Insurance for an older dog

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TLDR: Older dogs, insure - yes or no?

My last dog was insured until a couple of years before he died. I wasn't sure then that I ever had value for money from the insurance.

I have just adopted a nine year old dog and I'm looking at insurance options. It seems much more complicated this time around with co-pays. I can't work out whether it's worth it or not.

What do others do when their dogs get older?

Waggel don't have an age limit and you don't have to do co-payment.
Mine is 13 (as far as the insurance company is concerned, no one really knows) now and it works the same as if she were 5.
Expensive though. But I don't have savings for anything major so have to pay each month.

It's a very personal decision for people - particularly given the significant cost.

All five of mine are insured. Ages range from 1 year to 14 years.

For the 14 year old, in a way it's slightly force of habit as I absolutely would not intervene if she got cancer, or needed a leg amputated or something significant. Realistically, she probably doesn't need insurance as anything that would require several thousand pound isn't something I'd put a 14 year old dog through as she is slowly down slightly and isn't a spring chicken anymore. But I like the safety net as you can't predict everything that might happen and I'd never forgive myself if something happened that was just out of my reach to pay for and it would make a huge difference to her ongoing quality of life.

For the 10 year old I wouldn't cancel her insurance. Most of my dogs tend to live to 13-14 and she's still doing 8+ miles walking a day, so she's fighting fit and still relatively 'young' for her breed. I absolutely would intervene if I thought it was in her best interest and so insurance is essential.

It's two slightly different view points for two 'older' dogs, but hopefully useful.

I guess it's the question ius if you can afford it if you're suddenly hit with a £8k+ bill for something your dog urgently needs and can absolutely recover from.

Personally, I think 9 is very young for most breeds so to me insurance wouldn't even be a matter of 'if' but 'the best cover'.

We didn't past 10. I would consider it for a 9 year old depending on the cost/ cover especially if they have not got pre existing health.

Basically we discovered that it was too much for too little back past a certain age

For example our policy was going to be something like 100 pounds a month, for 4 grand cover but it was a maximum of 1000 per claim. So we would be paying 1200 for the insurance and potentially 3 lots of excess in order to get that 4000

We did pay a lot a month for his medication

Just to add, mine is likely quite a bit younger than 13 but I still probably wouldn't put her through anything major. But it's amazing how even small things add up. Her Galliprant for instance - which they pay out for - is £80ish pcm. I get it cheaper online but still it's still a fair whack.

Oh god, I think this might all sound very dodgy! I told the insurance company that her age was estimated by my vet. I just think they over-estimated but who knows. The £80 is the vet's price. The insurance company pays the online price but I still have to pay for a prescription every six months which adds to it. Just aware I sounded a bit like Dodgy Dave there!

We've stopped all ours at 8 when the excess went up plus 20% copayment. We certainly more than broke even with the previous dog.

I stopped my 13 year old's when he got to 8 - I put £100 a month into a savings account in his name and I also have a Barclaycard with a £16k balance that I never use so know that I've got that as back up.

He's very unwell over the last 2 months which started off for antibiotics for a suspected urine infection and had a bad reaction to. I've spent over £1500 and had him on drug after drug... all of which made him worse. So I'm going to be very cautious about future visits.

My first two dogs were insured until they were about 7 years old. Then the company we were with stopped doing pet insurance. That left us with pre existing conditions and having to pay excess + 20%. So we put the money into a savings account instead. Fortunately they never had any vet bills that would have been higher than the excess payment. So it was the right decision for them.

My 5 year old has had three operations on her right leg and has had pancreatitis twice. Plus other things. She also has arthritis. I have claimed nearly £15k so far. So for her, insurance will always be a must.

Everything is so expensive, even without major surgery. The pain specialist we see is almost £200 a month. My first dermatologist appointment was nearly £3k. Yesterday's appointment for pancreatitis was around £400.

Thank you all for your opinions. I'm going to insure him for the first year at least.

I was just about to suggest this. I rehomed an 8 year old and discovered he had some undiagnosed things in the 1st 12 months I had him! I was very glad I'd chosen to insure him that year and on lifetime cover. Things like arthritis treatment can be costly. I don't know if you'll run in to issues with his age and not being able to insure (some companies won't let you insure for the first time past a certain age), but in case you do, Petplan will insure a dog whatever their age if they're a new rescue.

I rehomed an elderly dog. She's 10 next month. I've had her 18m.

I use Animal Friends insurance and pay £36 a month from this years renewal. I did have to claim last year for ileus. That's was about £1400 and I had to pay an excess and 10%.

When our premium went up to almost £200 a month we stopped the insurance and put £200 a month into a savings acc. We also took out a two year interest free credit card incase we needed to pay a large pet bill.
She had nearly £4000 in savings when she was put to sleep. Rather have her than £4000 but it shows how insurance for elderly pets is outrageous.

It depends on the elderly dog. My 11 year old has vet bills of around £270 a month before any extras crop up.