Thinking of cancelling insurance

[M0reGinPlease]

I know, I know but it's going to be £52/month now and because they're both ten this year the excess has gone up to £125. My thinking is, they're ten. If anything minor happened of course we'd treat and would probably have to pay anyway as would be less than £125. Anything major, at ten, would we not just PTS? My friend put her cat through rounds of chemo- it was horrible (for her and cat) and then cat had to be PTS anyway.

I feel awful thinking like this but £52/month is a lot of money to us right now, plus their monthly flea and worm, plus they have to have a special diet which is horrendously expensive because one has IBD (which, by the way apart from the initial diagnosis has never cost us more than our excess and he's not had treatment for around four years now as it's managed with diet alone)

What do I need to consider? TIA.

Don't do it!!! I changed insurance when our old girl was 12 as our old one changed so much it was crap. I went with Petplan but because of her age couldn't start a lifetime policy. She had never had any health problems before so thought it would do.
Six months later she started having health problems-cost us £10k-she did have surgery at a referral practise. Max claim was £3k but had we had lifetime we would have been covered for £10k and it would have renewed for the following year.
Forward another 6 months and she became diabetic-blood tests and medication soon hit the £3k limit.
What I am saying is there are a lot of ongoing conditions where insurance will be a godsend.
New lad is on Petplan lifetime which we will stick with even though it isn't the cheapest.

Petplan covered for life is what we have.

Maybe if the cats were 17 or 18, but at ten that's only half way through their lives - plenty make it to 18 or 20 nowadays. Hyperthyroidism, diabetes etc are conditions that tend only to show up in later life and can cost more per month per cat than your premiums fr the two of them.

In that case definitely stick with it!

I wasn't considering changing, but cancelling all together. It's just sooooo expensive.

Don't do it. I've had £15,000 of bills for my cats. And not stuff you would PTS for. I would have been completely screwed without insurance.

I've never bothered with insurance for any of my cats and have never financially regretted it. I do think that you are right that just because something can be treated - it doesn't always mean that it should be.
It is of course a risk. If you do stop I'd suggest you ringfence the first six months premiums so you have something to fall back on. As an aside you also really don't need to flea treat and worm the cats monthly. I only flea treat in summer and I worm them infrequently.
I'm now preparing to be shot down for going against the mumsnet zeitgeist!!

If either of them got a chronic but perfectly manageable condition, would you really choose to PTS? Hyperthyroidism, diabetes, renal disease, heart disease or any combination of them (not at all unusual in senior cats!) that requires daily medication and regular blood tests etc. but cats that are on the right treatment have an excellent quality of life... Many cats live up to 16-18 at least these days.

Of course it's like any other insurance in that you hope you'll never need it but it's important to have if you do need it.

I know it's the right thing to do but it's really an awful lot of money for us.

I worm and flea regularly because we live rurally (plenty of hunting) and I have a baby. Also because of his IBD we need to ensure he's always free of parasitises.

I know I shouldn't cancel it. In all likelihood I won't, but having the conversation is helping.

There’s no way I’d give up cover for life at that age. She could live for another 10 years but equally is just the right age to develop manageable health conditions. Lots of health conditions are treatable but may cost many thousands to diagnose, albeit with much smaller costs once diagnosed. My cautionary tale is five figures of vet bills within 18 months on one cat. What level of cover do you have?