very elderly rescue dog - is insurance worth it?

[Doraemon]

We are (hopefully) adopting a very elderly small rescue mongrel - his passport says he is 14 years old but this is the vet's best guess. He has no obvious health issues other than being old and a bit slow. He is a great dog for us in many ways - very calm, doesn't need huge walks, and is realistically much less of a long term commitment than a younger dog. He is also gorgeous
Given his age, I am expecting his health to deteriorate - obviously I would like to give him a comfortable retirement but if it reached a point where he needed surgery or some other major intervention I would not want to put such an elderly dog through this.
I have been looking at insurance quotes and because he is old most are either very pricey and/or have an excess of around £200 for each condition. I'm not sure whether this is worth going for, given his age, or whether we would be better off just having a certain amount in a savings pot for him?

I had an elderly cat and when his insurance got to a level I wasn’t comfortable with it also coincided with him hitting an age where I wouldn’t put him through more invasive treatment

So I lessened the cover and insured for the “shit he needs £1000 worth of treatment after being a twat” which was capped for a year per illness. But didn’t bother with the higher ongoing stuff. I then saved the difference into a savings account for excess or treatment. If that makes any sense at all!!

One thing that differs with dogs (unless it has changed) is your liable for damage if it runs out infront of a car. So it may be worth a low level cover.

I have a 14 year old staffy boy, nearly 15. I have cancelled his insurance this year. When I thought about it I could think of very little where I would pay huge amounts of money to treat him now, he is very elderly and arthritic, and my main concern is to keep him comfortable. I know that sounds harsh but I likely wouldn't put him through an anaesthetic or major surgery now, or chemotherapy for example if he developed cancer. The only thing he's been treated for in recent years is lumps and bumps that need removing and I'm happy to pay for them myself. The insurance kept going up each year to the point where I thought I'd be happier to just pay when needed. So I'm in agreement with you, maybe just put some in a savings pot for if he needs it?

And thank you for rescuing an old boy! I hope you have many happy times with him in his twilight years

Hats off to you for adopting a golden oldie 🥰 we are on our third and they are the best! I will always go for oldies now. We have no insurance but we do have savings so any vets bills can be covered as and when. With all three so far we have been quite lucky- I’ve found the expenses tend to be surgery (so far the biggest expense), and then far more often is trips for antibiotics and anti inflammatories- I find there’s a bit of a cycle when they get quite old (like people I guess!) with little infections and mobility issues so these tend to come and go more frequently as they get older. I don’t feel it’s a huge expense really certainly not requiring insurance, and I suspect they’d try and wriggle out of it whatever the case was by saying they can’t insure a rescue dog for example with no known medical history etc etc. So we’ve never bothered! Enjoy your time together 😍xo

Thanks for all your replies. I think we will go with putting some savings aside. Looking forward to having him for however long he lasts.

I’d have a look at the dogs trust membership if you’re not insuring-it’s only £20 and provides liability insurance for if your dog damages property or causes an accident/injury to a person or pet. I think the excess is £200. Worth doing even if your dog is well behaved I think!

I am totally 100% insure for a young dog. But for an oldie there is a balance with how much would you put them through scary expensive investigations let's alone treatments.

Personally I would do third party liability insurance only as I wouldn't extensively investigate illnesses at that age but instead treat just the symptoms.

It’s not about whether you’d aggressively treat something or not btw, it’s about whether you can afford to treat fairly standard stuff without insurance.

My last dog couldn’t have NSAIDs so he ended up on a cocktail of painkillers that cost about £150 a month for arthritis.... and then obviously any other issues were on top of that.

He actually wasn’t insured by that point as his insurance was more than that...

But don’t assume that standard old age things will be cheap is more my point, because they’re not always.

I stopped the insurance, then crossed my fingers while I saved some cash. Luckily I’ve never needed to use it yet 🤞🏻

I think providing you have access to a reasonable amount of savings it’s probably not worth insurance at that age .

@Doraemon

We are (hopefully) adopting a very elderly small rescue mongrel - his passport says he is 14 years old but this is the vet's best guess. He has no obvious health issues other than being old and a bit slow. He is a great dog for us in many ways - very calm, doesn't need huge walks, and is realistically much less of a long term commitment than a younger dog. He is also gorgeous Given his age, I am expecting his health to deteriorate - obviously I would like to give him a comfortable retirement but if it reached a point where he needed surgery or some other major intervention I would not want to put such an elderly dog through this. I have been looking at insurance quotes and because he is old most are either very pricey and/or have an excess of around £200 for each condition. I'm not sure whether this is worth going for, given his age, or whether we would be better off just having a certain amount in a savings pot for him?

