Lifetime pet insurance renewal £1700!

[NewChapter11]

Company have just emailed to tell me they're delighted to enclose my renewal offer of £1700 pa and I want to cry.
My dog is nine and half years old so I guess they know I'm cornered.
He had a dodgy back for a couple of months with a clear X-Ray. Took Meloxicam and Tramadol and seems so much better now but I suspect the insurance company suspects it could rear it's head again.
Is this quote the norm for senior dogs?

doesn't sound expensive tbh.
especially with the health condition/meds the dog already has.
can you afford not to be insured?

It's not a chronic condition and he's now weaned off all tablets (was only for two months) but I guess it'll be named as a pre existing condition now.
Had no idea insurance could spiral so high for a dog without a chronic condition

It's all about risk for them so I am not surprised it rises so high with age as it wouldn't take much to claim more than your renewal price.

Just lost my 12 year old Labrador and premiums for her over the last year were £180 pcm. Her vet bills have come to an awful lot more than that this year. She also had to have 2 ear ops when she was about 9/10 which cost over £6k.

I did have an insurance cull a few years ago as premiums for our then 3 dogs and 2 cats were ridiculous. Thankfully I kept the policy for the older dog. Dog no 2 however ruptured a cruciate ligament a few months after I'd cancelled his policy - cost us £4.5k!

Yes, our renewal for 9 year old pedigree with only minor claims in the past has come back around a similar price plus the first 20% thing as well as excess. It didn't make financial sense to keep paying and I just wish we had done the thing of saving since he was a puppy rather than forking out thousands over the years but I'm generally quite risk averse hence paying to this point. I've switched to boughtbymany and increased the excess which has halved the premium we were quoted although have compromised on cover. It's still lifetime though and thankfully we were able to switch as no more existing conditions...yet.

My 8 year olds cane back at £55 a month, I called up and negotiated, got it back to £34 but higher excess. I've never claimed.

jesus christ.thats expensive! My most expensive one was 65 a month, had cancer. I did not renew, just paid it.

We pay into savings rather than insurance. The "insurance" pot just keeps growing as we don't use it for small things. We do this because we always get older rescues and they always come with preexisting that won't be covered. We're fortunate though, we downsized a while back and had starter cash to put aside.

We've just lost our 2 year old lab and his was £1752 a year. We've claimed at lot more though so I'm very glad we were covered.