Are your cats insured?

[girliefriend]

Most people I know in rl don't seem to bother with cats, my boy cat is insured on a very basic insurance with Argos pet insurance and am in the process of adding our new girl cat to the policy.

In my mind it's worth it as if they were seriously ill or injured I couldn't magic up £1000 for vet bills.

Lots of people seem to for dogs but not cats

What is the mn consensus?

[LemonDrizzleTwunt]

We have one cat, who is 5, and have insured her since day one. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it the policy has paid out more than we ever put in. We pay £6 month with MoreThan, and the cat has just had £1000 vet bill. Have never been more relieved in my life to have been boring and taken out insurance when we did! She'd have to live to a ripe old age and never become ill again in order for us to not have had a good deal.

[MoJangled]

2 venerable girls, 19 and 19 YO and both insured from the start with Direct Line. Cant remember offhand what I'm paying, but pretty sure its too much as I've never got round to shopping around. I realised I wasn't claiming in some sort of assumption that I'd need it more for a major catastrophe, until I worked out that I'd paid out over £2000 for a couple of lump removals, thyroid conditions, arthritis meds and renal failure treatments. Claimed now!

for those not insuring older, less adventurous cats - this was actually when my biggest costs hit as their general health declined...

love the savings account for pets idea!

[HPparent]

We insured our cat, she was only two when we took out the policy a couple of years ago.

I used to insure my rabbits - one rabbit broke a leg as a juvenile so worth it. Unfortunately the insurers cancelled the contract and I cannot afford £30 a month per rabbit. We did shell out about £300 for a guinea pig op which bought him a few more months of life. I think I would have to opt for euthanasia if rabbits or guineas developed a serious condition or had a serious accident our local vet couldn't treat.

Our vet is lovely and charges us the minimum as DD did work experience there for a couple of years.

[Lovethesea]

Both of ours are about 4, rescues from cats protection and have pet plan insurance. About £20 a month for both on a lifetime policy.

Huntercat got swiped by a car last year and needed £4,000 of orthopaedic surgery to fix his front leg with plates and pins. He's made a full recovery and is once again slaughtering the neighbourhood. Without the insurance we would have had him put down as we simply don't have that cash sitting about and certainly not for something that was not guaranteed to work for him.

Once they get pretty old I will probably stop the insurance as I imagine the premiums will be huge and any treatment would need to be simple for me to put an old cat through it.

[tabulahrasa]

The older one isn't, she got ill 3 yrs ago, she cost £4000 that year to treat and about £1000 a year since then on medication...all the pets since have been insured.

I'm not actually sure why the younger cat is insured because actually she'd not tolerate a lot of medical treatment (she's a very shy nervous wee thing and gets stressed just going in for vaccinations) but I'd rather pay insurance and not use it and be able to decide whether treatment is in their best interests rather than on whether I can afford it at the time.

[ConcreteElephant]

Oh Joan :(

Our adventurous boy, very much an outdoor cat too, doesn't seem to appreciate that we've moved house (over a year ago) - and has been heading back to the old place every once in a while. He's been gone two weeks this time and we know he's there but can't seem to get him when he fancies coming out into the open. He merrily walks into the box when he sees us but it's just finding him. He lived there 12 years and it's very much his familiar ground. One day I know we just won't get him back :(

[ConcreteElephant]

Two cats, insured since kittenhood, now aged 13. It's costing us a fortune now they are older but goodness me, we've certainly got value for money out of one of them - tail pull injury leading to amputation, broken leg (to name but two of his best efforts!)

We keep thinking, given the premiums now, that perhaps we could stop, but we have lots of experience of enormous vet bills thanks to our more adventurous boy and we've never had to worry about the financials - it gives us peace of mind.

[JoanJettPack]

Jettpackcat isn't insured.

My last cat was, but she went missing over a year ago and, despite being microchipped, I still don't know what happened to her. She was very much an outdoor cat, so she is most likely dead :(

New kitten isn't leaving the house, so I'm not going to bother.

[catsrus]

Did for the first 6-7 yrs of cat ownership but then it got silly expensive with 6 cats (don't ask) so decided more sensible to keep the money. It's definitely worked in my favour over the years.

If one of mine was in a horrible accident or got seriously ill I know I would euthanise rather than try to keep alive. I went that route with a pet once and never again, he had a miserable last few weeks at the vets before dying and I swore I would never let that happen again but would let them go in as little distress as possible. I have the dog insured, low cost, large excess, mainly for the third party cover.

