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.

That cost is madness! Go to another vet and find out their costs.

We have also given up on pet insurance. Our cat is feisty, and has had to be patched up a number of times after battles he has started. It was never covered, neither are annual vaccinations or check ups. As PP said we now also stash the previously monthly premium into a saving account as our own insurance policy.

I think all insurance is a bloody con, it only really works as a business model if they manage to weasel out of paying. My dog has anything skin related, digestive related or allergy related as pre-existing. And the premiums are ridiculous. Oh, and anything bilateral, so if one hip goes, they only pay for that one, not the other one a few years later. Whats the point?

That does sound expensive.

Pet insurance can be a pain though. I just tried to claim £750 back for emergency treatment. I got £200 because that’s what the emergency fee was capped at 🙄

Ironic really because for non life threatening treatment during usual vet hours they’d have paid the full amount.

Was this animal friends by any chance because they did that to me even though I had a lifetime policy. They'll do anything to avoid paying out.

I have a separate account for my vet fund.

I'd say cheap insurance is a con. Those are really limited and not worth it for ongoing conditions. It's much better to get a policy that doesn't come with so many limits and exclusions. Of course you might not ever need to claim on it (lucky you!), but if you do get hit with a massive bill or an ongoing condition it's so worth it.

Reading this is certainly making me think about changing our insurance to someone like pet plan, at Christmas both dogs were at the Emergency vets thanks to a Christmas present that had no warning but contained mince pies, dark chocolate - you name it it was in there (gift giver knew we had dogs 😡).
The overall bill was around the £5k mark, despite a £160 excess the insurance refused to pay out for so many different things we ended up with a bill of £1k

In terms of teeth, we had a cat have three teeth out last year and that was about £800, it included things like bloods prior to check liver/kidney to minimise risk of antisthetic, fluids whilst under, pain relief for after and all post op checks none of which we'd want to scrimp on for an older cat

None of the companies I’ve ever had pet insurance with (and there’s been a few over the years) have covered teeth, apart from if they are damaged due to an accident or illness.

My cat has been in twice for tooth extractions, a couple of years ago, and I think it was around £1,000 in total I had to pay.

Apparently, so my vet says, cats can suffer from teeth being reabsorbed at the root, which is very painful, and it can’t be seen except on an X-ray. So the charge covers those, anaesthetics, and surgery (my vet charges per tooth and not just a procedure.) I have a suspicion she has something going on again now with her teeth, so I’m expecting another big bill again in the next week or so. :(

We had a good experience with John Lewis, my cat was ill very suddenly and unfortunately passed away within a couple of hours for unknown reasons. They paid out quickly and were so kind on the phone. Very much worth the £12 a month I’d been paying to get over £2k back in vet fees at what was already a traumatic time.

We have definitely gotten our monies worth from pet insurance.

Our dog had to have hip replacements - £10,000 each! Luckily we were insured. At the referral clinic we met a young couple with a juvenile labrador. They cancelled their insurance and within weeks their dog was diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia and needed both hips replacing. Like most people, they couldn’t afford the cost so had maxed out their credit cards and taken out loans from the bank as well as friends and family.

We also had a rabbit who broke her leg and another dog with cruciate ligament disease which all cost about £12,000.

So I definitely feel it was worth it!

I've always half suspected that pet insurance is not worth it. A few years ago one of my cats had a health issue and cost us £3000 in the space of a couple of weeks (uninsured). It was a really hair raising time as, whilst we had the money, inevitably there would have come a time when we couldn't afford to go on. Since then, I have been regularly saving into a vet fund, roughly what the premiums would be for 2 cats. I haven't had to dip into it yet. It is a long term experiment, but I still believe putting money aside like this might end up being the better option to paying premiums.

Oh and try Royal Canin dental food. So far, I have kept 5 cats from needing dental treatment. Even cats who the vet has said should have dental treatment have ended up not needing it after a few months on Royal Canin.

I have one cat insured because he has epilepsy, so far they have paid all his bills bar the excess. They told me to only put a claim in once a year so only one lot of excess but if he gets sick, the bills are big so worth having. For the rest of the gang (dog, 2 more cats and 3 chickens) I have a fund, bank £100 per month, been doing it for 2 years, have paid for all their shots, big bill for the elderly cats teeth and one poorly chicken PTS. Still got about £1200 float

My dog developed an eye ulcer, which the insurance paid up for. The insurer then wrote and said that future policies would exclude eye problems, so they lost my custom.
I have insurance, but I go through the policy small print with a fine tooth comb before taking the insurance policy on.
It's surprising what they don't insure once you get reading the small print thoroughly.

