Do you have insurance for your cat?

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I have a 3 year old grey moggy. She was a valentines present from my DH and the bugger prefers him anyway

She's an indoor cat, who's spends most of her days running up and down our hallway aka pulling the wallpaper off playing with my DDs toys and sunbathing in the centre of our bed.

She's microchipped and wears a collar with her name and the landline number on so hopefully we'd get her back if she did escape/go missing.

I am currently setting aside £5 a week (sometimes a bit more if I can) in a bank account in case she needs vets treatment, but I'm wondering if it might be better to get insurance.

I have taken out lifelong insurance for my kitten when she was six months old. It's about £4 a month.

I do t have a pet but a friend of mine has had a cat for the last 18 months, in that time he has cost over £1500 at the vets, fortunately she has insurance!

we don't have insurance
most of the ££ that our cat has cost us at the vet would not be covered by insurance - as far as I know they don't cover jabs or dental work. the other odd times we've sought treatment it hasn't been much over the excess of a standard policy

I had my cat insured from when he was a kitten, a black and white moggie. In January this year Troy was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and in heart failure. He was treated in by our wonderful vets and referred to Bristol where we had the diagnosis. He had his chest cavity drained twice, once at the Emergency Vets. He was on 5 different tablets a day. In all this totalled £3,800.

Sadly Troy died 2 weeks ago on the journey to the Emergency Vets. He was 2 months off his 6th birthday. He was a wonderful cat and I wish I could have had him longer but it wasn't to be. So I would say pet insurance is a must.

I have had my boy for just over 18 months and he has so far cost me over £2k, an amount I wouldn't have been able to cover without insurance.

Some of those costs were due to him being outside (altercation with another cat) but the majority were blocked bladder & crystals due to stress and he's been diagnosed with a heart murmur - both of which can happen to an indoor cat.

I swear by it and always go by the view that my cat is one of my most precious 'possessions' - he really isn't a possession but you know what I mean - so why wouldn't I make sure that if the worst happens I can help him. I insure my car, my contents - hell, I even insure my mobile all of which could be replaced.. my darling boy, not so much

It depends if you have enough to meet unexpected vet bills. I'm from a farming background and could emotionally have a sick animal put down. My dc on the other hand couldn't cope with that. Fallout at common entrance, gcse's, etc, just not worth it.

Catkin has lifetime Petplan - not cheap but ve good cover. He's 8. Vet bills so far: £,1,200 for having two inches of tail amputated at 7 months - got caught on barbed wire we think, £2,200 for stomach pumping, iv flushes and scans when he collapsed after ingesting poison - v nasty, £1200 for stomach pump and specialist bloods after snacking on lillies. Petplan isn't cheap - about £42 pcm now but I think we are breaking even.

Please do get insurance. We use Pet Friends and it costs us £5.55 a month for the "Prime" cover. We've actually got two cats, both insured separately with them as it was cheaper to do it this way! Luckily never had to claim on it but happier knowing we have got it.

I've never had insurance. My cat is 12 now and she hasn't needed the vet, except for flees. She goes outdoors every day but spends more time inside now than she used to. She's never had a flu jab and she's never even had a sniffle. She's always been happy and healthy.

I have savings in case of an expensive vet bill. If I'd spent 9 pounds a month on insurance for the last 12 years I would have spent 1,300 pounds by now on nothing. Now she's getting older insurance might be useful but I expect it would be hard to get, or very expensive so I will just rely on savings if need be.

Pilates, do you mind me asking who your insurers are? And the £4 pcm is for lifelong cover, (as in do they stop paying out if your cat has a condition that goes on after yearly renewal)?

Only asking because I pay a LOT more than than that, and would like to make a saving.

My two indoor cats are insured for £7 a month each. I accidentally snipped one of their necks when trying to get a knot off. It cost me £200 for GA and stiches. I was very glad they were insured!!

RubbishMantra It is with Healthy Pets T:01730 268592.

I'm not sure if it makes a difference to the premium that she was only a young kitten when we took the policy out. There is an excess of £99 and they pay the Vet direct.

Our elderly cat cost practically nothing in vet bills for 14 years, and then the costs have ramped up steadily. She's now 19 and costing over a thousand a year. Gulp .

