Pet Insurance

[LemonandYuzu]

I'm currently paying £50/month on insurance for 4 year old cavapoo. Should I bother? Please let me know your vet cost stories. If he needed an expensive operation suddenly I do have the cash on hand to pay for it but I'm trying to work out if over the course of his life whether it's worth it. His cavalier mum's heart has been tested every year for 8 years with no problems.

My dog insurance was £22 a month for £5k worth of cover. In the 3 years I have had the dog we have never claimed. This week she got very sick very quickly. Emergency out of hours vet for the night was £1.5k. The whole bill is looking at being £4k. We decide not to put her through anymore but it could have gone higher. I wouldn't have been without the insurance but did shop around last year to keep the cost down with reasonable cover

We've been fortunate in always having enough in a savings account to cover a large vet bill, and have also been clear that there comes a point when the dog's quality of life isn't going to be worth the ££££ that could be thrown at keeping the dog alive. For example, we'd be very willing to pay for the treatment of a complex fracture in a young dog, but not in one who is coming towards the end of his or her life: it's not fair if a dog has maybe a year to 18 months left for it to spend six months of that recovering from a major op and then to still be lame afterwards anyway, when it's already on meds for other health issues which are reducing its QoL, is going deaf, is getting a bit confused and so on.

So we haven't insured our dogs. We have been very lucky - there have been a few stitches needed and minor ops etc over the years, and long-term treatment for arthritis, but I estimate that over 20-ish years of mostly owning two dogs, we have saved about 18k in not having insurance.

One day a belter of a bill will land. I have accepted this. I'm not sure DH has, but he's soppy enough about the dogs that he'll slap down the credit card...

An emergency surgery on a bank holiday to remove a bowel obstruction cost us several
Thousands.

Medication for spinal pain is currently £70 a month and seems to be getting dearer over the last year.

An operation to remove a dental tumour cost £1000.

An operation to remove a lump from his eyelid was a few hundred.

That is just the tip of the iceberg as we have had many other trips in the hundreds and thousands.

He isn't quite 8 years old and I would say we have had far more from the insurance company than we have paid and the premiums are running to almost £1000 for the year.

I am an advocate for insurance but that is because of what we have been through. At some point we may just self fund because we can but probably not for a long time yet.

We pay £70 a month for our beagle - he's six and we've never claimed but we have a lifetime policy of 12k that also covers dental work.

I don't have 12k sat around to spend on him but I can afford £70 a month so that's what I do.

Within 3 months of rehoming my daughter's cat, he was in an accident costing £4000. When we saw the emergency vet, she at first was hesitant to suggest treatment until I told her he was insured. He lived healthily for another 13 years .

Thank you for all your stories. I think on balance I might keep the insurance but keep shopping around for a better price.

Just be aware that anything you've ever seen the vet for (however minor) will be classed as a pre-existing condition and won't be covered by a new policy.

We had a Labrador, insurance started at £28/month and crept up every year until he died at 10. At that point his insurance was £94/month.

We calculated what we claimed for him over the years and it was more than the total insurance premiums. He had a few claims before he was 5 that were gastro related - D&V and overnight stays. Usually after he had eaten something nasty when out. Trips to the emergency vet at weekends are expensive!

After he turned 5 the main claims were for Luxating patella (knee joint popping out) surgery, an eye issue which he had MRIs for (swelling on his optical nerve that caused his pupil to permanently dilate in one eye which I am still convinced was caused by the Bravecto treatment we gave him), a torn ear injury when out in the woods that required surgery, and the last big claims were for gastro issues which after weeks of treatment at the vets and eventually referral and expensive tests at the vet hospital diagnosed stomach cancer.

All in we claimed around £16k over 10 years and paid out around £7.5k in premiums and another £800-£1,000 in excesses. Some people have dogs that never need the vet, but financially it worked out better for us, and we also had the peace of mind that we could claim when needed.

Had a Welsh springer that cost £120 a month in premiums, but had 2 major surgeries that totalled £15k+ so was v glad to have it!

Bear in mind the second you cancel insurance is the time your dog will decide to get horrendously ill/have an accident. It’s just the way the world works.

If you do change keep in mind everything you’ve ever gone to the vet for will be classed as pre-existing and will not be covered. The insurance company will also link conditions - so if he has been seen for say a sore leg and then develops arthritis that isn’t connected they will do what they can not to pay out. And then you’re fucked.

I'm paying over £100 per month for my lab who is 3. This is with Pet Plan. It's the policy his previous owners started and I took it over, and I was thinking of reducing it.

He had an issue recently which resulted in over £5500 of scans and treatment, and they paid it without hesitation.

Seems like every trip to the vet these days is a huge cost. I was stunned. There was discussion about changing the law to prohibit profiteering, but not sure whether that will come to anything.

I will definitely be keeping it going.

Skin infection from a bite cost me £1K just two weeks ago (one OOH vet appointment where the vet did sweet f all because the dog was 'too distressed' for him to look at, and one follow up with my regular vet the next day and then medication).

Operation on a jaw and associated tooth extraction/medication/follow up cost £6K. That was on a 6 year old dog in full health - and not a breed known for having issues with that part of their body.

I could afford to not have insurance for my dogs. But why take that risk?

Forgot the tax.