Would you insure this elderly dog?

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The premium for my 11 year old pooch has just come in at £850. It's Petplan and they have been brilliant and I would always recommend them but my dilemma is this..

It is unlikely we would put the old boy through any big treatments at this time of life, and should we need any treatments we are fortunate enough to be able to pay for it. We are therefore not buying peace of mind.

£850 is a lot of money in anyone's book.. am I overlooking a scenario in which we might regret not insuring? The excess is £100 so all the little visits aren't covered anyway.

Your thoughts would be welcome.

Things to consider are the cost of diagnosis even if the end result is that you don't actively treat.

Also long term treatments such as painkillers.

Could you afford those without insurance e.g. we are currently having monthly injections for arthritis at around 90ish a month.

My old boy isn't insured anymore. By the time I worked out the excess, the additional 10% because of his age, it wasn't worth the premium.

We took his policy out when he was young as a £4k per condition policy, he now has health issues and I pay for his medication and don't claim because it just pushes the premiums further up and because of his conditions I couldn't change insurer. I am putting the premiums into a seperate account.

@BiteyShark thank you for commenting. The £850 would give us £70 a month over a year anyway, but yes I see your point.

I'm really dithering about what to do and we've got til Monday to renew

We stopped insuring our old lab at about 12, it just got beyond silly. We made sure we had some money set aside though, fortunately he only needed a couple of bits and lived until nearly 17!

Depends on how old 11 is for that breed.

Mine is 10. His premiums are more than that. But, years 10-13 is when the big bills come in. Mine turned out to have cancer. The scans and ops added up to maybe six thousand pounds? But he recovered within about a week - and it was a major operation! - and is very happy now.

People say, "I wouldn't put them through treatment", but of the five dogs of mine who have had major surgery, all bounced back within days apart from (ironically) the very youngest, who had complications and never mad it back from the vets.

I would have hated to have had him PTS knowing that if I had the money he could have 2-3 years of life ahead of him.

I self insure from about 4 depending on the dog so I build up a bit of a pot. The issue is you are stopping when you are much more likely to need it.

I wouldn't tbh

I would.

Insurance can cover lots of long-term medications like painkillers, joint injections, medication for diabetes etc.

In other words - medication for lifelong conditions that don't necessarily mean the dog needs to be PTS. It can easily come to a few hundred pounds a month.

You all make really good points. Really don't know what to do.

I still have my old dog insured as I claim more medication costs than the premium each month but if I would never put him through anything drastic or large surgeries so it would probably not be worth it if I wasn’t doing that!

What would you do if he was diagnosed with something like kidney disease, arthritis or diabetes tomorrow? They're not life-threatening conditions but require a fair amount of medication that will easily be double if not triple your monthly payments.

A lot depends on the breed, the state of health of the dog, your general finances and your attitude towards keeping a dog going into old age.

A fit and active 11 yr old JRT could easily have another 4 years left. An 11 year old great Dane probably won't. Could your finances take the cost of an op to remove some benign growths, and the cost of painkillers for arthritis? Would you be happy to medicate a dog up to the eyeballs to give it an extra year? Or would you think that an elderly dog who wasn't getting much out of life anyway and who hated having pills pushed down its throat 3 times a day was perhaps better off PTS?

We don't insure, and we're quids in after a couple of decades of dog ownership, but in those last few years of life, they do tend to rack up a few more vet bills. It's a case then of considering quality of life.

I don’t insure my 15 year poodle anymore as I wouldn’t put him through any invasive testing or operations. He had some teeth out a few years ago and it took him months to recover from the GA so after discussion with the vet I made the decision that I wouldn’t put him through it again.

Im fortunate enough that I can cover his monthly medications and any issues that pop up due to his age but most of his vet care now is focussed around making his twilight years as comfortable as possible rather than extending them.

We continued to insure our dog until we lost him when he was over 16. He was on several medications for non-life-threatening conditions that needed to be controlled to keep him comfortable and with a good quality of life and it was worth it for us because his meds came to quite a bit more than the premiums.

He only developed the conditions when he was about 15, so I suppose it’s a case of knowing the typical longevity of your breed and whether or not you could build up enough savings to cover any treatment for chronic illness/conditions he may develop later.

For us it was peace of mind, knowing that we could give him whatever he needed (be that physio, hydro, pain meds etc) to keep him comfortable and with a decent quality of life for as long as he needed.

If the visits are related to same condition with Petplan you have a year to claim so I find can easily go over £100 excess as consult alone is £40 these days. PPndon't penalise you for making claims either so I put all costs in

At that cost I'd keep it if gives decent cover, I prefer the peace of mind it gives. I easily claim over the insurance premium each year for my oldie, with just the arthritis meds + suppliment alone. Then is blood tests to monitor her health, hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, laser treatments. It's covered dentals which if bacteria gets into blood can cause big issues elsewhere. It allowed her to have stem cell treatment. She's lived well above average life expectancy already for a big dog so although she didn't have much in vet bills till about 10 we have certainly made up for it since.

Like humans plenty of conditions crop up in old age, where can still have good quality of life but managing it gets expensive. Hospitalisation care but is reasonable chance of recovery which can soon rack up a huge bill, our vets had quite few in when that last D&V virus went round.

Just to update...

We've renewed the policy for another year. Thank you all for your thoughts, it's really helped.

We will no doubt have another dilemma next year but for now we're rolling with it.

Thanks again for taking the time to comment

We stopped insuring our DDog when she got to 9 after a serious rare illness that cost £1000’s on our plan.they wanted £250 a month.We just set up a savings account instead and pop money in there each month just in case.she is on a lot of meds but luckily they are quite cheap per month.She is 13 now and we wouldn’t dream of putting her through big surgery as she simply wouldn’t be up
to it.

Just wanted to add its not just ill health to consider but accidents can happen at any age. Just a minor fracture can cost a fortune