We originally had our cat insured and then cancelled it when dh was made redundant. She was as fit as a fiddle until the last year of her life when everything started to go wrong and we paid about £1400 in vet bills. We'd had her for 15 years by that point though.

Do check the policy carefully - some of them won't cover long term conditions after a certain amount of time.

I have insurance for my outdoor cat as a single parent on a low income I couldn't possibly afford the vets fees if anything major happened so I would rather find the money each moth for insurance

We have insurance!

£9 per month for lifetime cover. Through Argos.

£65 excess. Happy with that

I really cannot decide what to do. I was quoted almost £20 per month for an indoor pedigree cat. I am recently separated and already struggle with finance, to the point where I considered selling the cat (my kids would be devastated).
My "best" idea at the moment is not to insure, but if the cat gets ill (non life threatening illness) I realize may have to put it down because I would have no money. Really don't know what to do.

I guess that in your changed circumstances, if you have no money then you have no money. £20 per month sounds like a lot though. Have you only gone for the one quote?

RubbishMantra I can't wear high heels, a) because I broke my ankle aged 16 but it wasn't discovered until I was 21 and b) i live in a first floor flat with no lift, wouldn't want to try and walk up the stairs in heels, they're steep.

Will have a ring round some companies, I have contents insurance but rent so don't need buildings, will see if the company I'm with do pet insurance, they might do a deal for having the two yes I know they likely won't but I can live in hope

cozietozie I had a look on comparison websites and will have a look at the company that provide my contents insurance.

People say if I need to get the money, I live in rented and the only thing they didn't provide was the bed, cot and sofas in the living room so no need to worry if I need a new washing machine etc. as it's landlords responsibility. So could raid that money if necessary, but wouldn't want to.

Hmm. You're likely going to need money to look after a cat properly even if you find affordable insurance and they're indoor. (Such things as flea prevention and dental care (which isn't cheap) are not generally covered by policies - and even if you had a policy, you'd still have to pay excesses on any other things.)

Are you really sure you can continue to have the cat live with you? How old is it?

She's 3 years old. We buy flea prevention from our vet every month, and worm prevention every 3 months also from the vet - this is what she recommended.

She always seems happy, it's not a tiny flat - 2 bedrooms, fairly large living room and a few places for her to hide from my dd (11months) - under the bed, sofa and she has a bed in a wardrobe in our room which we leave the door open for - there's a baby gate on the door so my dd doesn't get her. She never tries to get out and had access to a garden in her previous home which she never went in, don't think she's bothered by the outside. She seems to enjoy our high windows and looking out over the canal we live by.

We can afford to keep her, and I will get insurance when I can find the right policy. She has two litter trays which are checked and scooped daily and changed weekly which are out of reach and sight of my dd - ones in the living room in a corner with the sofa pushed against it - you can only see it if you know it's there, the others in the bathroom which my dd is never in unsupervised.

We've had cats for the last 30 odd years and never had them insured. When we adopted two kittens in January we decided we would insure them. Petplan quoted £23pm for the two and as we signed up through our vet we got the first month free.
I am so glad we decided to insure as the youngest kitten (now around 7mths) has over the last couple of months developed an ongoing problem giving him a very high temperature and vomiting. Tests, medication, surgery for biopsies and a couple of overnight stays mean the vet bills are over £1,000 (cost to me £65 excess and 4 months premiums) and we're not sure if it's cured yet.

Ive always had insurance for mine, but they have all gone outside. My new cat doesn't go out much, and a few months back I had to take him to the vet as he couldnt seem to wee.
Vet thought he had cystitis and was ready to operate on him as he'd not weed for ages and it's dangerous in male cats.
So out of nowhere, I was being quoted a £500 vet bill. In a 2 year old that at that time wouldn't go out.
Luckily, he finally "went" at the vets, and saved a huge vet bill. I pay £13 a month to insure him and it gives me peace of mind.
All the things I've claimed on with previous cats have been illness, kidney failure in 19 year old girl, and torn cruciate tendon in old male cat.

£150 per year for £7000 cover - all my cats have cost me money in vets bills. Dental extractions, kidney problems heart problems loads of stuff.

Just been unlucky I guess -most have lived to old age so guess illness just get more likely

Choose carefully as some have caps or caps on episodes of care-they don't pay out on recurring illness.

My current boy is a MC pedigree house boy.