I don't know the answer to your question but I think you are wonderful

Some people have an emergency credit card while they save the cash.

@tabulahrasa

It’s not about whether you’d aggressively treat something or not btw, it’s about whether you can afford to treat fairly standard stuff without insurance.

My last dog couldn’t have NSAIDs so he ended up on a cocktail of painkillers that cost about £150 a month for arthritis.... and then obviously any other issues were on top of that.

He actually wasn’t insured by that point as his insurance was more than that...

But don’t assume that standard old age things will be cheap is more my point, because they’re not always.

That is true if you can't afford to pay vet bills in general it means you really do need to insure whether you have a young or old dog.

For me it means I wouldn't be facing thousands in investigations as I wouldn't go down that path when older but I would happily self fund treatments to make him comfy and pain free based on his symptoms.

Check your home insurance for public liability. I rang ours and we were already covered for dog causing accidents or injuries. You may already have it and if you don't you could add it on as it will cover more than just the dog if you go through home insurance.

When my old boy turned 14 I cancelled the insurance as it went massively high and instead just put money away each month (only a little bit) just in case. I wouldn't have put him through any big surgical procedures at that age anyway. He was pts a few weeks ago and the money I'd saved covered his cremation and pts vets fees anyway.

Meant to say he lasted another year to just after his 15th birthday.

Our insurance for our dear old rescue dog was less than the medication she was on each month which was about £100, so it might be worth checking out the monthly premiums. Agree that major ops wouldn't be fair but might be worth thinking about the cost of setting broken bones or tooth extraction, those types of procedures. Our dog had an inoperable tumour for the last two years of her life that the vet checked on a regular basis to check for comfort and quality of life. Reckoning up, we saved thousands by being insured.

“That is true if you can't afford to pay vet bills in general it means you really do need to insure whether you have a young or old dog.”

Well of course...

But it’s more - people might think they can afford vets bills because they’re thinking, well it’ll be about x amount, when it can be so much more than that quite easily.

It’s just something to bear in mind when you’re weighing it up, do you still have enough if your dog’s stomach decides it doesn’t like the most common drug, or it develops a weird allergy or has to have regular blood tests as well to make sure it is tolerating stuff fine?....because it probably will be fine, but, it’s worth thinking about if it wasn’t.

Amazing, thank you for adopting an oldie.
I second checking your home insurance. Most decent policies should cover you for liability provided the dog is under control.
We cancelled our old boy's policy when he turned 16 and saved the money each month. He went on to live another 3.5 years and did cost a fair bit for various old man infections, lumps and other ailments.
I hope he has a happy retirement with you.

I throw in the mix that my old dog's end of life care cost £3.5k. She wasn't insured. I don't begrudge a penny of it.

I think if you could suddenly find £1000 to pay for who knows what crisis if you had to, then not insuring is the sensible call. If that would be difficult then the predictability of insurance is possibly a worthwhile expense.

Thanks for all the opinions, it is really helpful to hear a range of experiences. We have savings so the money is there if needed. I will look into whether the liability is covered by our home insurance (should probably remind myself what is on our home insurance policy anyway, it's one of those jobs we never seen to get round to). In a way it's not so much paying the premium for insurance that's putting me off, but the fact that paying the excess might well mean that we would be paying insurance and also paying for all treatments for anything under £200. Dental care is worth considering though as his tooth look pretty manky.....

Am wondering whether to get insurance now, see how he goes for a few months then have another think.

My boy’s monthly meds (anti-inflammatories for arthritis and one other medication) come to twice his monthly premiums and he sees the vet monthly, plus has blood test a couple of times a year.. The excess is only once per year, per condition and we pay 20% of each claim on top, due to his age (he’s almost 16).

We debated cancelling his insurance at renewal this year, but worked out the figures and even without him getting ill or injuring himself, we’re still better off than we would be without insurance. He’s a large, mixed breed and his monthly premiums are less than 100 a month through PetPlan, for a lifetime policy with good annual cover.

We have been in the position in the past where we cancelled insurance for an older dog and then needed to pay for tests to determine the cause of a limp, only to find out it was end stage cancer and have to let her go. That cost a couple of thousand pounds which, at the time, we had to put on a credit card. We didn’t begrudge a penny, but did regret cancelling her insurance. We could now manage those costs from savings, but it’s a no-brainer to keep the insurance policy going as long as we aren’t making a loss from it.

We don’t insure as we have enough in savings to cover, and insuring a dog, two cats, and two horses would get expensive. With insurance you essentially pay for someone else taking on the risk re cash flow, but ultimately the insurers always win.