Insurance (or not) for old dog?

[CaptainMorgansMistress]

Hoping for advice if anyone has been in a similar position before? We’ve always fully insured our beagle who has been fit and healthy throughout his life with the odd emergency due to eating something he shouldn’t.
He’s now 11.5years old and although still well in himself, is definitely slowing up. His monthly insurance premiums are now £75 and the insurance will only cover 50% of any treatment.
Due to his age and temperament we have already decided that any issues that arise will be managed conservatively and we won’t consider any surgery for him. This may mean that we will need to let him go sooner rather than later but are confident that it’s the best thing for him.

My question is - at this point, would it make more sense to save the insurance premium amount in a separate account that we can use if needed, rather than continue a policy which we won’t need to fund surgery / post surgical care?
Thank you!

It really depends on your dog’s needs.

My boy is 16 next week and coincidentally his insurance is also now £75 per month. He has quite a few things going on now (all came up in the last 18 months) and after extensive discussions with his vet we are managing things palliatively, keeping him comfortable, but definitely wouldn’t put him through anything intensive or invasive at this point.

We worked out that, even with the age adjustment, we are still better of with insurance than without, as it covers his monthly medication and regular monitoring appointments, so for us it’s worth it. If your dog isn’t on any monthly/regular medication and you can cover any smaller things like ear infections, grass seeds, etc, then savings might be the better option for you.

In our case, if we had made the same decision when my boy was 11.5 years old, he wasn’t on any medication and had always been super healthy. He had only ever needed the vet once, when he was 8, so it might have felt like the right thing to do, but it’s been a godsend since he’s been on meds the last 18 months. The vet puts in a claim for us twice a year, to cover the previous 6 months of monitoring, blood tests and meds and we have worked out that, even without additional minor issues like eg an ear infection, we are still better off with than without insurance.

Only £75, a bargain . Ddog is costing me £95 but they do pay everything bar they first £120

Our insurance increased dramatically when DDog 1 hit 8 - JL wanted £300 per month. He did have some issues, and a very trigger happy vet as it turns out - but I read it that they no longer wanted my business. So we stopped insuring him and I have a fairly healthy savings account now, 3 years later.
I think it depends on whether or not you can cover emergencies - I am thinking accidents etc .
DDog 2 we moved to Petplan and that’s been very good and so much less expensive . Both labs.

Once my senior dog’s premiums hit £50pcm I started saving it instead. I’ve paid out for a couple of things from the dog money, e.g. recently it meant it wasn’t an issue when he had an ear infection over a weekend, but I’m definitely quids in over all. If you get Dogs Trust membership which I think is £25 pa, that covers you for 3rd party insurance which is useful to have I think.

£75 pcm for cover that includes ongoing medication sounds like the PP above has got a good deal.

Do you have savings you'd be willing and able to use if something expensive but manageable happened the day after you cancelled the policy?