and was £400.

If I pay up this time we must be nearing 6 or 7 grand in total. And not only that but I just think it's a hell of a lot of stress for a cat to go under.

I have 2 dogs and don't bother with pet insurance and never have. I have a fund I put an amount in each month, trying to build it up at the moment as one dog is almost 13 and has needed 2 operations in the past couple of years each costing around £700 ( multiple tooth extractions ) and cancer on her paw ( £1200 ). Fortunately she's generally really healthy.

My elderly dog had around 13 teeth removed and it was only around £700.

How the hell is it costing that much?!

Oh gosh. I have had to use my insuramce for my kitten 3 times since we had her and the vet couldn't work out what was wrong. I worked it out myself and she just needed wormer. So now my premiums are going to sky rocket.... my insurers have paid about £600. Is that a lot?

That’s surely not right?
Our greyhound needed 10 teeth removed, she was in vets for 2 nights and we were £500 in total.

The only decent policy is a lifetime policy that you do not change and you never therefore get conditions that aren't covered. We pay out a lot of money every month but everything is covered and always will be for the life of the animal. Unfortunately until people get fleeced by a crap policy (usually a cheap one) they continue to get seduced by the cheaper policies that ultimately wont pay out.

Hope you manage to sort DCat out @Savemykitchen

Our cat had 8 teeth removed a few months ago and it was just over £500 (and I’m in the South East so fairly expensive area) so I can’t understand how your vet is reaching those figures.

You need to get another quote, that sounds excessive. Our vet charged £600 for 10 teeth removed from our dog.

We've never bothered, have 3 cats and it def wouldn't have been worth it so far - very few vet visits, even for the 18 yr old one.

When we got her as a young'un we asked the vet if he recommended insurance. He said if you have $5000 (we're not in UK) to spare you don't need to bother. Any higher fee than that and your cat will be dead anyway. Bit blunt, but got his point across.

Can't agree with this enough, find a firm you trust and stick with them for a life time policy.
I'm with petplan who paid out for a 5k emergency surgery and the plan for my 2 cats only went up a couple of quid - its £37 for both together a month.
I also think a lot of the policies being pushed now as cheap monthly premiums really aren't fit for purpose.
Saying that, the prices you're quoting are ridiculous - do you have a second vet you could get another opinion on?

£2,000 for tooth extraction? My dog had 3 teeth removed under GA and that was £240. Try another vet.

I only had positive experience with pet insurance
Had it her entire life with pet plan and had the lifetime cover ,it wasn't the cheapest but they paid every single claim including a lifelong condition

It includes radiographs and extraction as Dcat has bad inflammation that hasn't improved after recent extraction. The last 3 tooth extraction cost around £700

Yeah we had similar, had been paying through the nose for monthly premiums, then insurance wouldn't pay out. Now we just have a fund for future vet bills.

I get some people putting money aside instead but if I’d have done that I’d have paid 6k between weeks 12-16 and no diagnosis, later diagnosed with glaucoma - ongoing tests and later surgery to come, well over 10k in total I’d have paid so far. So I guess if you’ve got money to pay for these things don’t take insurance. Sure there are exemptions but like OP said they are listed. It’s still well worth taking insurance in my own experience

I pay about 6 quid a month for each of our rescue bunnies pet insurance.

One of them was off his food one day so I took him to the vet who didn't clock what was actually wrong.

Then he deteriorated in the evening (had a stroke) and I had to take him to the emergency vet. So that's 300 quid just to walk in the door.

Had all kinds of round the clock care then had to be PTS as had another stroke he couldn't recover from.

Total vet bill was around 1k and all I had to pay was 50 quid excess.

Had a big review of all our finances recently and decided to keep the pet insurance for the other rabbits precisely because of what happened to him.

Even though you're not insured for this, you'll still probably use the insurance for another issue.

When we got our kitten I almost didn't insure him.. just a kitten right? Luckily dh did- the following week he was diagnosed with Wet FIP and they coughed up 12k for it.

One reason to have insurance is public liability. We are now paying £75 a month for our elderly dog. Only had one claim which shot the price up.

I don't pay it. We just have savings and will use them as necessary. We briefly had it and noticed the vets add one everything and everything (often things thar arent necessary or worth it) when they think an insurers covering it... then your premium rockets so you pay really.

Another recommendation for Petplan. I have an accident-prone young spaniel and in the first 3 years of her life they must have paid out more than 5 times what we've paid. Well worth it. Premiums also don't increase with claims, just age. I think it probably reaches a point where the premiums are so high it's better to put the money in a savings account, but not for youngsters.

Our nineteen month old dog has had five hundred pounds worth of treatment, which we managed to claim back.

A friends eight year dog had eight thousand pounds worth of treatment due to a kidney infection.

A friends cat got attacked and has had four thousand pounds worth of treatment, scans, operation, x-rays etc.

So I guess saving £80-100 a month would probably be sensible. But you don’t know what’s around the corner.

I don't think pet insurance is allowed to increase premiums due to claims
Can't think where I read that