Do I need cat insurance?

[Plipplops]

About to adopt a 2 year old cat. With the excesses (I've only looked at petplan) of £80 per visit, I'm thinking unless she gets run over and it costs hundreds/thousands then it's a bit of a false economy?? It was just over £9/month...

What are your thoughts please??

My excess is £69 with 'bought by many'. I have claimed once for 1 of my cats and they are 2 years old. I have them on a lifetime policy so that they would get covered for longer term issues

P.s. I got about £300 back from my claim (after excess deducted) and it was for treatment for an abcess including xrays, sedation, overnight stay

I would. Within 4 months of getting our cat she was diagnosed with hyperesthesia which means lifelong medication. We have a lifelong policy with Tesco and have just put in our first claim. At the moment her medication is fairly cheap and next year we may not even spend the excess but at least I know that should she need a different treatment I don’t have to worry about it. We are with Tesco.

It depends what you have in savings - if you have enough to cover unexpected vet bills (which can go into the thousands) then it's a matter of luck whether you are better off paying insurance or using your savings, when you consider the cost of insuring the cat over its lifetime versus the cost of paying vet bills in full.

If you don't have any savings or your savings are earmarked for something else, I would definitely insure.

Always insure!

We have a cat that we found in the garden who turned out to have a chronic illness. We were on holiday when he was taken ill with a flare up and the lady from the cattery phoned us desperately having driven at 90mph down the motorway to a 24 hour animal hospital because she thought he was dying. We came home to a £2,500 bill for all of his tests, scans and 3 days on a drip and thanked our lucky stars that he was insured.

I was with Tesco but their premium jumped up (without any claims) so I switched to bought by many

Yes you do. My cats have cost my insurance over £5000 each and would have had to be PTS without insurance.

God yes unless you're minted. It might seem like a waste of money but can be a godsend if it's needed.

I would.

Mine ended up at the vets age three with crystals in his urine - he needed three nights in the vets, and it cost me over £2000 in vets fees.

It's not worth the risk for me. Unless of course you have thousands of pounds in savings or access to a credit card.

It'a not just accidents though that may require vet treatment. My dog ate something dodgy, got gastroentiritis and had 2 days in the vets on antibiotics and a drip, got x-rayed to check there wasn't a blockage anywhere. 48 hours = bill of £1200!

My cat jumped off a fence and landed on a piece of glass, slicing her paw nearly in half - operation, medication and aftercare cost around £800.

Thankfully, all my pets are insured. Both incidents only cost me £150.

Unless you have this kind of cash hanging around to cover it, get insurance.

Yes you do! Specifically a lifetime/covered for life policy that will continue paying for a condition for the duration of the cat's life.

It's not just accidents that lead to costly vet bills, many chronic illnesses do as well. Especially as your cat gets older, vet bills can easily be several thousand a year to cover blood tests, medications, various scans and so on... (Typical conditions for cats over 10 include renal disease, hyperthyroidism, diabetes etc.)

And accidents of all kinds that require out of hours vet care and hospitalisation can be eye-wateringly expensive - I don't think we realise it as we have the NHS for humans! A friend's cat got his leg stuck to something last year and dislocated it, and their bill was over £6,000 after just one weekend because he required emergency surgery. Another friend is paying hundreds a year for a cat that developed skin allergies. One of mine kept getting anal gland infections and required a £4,000 surgery at a specialist hospital.

You may be lucky and never need it but most cats suffer an episode of illness at some point in their lives.

Do it OP we had a kitten who was very sick and with x rays bloods over nights etc cost well over £1000. In the end he did get PTS but least we know we did all we could with out the worry of costs. Still have his brother with Animals Friends £4 per month worth every penny!

My parents have had multiple cats over the past 40 years - a peak of 6 cats at one point - and have never had insurance. They have been lucky though and the cats have been relatively robust and healthy

I adopted a brother and sister pair and got insurance to my mothers amazement - really glad I did as both got clipped by cars one one year and one the next ... without insurance I would now be missing cats or have a 3 legged one due to the damage to her hind leg

If you chose to risk it, do make sure you are up to date on vaccinations and put what you would spend in insurance into a savings account just in case

Unless you are very wealthy then yes. Make sure it is lifetime cover-it costs more but is worthwhile if cat gets an ongoing issue e.g. diabetes, thyroid problems. Vet bills can soon run into the thousands (speaking from experience).

I would. Mine had a reaction to his flea treatment which ended up costing me £800 in tests, treatment and vets bills.

The excess isn't per visit, it's per condition, per year. So, for example, your cat may get arthritis.

Initial visit and pain relief - £50
Repeat visit to review and more pain relief - £35
X-rays - £300, arthritis confirmed.
Monthly medication for next 11 months - £20 a month = £220
6 month review (required for ongoing prescriptions) - £25

Total = £630 for 12 months investigations & treatment in the first year. You can claim £630 minus the £80 excess.
At the anniversary of your policy (assuming you take out a covered for life policy) and your slate is wiped clean and you start totting it up again, after paying another £80 excess.

You can claim as frequently as you like after spending the initial excess, whether that's with every prescription, every 3 months, 6 months, whatever, as long as it's in line with your policy (some say you need to claim within a certain time limit but most are 12 months)

My cat was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism shortly after I got her. She had radioiodine treatment and also needed an MRI scan. It came to just under £6,000 and I only had to pay £100 excess. Insurance is well worth it.

My cat is not insured (FIV+ - no-one will) and one simple little infection cost about £200 with the various tests that had to be done.

Always insure.

Our kittens were thankfully insured with petplan- no claims until one reached 5, collapsed one day completely out of the blue and had pneumonia and needed emergency surgery. No warning, no medical conditions previously etc and he's a house cat so nothing he caught outdoors. The vet bill was over £5k. Please don't have a cat without insurance. The decisions along the way with his treatment were hard enough without having to worry about whether we could afford them (we definitely couldn't have paid for this!) ... he's a perfectly normal cat now.

Petplan also paid out for everything and made everything so easy so I'd recommend them anyway

Yes! In 18 months my two Persian indoor cats ran up bills of £16,000!
One got pancreatitis and has mild heart disease. The other had jaw issues and then had severe heart disease. Each visit to the cardiologist cost £6-700.
Tesco have been excellent and the excess is only £60 per condition. So a years worth of cardiology only cost me £60z

It isn’t just about accidents. In the last year of life of one of my cats her vet bills for a medical condition came to £4500.