To ask what you would do for your pets?

[Whenwillthesnowendzzz]

Would you get into debt to pay their treatment?
Would you sacrifice your own health needs to pay for theirs?
Would you use up your savings?
If insurance couldn't cover, or couldn't cover much, would you happily pay the rest?
Hundreds, thousands?
Just curious to know as it's so different for everyone.

I wouldn’t get into debt. Couldn’t risk my child’s home. I would use up my savings but they are a few thousand at best so could be built up again. That said, I pay for very comprehensive insurance for that very reason.

I've paid hundreds out for my Rats but I've also PTS over operations, it's all quality of life versus quantity. Rats don't do well under general anesthetic so putting them under is always a risk and an elderly rat with cancer will be PTS when they can no longer rat.

Would you get into debt to pay their treatment? Yes
Would you sacrifice your own health needs to pay for theirs? No
Would you use up your savings? Yes
If insurance couldn't cover, or couldn't cover much, would you happily pay the rest?
Hundreds, thousands? Yes

I studied a 2nd degree with the Open University paying out of pocket, no student loans etc, and postponed a year because I spent all of the money I had saved for tuition on vets fees for my dog. He was insured but they refused to pay. I paid about £5000 for it, which was 2 university courses and some on my credit card. I haven’t regretted it for a moment.

Saving the same amount as you would pay into pet insurance is the best way imo. I paid insurance for my dog for years, but just paid the small bills for the twice he needed treatment outside of vaccinations, as the excess made it not worthwhile. But once my dog was older the insurers loaded the policy to around £75 a month. So even then if I did make a claim, what I was paying out in insurance and excess didn't make sense.

I like that Noel guy and he does seem to love animals, Not always convinced some of these major surgeries he does are in the best interest of the animal. To put them through major surgery and recovery at eg age 10, means they will often see their lives out in pain.

I wouldn't dream of owning a pet without medical insurance unless I was very wealthy. Obviously private medicine is expensive, well all medical care is expensive, it's just British people have no clue whatsoever about medical costs so they think vet fees are expensive.
Most people would be shocked if they knew the costs of all the medical care they have received in their lives.

Before we decided to get a pet, we made a decision on the maximum amount we would pay for its future health costs.

We'll stick with it. No we won't go into debt or make sacrifices to our own health/wellbeing/financial security

I actually feel a bit better now after reading this. We’re feeling horribly guilty struggling with a rescue dog when we were unaware of her multiple anxiety and other issues. Feel the rescue charity has guilted is even taking about rehoming her in a worst case scenario (we are exploring all other options first.) Having to prioritise her needs over my own health needs. But it seems a lot of other people wouldn’t do this