. . . to not have pet insurance?

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We have two Maine Coons and they've been insured all their lives. They're now ten years old, which is getting on a bit for this particular breed, and the monthly insurance cost is going up from £60 to £85. Not only that, but even if we claim, there is a big excess (£150-£250) and we also pay 25% of the total vets bill, even if it's covered.

They're both in good health, no pre-existing conditions, neutered and indoor-cats only. Would I be mad to put the £85 in a savings account each month instead, and hope they don't get ill for at least a couple of years?

YABU - your cats will keel over the second they're not covered; get the insurance

YANBU - pet insurance is a racket and you should definitely risk it

Some good friends of ours had two Maine coons - dumb as a pair of bricks. One of them leapt out of a second storey window and broke all four of its legs. Uninsured. They paid the vets bills, which amounted to a small fortune.

Sorry, this story is probably not remotely useful. Enjoy your lovely cats whatever you decide to do.

Yanbu. Have never insured my cats but do my dog as he's more likely to have an accident or cause one

I would put away money instead at this age. I always say as long as you can afford to euthanise them and not let them suffer, fair enough.

I've had to stop insurance as it's ridiculous how much it costs every month for not a huge amount that would be covered, plus I'd have to pay 20% of the total amount along with £150 excess. I have a credit card instead with a few thousand on it. Anything over that amount and we would look at PTS. My dog is elderly, and I feel there is only so much he could undergo, plus he's had a good life and I wouldn't want to put him under lots of things for my benefit only. I'm insured third party in case he causes a car accident etc.

I have always insured my dogs for their whole lives, and it has been worth it. My older boy went for a routine check up at his specialist hospital, and never came home. The tests and PTS fees were over £2,000. People who say put the insurance payment away in savings each month, are frankly deluded. Although some people have different views with cats, they don’t seem as accident/illness prone as dogs.

I'm not deluded
I can afford to pay the difference

I personally would never have a pet without them being insured because I just couldnt afford a massive vet bill and would probably have to get a loan out.

I have 2 cats, one is 10 and one is almost 7 and I pay £15 each a month for them. My dog is almost 5 and I pay £30 a month for her. I have never had to claim for any one them but I would just rather have the peace of mind and keep them insured just in case.

This is usually covered under the public liability section of your home insurance.

I don't know about 10K, but I've absolutely had a 6K emergency fully covered by insurance with the cat regaining full quality of life. She totally dislocated her ankle - as in, the bones were not close to each other. Surgeon went in, put them back together, fused them with a plate, and she healed up no problem at all. She was 10 then - she is now fourteen and thriving. She can still run and jump up on the chest of drawers no problem, and even goes around the (low) garden walls. If I hadn't had insurance the only option would have been to amputate, and I think that would have been much worse for her QOL.

A family dog has also had a 5 or 6k emergency, can't remember which, but he ate a rock and had to have it surgically removed from his intestines. That included 2 or 3 nights in the vet and a transfer by ambulance to the hospital. On my life, two days later he was trotting around barking and wagging his tail. (He is a very sweet dog but he isn't a genius).

👍🏻

I’ve just been looking at pet insurance for a dog and from what I can see, most insurers wont cover anything above about £6k anyway!

I had this debate for my cat two years ago at age 13. I decided to stop insuring her, now at 15 she's not needed anything and I feel even more that if something were to happen at this age, it would be kinder to put her to sleep.

Just to give an indication of potential insurance costs for an older cat: I had ‘whole of life cover’ for all of mine (used to have several!) which meant when one had kidney trouble he was covered, another was covered for years of thyroid treatment. HOWEVER! My current boy, once he was was 14 the insurance was well over £100 a month, and at 16 I stopped it and started saving as he had no health issues, was (I felt) too old for surgeries etc if required, and the insurance had gone up to more than £160 a month! So do be aware than with each birthday over the age of 10, the costs can really crank up several notches.

It depends if you have the savings to cover what could be a big vet bill, or perhaps an ongoing chronic condition. My pet insurance has been invaluable. My cat ate half a peanut, got it stuck in her gut and needed emergency surgery - £3k. And that was a random incident.

We stopped when the cat reached 12 years old.

At that point, a claim would have to be at least £1800 per year, every year of his life , before we would have any financial benefit from insurance. At that age, given the monthly premiums, the policy excess, the 25% we would have to pay and the maximum claim limit they imposed, we decided it wasn’t a sound financial decision.

We do have a crisis pot earmarked for such things, so could cover most exploratory expenses etc. But beyond that I would be unwilling to submit an older cat to traumatic treatment anyway.