Our cat had FCGS (he was a rescue and was FCV positive which then led to stomatitis) and required a full mouth extraction.

Cost was £3,000

The thing about tooth extractions is that you need dental x-rays along with anaesthesia to really do it properly. This requires a visit to a specialist dental clinic and surgeon. There are very few of these in the UK.

If your regular Vet does it, they do not use dental x-rays. They generally do not have the specialised equipment, so they just take the teeth out under anaesthesia. While this is cheaper, it is possible that a small part of the tooth is left behind, which can them cause problems with infection and inflammation. This is where the specialist dental surgeon checks the procedure has been done correctly with the dental x-rays. The regular vet does not do this check.

My vet does a vacs for life scheme. You pay something like £60 or £80 for the first vaccination/s & an ID microchip, then the annual boosters and a check up are free. Might be worth asking if your vets run something similar?

He's on premium dental food as recommended by the vets.

My two late cats ran up bills of £25k. All covered by insurance. My current girl has just cost £977 to have 6 teeth out.

I’m with petplan which covers dental care. My cat had two teeth taken out at a specialist cat dentist and it was about 2k. They were healthy teeth which apparently made them more difficult to remove. Insurance paid out no bother, only condition is that they have their teeth checked once a year.

My other cat has had about 2k worth of X-rays, sedations & blood tests due to a neurological issue. Again no issues claiming.

I pay about £25 per cat per month. They’ve all been insured since kittens and on the lifetime plan.

If you want your cat to have good teeth then never, ever give them dry food. Stick to wet food only. Not the garbage called 'dental food', not any dry food. And in fact - you can ask your vet for the actual evidence that dry kibble whether marketed as dental food or not, is beneficial to cats teeth and if they are honest (most are, btw) they will tell you that Royal Canin pay them to sell and display their products.

It is like expecting you to have good teeth by chewing on ritz crackers. What can help clean a cat's teeth is a raw chicken wing, but if you can't face that, just get them off the cat biscuits.

They do have this, but as he’s an old boy who is already neutered and chipped, for the price it’s more than just paying for the annual vaccinations.

Thank you for the suggestion though x

Get 2nd opinion different vets

My greyhound had to have 20
Teeth removed plus scale and polish on what was left and my bill was just under £1000 not covered on insurance

WTF!!! One of my cats had four teeth extracted a few years ago and it cost $500 (so 250 pound). I can't imagine that it has gone up by that much. I would be looking around for another vet OP. Admittedly it was many years ago, but I only paid half of that quote for one of my cats to have complicated surgery at a specialist clinic.

I cancelled my pet insurance after a wrangle with the company several years ago, and now just pay as I go. It's only in the past few years that my cats have needed vet treatment (I had 5 cats) as they got older and even then only a vist or two each. It was only the oldest cat who was insured, and he didn't cost much after I cancelled the policy. I don't think I would get it again.

Sympathies OP. I took my almost 1 year old rescue puppy into the vet last week for his 6 month health check and mentioned he occasionally seems to be stiff on his back legs when getting up/shifting position after sleeping and will sometimes whimper as if in pain.

Vet advised to wait for him to finish maturing before worrying about doing any tests, but agreed to give me a quote for some X-rays just in case we decided we want to investigate now.

Safe to say, at £1,600, we’ll be waiting until he’s older and hoping it resolves itself during the rest of him growing.

That is £200 less than I paid 2 years ago when another of my dogs was hospitalised to be treated for acute kidney failure and he sadly passed.

I continue to insure all 3 of mine but given there is no direct payment of claims, just reimbursement, you still have to find the money in the first place!

We pay insurance for nothing tbh. My car was stolen which I owned for 1 month. I paid 10,500 for the car and was returned 8,200 from insurance.

My cat had ALL her teeth removed in 2020 or 2021 and it was about £300!

I never have insurance either, just a separate account I save into every month. The most I've had to pay out is £1k when she was hit by a car and needed x-rays, surgery and an overnight stay.