Should I get pet insurance for my kittens

[summercompanion]

I'm just wondering if I should get pet insurance or just pay the vet when I need to?

Growing up with cats my parents never had pet insurance- we just took them to the vets when we needed to.

I'm just wondering what people tend to do nowadays?

[Blowyourowntrumpet]

My insurance has paid out just under £10,000. Definitely worth it

[coffeecupsandfairylights]

We have three cats and they're all insured. It costs me less than £25 a month.

My previous cats weren't insured - both got unwell (unrelated conditions) one after the other and I spent over 2k in as many months on surgery and medication 🙈

Please insure your pets, or have a bank account with access to several grand that you can happily spend at a moments notice.

[DomesticShortHair]

My partner is a practicing vet, and we still have pet insurance for our two cats.

If something happened to them, we’d spend every penny of our savings to make sure they get the treatment that they’d need. And then every penny we could borrow on credit cards etc. After that, every penny we could beg from family and friends. And finally (and I’m not being melodramatic, even though it sounds like it), every penny I could steal and get away with it.

Having pet insurance will hopefully mean it won’t come to any of that.

[334bu]

I took my daughters cat when she went travelling and thankfully took out insurance, as 3 months later he was injured requiring almost £4000 in surgery and vet fees. He is now 19 ,still with me ,and now has a chronic condition which is still covered ,as he has lifetime insurance. Best decision I ever made.

[Desiredeffect]

Yes all 3 of my cats are insured. It's peace of mind I feel. Specially as 1 is 13 and the 13 and 2 year old are outdoors most. Of the day

[Defiantlynot41]

Listen to @toddlerteaplease and @msollie for cautionary tales about the cost of vet fees and the value of insurance.

Mostly it depends on your household finances. Could you bear a one-off large bill? Our boy was admitted to emergency vets on Christmas Day a good few years ago and cost £1000+ . Surgery or extensive investigations could be multiples of that.
What about chronic conditions? Could your finances stand up to a regular medication cost of £100 or more a month plus regular blood tests?

Pet insurance premium is basically the expected cost of claims plus the insurers profit, cost of capital, cost of admin and distribution cost (commission to whoever is selling the insurance, cost of advertising etc). You can cut out all of the latter part of that and put money aside to self insure. You will win if your actual cost of claims (vet bills) is lower than the expected cost, you just need to be sure what you will do if faced with a big claim before you have built a pot of money.

[TeenPlusCat]

I suspect that say 40 years ago the options for examinations and treatment were less, so more cats would have been pts before running up bills.

[TeenPlusCat]

We are now up to 6k-7k for our DCat, and counting.

[soddingkitten]

Sodding was ill last summer - vomiting, lethargic, loss of appetite, drooling excessively. He went downhill over a bank holiday weekend. Out of hours vet, 2 nights’ hospitalisation for investigation and IV fluids, meds and follow-up post discharge came to around £750. Yes, vet insurance seems expensive but a single bout of something trivial like the above in a year easily offsets the cost. Ongoing treatment for a chronic condition could wipe you out. Vet treatment has got a lot more expensive since insurers entered the pet market. It’s not like when we were growing up.

[etulosba]

I’ve been lucky and never needed it. My mother on the other hand has spent thousands on her cats health.

[CrunchyCarrot]

I don't think vet plans are worth it, but pet insurance definitely is. My 2 yr old moggie has just been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and heart failure after collapsing 2 weeks ago. The vet bill is already at around £1500 due to oxygen treatment and a heart scan and medication. Fortunately he has 'superior' insurance that costs nearly £9 per month, well worth it as we've only paid £99 so far and can claim up to £2000 annually. So please consider it if you can.

[Grumpyoldpersonwithcats]

Never insured any of our cats and I haven't regretted it (although we have had a couple of bills of doom in the last few years 🙀). We're still significantly better off overall.

Re vet plans - again I don't bother, we only flea treat in the summer and the mogs don't need a 6 monthly MOT, yearly is fine.

[TroysMammy]

I've got insurance for Haribo even though I have a healthy bank balance through years of saving. I'd hate for that to be wiped out in vet fees even though I love him I'd rather pay a small monthly amount. His insurance is cheaper than my car and house insurance.

[Cotswoldmama]

My cat is 15 we had insurance until she was about 5 and it kept going up even though we hadn't claimed. We decided not to continue and we've only taken her to the vets twice once to be spayed and once when she had a urine infection.

[AwkwardPaws27]

@summercompanion

Oh ok thanks for all the replies.

My vets do this plan for £15.99 per month per cat

Annual vaccinations
Year-round flea, worm & tick treatment
Flystrike prevention (for rabbits)
Six-month health check
Microchipping or £10 voucher
20% off neutering

Do you think that seems ok, or should I do one of the big brands pet insurance?

It's hard to know what I need to do compared to what is extras I might never need

This would be a health care plan, something you have as well as insurance not instead of it. That plan won't pay out thousands if one of the kittens breaks a leg, swallowed something, gets hit by a car or develops an illness.
They absolutely need annual vaccinations, neutering and microchipping but it's up to you whether you use a health plan to spread the cost of just pay upfront.
I paid upfront and did the Vacc4Life scheme with Vets4Pets (one off fee of £99, never pay for the vaccinations again, works out very well for me).
I also insure both cats and the dog (the dogs insurer has paid almost £9,000 for his treatment in the last year...).

[TheIsaacs]

You’ll want general insurance, not the vet plan. That’s only for routine check ups, and is just a payment plan.

My cat developed several health problems about 6 months after I decided to cancel the insurance. It’s cost me thousands and she can’t be insured now!

[Haus1234]

Car = cat!

[Haus1234]

That isn’t the same thing as pet insurance, that is just paying for your annual vaccinations and flea meds etc per month. It may be that you can get the individual components cheaper but if you would get them all anyway it’s usually a fairly good deal. However, your car wouldn’t be covered for any accidents or other health conditions - that’s what you get the insurance for.

[summercompanion]

Oh ok thanks for all the replies.

My vets do this plan for £15.99 per month per cat

Annual vaccinations
Year-round flea, worm & tick treatment
Flystrike prevention (for rabbits)
Six-month health check
Microchipping or £10 voucher
20% off neutering

Do you think that seems ok, or should I do one of the big brands pet insurance?

It's hard to know what I need to do compared to what is extras I might never need

[TeenPlusCat]

Well my DCat is ill right now and we are up to around £1800 in fees.
Luckily we have insurance.

[IanOsenfrote]

We have had around 10 cats come and go over the last twenty years and we haven't insured any. Mostly rescue cats. Barring 2, none needed the vets at all during their lives (except for the last journey). The 2 that did need treatment were two kittens we got told were female but were actually male. They did cost a fair bit over the years. All the other cats were female and none were allowed out at night.

[Fevertree]

I would. My cat was hit by a car when he was less than a year old. He survived thank goodness but the bill was eye watering, several thousand pounds. I've since upgraded his cover!

[SoosanCarter]

I’ve had several cats over many years. Some are accident-prone and some aren’t. I would get insurance for the first year, then reassess their proclivities.

[TheMooch]

Yes.

We stopped when our cat was very old because the costs were so high and they'd always link any issue to his previous health condition and not pay out.

[Wolfiefan]

Totally depends on your financial situation I think. What if you had a sudden bill that was several thousand? Or cat needed a hundred pounds a month of meds?