Been wondering about the same for a while- I have an 11 year old Maine Coon who is costing us £59 a month now, she has had a few health issues over the last year which seem to be mysteriously undiagnosed after several expensive tests so now I’m kind of keeping an eye on her symptoms and will PTS when she’s not coping anymore as I can’t see the point of testing more and more.

she is on solensia for arthritis which I buy from pet drugs online and administer myself to keep costs down.

she needs a dental but insurance doesn’t cover that unfortunately so am waiting til I have the money as it’s not that urgent.

i think if I get another cat I’ll have a savings account and an interest free credit card for emergencies and hope for the best!

Yanbu. We cancelled ours for our 11 year old rescue mongrel recently after a claim payout barely repaid our premiums of 10 years! The monthly amount then doubled so we cut our losses. We have enough money to cover any bills. So if your situation is the same it’s not a bad idea.

I never insured any of my pets. We always put the amount to the side every month and when they needed treatment then we took it from those savings. This works for us because we could still afford any treatment though, even if they something really expensive. PTS to avoid vet bills would be cruel, so if you cant afford possible vet bills, the cats should definitely be insured.

I am in 2 minds with this because I had a dog get to old age and she never had any issues until the last year of her life and the vet bills we paid out were far less than we would have paid over the life of her insurance.

However I also have 3 cats now and in the past year ive put in claims of in excess of £5k and also £3k+ of out of pocket expenses because I made the stupid decision to have 1 uninsured for 2 months until the other two were due for renewal, to do their insurance all together for ease. During those 2 months uninsured he had a sore, that required a blood test due to not healing which showed slight anemia. He then went on a year later to develop an auto immune illness which is around anemia so these treatments are ongoing for life and not covered. This had a knock on effect of affecting his heart, which luckily was covered.

So while most of the time you might be ok, as soon as something happens, those bills can go up eye wateringly fast.

I think the most important question to ask yourself, if your cat suddenly needed major investigations could you afford it? Would you be willing to pay it?

One of my other cats is currently having some issues and may require a CT scan, im not sure of the exact cost but it would be over £1k, he also had to have a tooth extraction and that was £500.

Its a gamble either way, we took the gamble with my cat on the basis it was only 2 months, he was young and we could use savings for any problems but it was stupid and will cost us a lot over his lifetime as he is young but it was us that took the risk.

Knowing ive had pets that have gone all the way to old age and cost very little and also pets that cost a lot in a short space of time, I think for me I would always opt for insurance now seeing how fast the bills can go up.

Just to keep in mind, maine coons (my youngest is a maine coon) are at higher risk of heart issues and teeth is also something to consider in later life especially and the surgery can become a little more complex if needed. Any heart issues would come with scans to diagnose and then multiple medications to control.

If you do go for insurance, shop around. Everyone recommended petplan to us but we are with LV for our car insurance so went with them, they offered a discount as we have both insurances together and they have been great to deal with as we have had claims both for the car and the cats in the past year (with both, we have taken out far more than we paid in) and I will say I expected my insurance to massively go up this year after the claims but it didnt really go up by much at all.

No way would u be paying £10k- £20k for treatment. That’s when they go to the dog park in the sky. Not fair to put animals through treatment and just not value for money.

I think it’s Tesco that do for cats. Think my limit is 10k

Our last dog had cancer in her eye, it cost about £800 for the op to remove the eye and no further treatment, she was insured so “only” cost us £300 excess and the insurance paid the other £500, she lived for about 5 years after that absolutely fine!

In your situation I would insure. We have a mainecoon and he's insured as he's only 2 and he's deaf, and although we keep him inside and have a catio, he has escaped from a skylight window and jumped roof to roof to get to our neighbours roof! So can't risk not insuring him! We have another cat we insured until she was about 8 and the insurance suddenly rose a lot so we stopped as she had only ever been treated for a uti. She's now 18 and has only bed to the vets once since then for a chipped tooth!

Your home insurance often has public liability cover on it. In fact, most pet insurance has a clause which says you must use any other policy which covers the loss before they'll consider covering it! So the home insurer is often on the hook for PL-related pet claims.

Yabu - I’d insure. I’ve had three geriatric pets die in the last 5 years and in every cases the last two or three years the bills were a LOT - £85 pm doesn’t sound bad for cats getting on a bit.

you say you’ll make the tough choice but there’s nearly always something expensive they can do that’ll buy you 1-3 more years and you do it…

the time to risk it is when they’re young really, it’s too late now.