[micah]

No. Mine has so many health problems he is/was uninsurable. I looked into it when he was young and they wanted £15/month, and his head, neck, chest, cardiac and respiratory systems were all excluded. So his legs and arse would be covered, basically :)).

I put the £15 in a savings account instead, and 15 years later he's loaded. It's only really there in case I absolutely can't afford treatment, or there's an emergency. I don't use it for day to day costs.

[smokeandglitter]

I have 2 cats - both Ragdolls. Both are insured. If anything happened to them I would struggle to make a large amount of money appear and I would be devastated if something happened to them. Both are indoor cats (go out on leads), they are a huge major part of our family so insuring them is important to me.

[JadeJ123]

Yes, oldest is 7 and on a special diet as he has kidney failure and youngest is 5 with no health problems but was hit by a car and cost £4000. We can afford to not have insurance bit always have. We're with pet plan but they're both pedigree cats.

[VivaLeBeaver]

For the past 15 years I have always have two cats. Different ones as some have been run over and died and then a new one bought.

So how much would premiums have been for 15 years...? £10 a month for two? £120 a year. So I've saved £1800 in effect.

Only bill I've had to pay was £300 for a poisoned cat 12 years ago. So I reckon I'm winning.

[girliefriend]

Betsy who do you use if you don't mind me asking? £11 a month for 2 cats sounds good.

[soddinghormones]

Our elderly Battersea cat isn't insured and adding up what we've paid out in vet's fees against what we would have paid out in premiums then we've come out ahead. However she's a very timid little thing who prefers to be inside most of the time and when she does go out she doesn't go far.

We have insured our boy cat (4.5) as he's very adventurous and when we brought him over from Dubai last year I suspected that at some point he'd put himself at risk. I'm very glad we did as he recently got hit by a car and has had major orthopaedic surgery for a fractured pelvis - without insurance we'd now be looking at a bill for £5,500. We are lucky in that we could if absolutely necessary find the cash from somewhere but I'm very glad we don't have to

[hugoagogo]

Yes she is, we were very grateful our old cat was insured when she was ill and although it was horrible and ended up being an inoperable type of cancer and she died- we never had to worry about the cost.

We use John lewis because they insure your pet for life, so if they develop a chronic condition they will pay out for as long as it's needed rather than just until the end of the year.

[BetsyBell]

We ensure our 2 cats and it already more than paid for itself after one of them got a nasty foot injury. The insurance money was paid quickly, in full and with no quibbles. Combine insurance is around £11 pm for a basic plan.

[girliefriend]

theOne I think like that as well

[Bluestocking]

Yes, both insured. They came to us from the Cats' Protection League with three months' Petplan insurance (disclaimer, other pet insurers are available!). The vet practice we take them to has, on the couple of occasions they've cost us money, been brilliant at claiming it back so we didn't have to pay up front and claim.
Now they are starting to turn into senior cats, it's really a no-brainer to keep them insured.

[girliefriend]

Thanks for replying (always nice )

I am not sure I could put enough into a savings account to cover a large bill, my friends cat was hit by a car and the total bill came to about £3000!!! The cat survived and is fine now but it scared me as there is no way I could find that kind of money.

The insurance I pay for one cat at the moment is only £7.50 a month and am hoping they do some sort of two cat deal

[IHaveBrilloHair]

No, but I can pay for any treatment, including major surgery for one of them recently.

[Boysandme]

Our two cats are not insured and at 14 are too old to be insured for a reasonable cost now. Thankfully they have not cost us much in vets bills over the years, certainly under £1,000 between them so far less than insurance would have cost.

That said, when they have gone and we hopefully get new cats I would insure them as it gives peace of mind. I worry now about the cats getting anything that requires ongoing medication, whilst we could afford it it could be a lot of money. I'd prefer certainty of monthly costs.

[TheOneWiththeNicestSmile]

My 3 (chipped & neutered female moggies) are insured with Argos - just over £20 a month for the platinum policy. They're all pretty young though - 2 are 2, the other nearly 1. The premiums have stayed about the same for 2 renewals so far.

I think I kind of superstitiously believe that they're less likely to get ill or injured because I have it

[superbagpuss]

nope - three cats here and we have savings to cover any vet bills.