Cat insurance - "pre existing conditions"

[Dwells]

Hi,

We've just found out our 3 month old kitten has a congenital condition that requires major surgery. We hadn't got insurance, but note most insurance companies don't cover pre existing conditions. We wouldn't have known about the condition had we got the insurance earlier.

We now have a massive vet bill. Am I right to be kicking myself for not getting insurance previously without having known about the condition? Was there a chance we could have been covered for this had we got insurance or would we have been landed with the bill regardless?

I'm just wondered to what extent I have made a serious error in not getting insurance. We will of course now consider covering all but this condition...

Many thanks

An emotional wreck with a very light wallet

Yes unfortunately
it would have been covered
now diagnosed…. No chance

You won’t be covered also for anything that happens further down the line related to the condition

this will likely be a very ill cat anyway op so I’d prepare for a lot of expense

Oh no , what a nightmare, I’m guessing you’ve only had the kitten a few weeks at most . Is there any chance you are still covered by the breeders insurance, they quite often give you 4 weeks of insurance cover when you buy a new kitten or rescue one from a centre .
We just swapped our cat insurance over and they will cover pre existing conditions that haven’t needed treatment for two years , so there might be hope to get insurance later down the road .

Thank you. There isn't breeder insurance but thank you for mentioning. He's a moggy with a Diaphragmatic Hernia, apparently once operated and the cat can recover fine there is a good chance they lead normal active lives. I'm just so annoyed with myself for not getting him insured however it seems, assuming he recovers ok, there shouldn't be related issues unless he's got something else we don't know about which of course I will hopefully be insured for unknown things. I just never expected it at such a young age and so it's been a shock.

This breeder will have known or had strong suspicions prior to passing over OP

There isn't a breeder involved, the cat is a moggy.

OP you would potentially have been covered if you'd taken out insurance, but with my insurer (Petplan) there is a 14 day waiting period after taking out insurance before you can make an illness claim. So depending on timing you may not have been able to claim?

I hope he recovers well.

Whomever passed over the cat to the op

How long have you had the cat?

I'm so sorry to hear about your poor cat's health conditions. I'm not sure if it helps or applies in your situation but ManyPets insurance do cover existing health conditions and have been amazing with our cat (FIV+)

Thanks we've had him since 9 weeks and from a family who'd had a litter. I will look into Many Pets and I think Tesco may also still cover with some exclusions.

Where did the cat come from?

Did it have symptoms before and they got shot of the poor wee thing as they knew? Some people are like that.

Im also sure there are lots of people in your position who would just buy insurance today online, take the cat to a different vet a week or two later, and say they got it last week and it’s sick, and then it would be covered. It’s not ethical. But I’m sure many do it.

I hope your cat gets its operation and feels better. I got a rescue and spent £2k in the first year on vets. No insurance.Didjt think I’d need it as it came from a proper rescue place so I thought it would be well vetted and cured of anything. Nope. I still think Cats protection should have done more instead of selling it on unwell.

The insurers who cover pre-existing conditions often have conditions (ha!) attached - like the cat has to have been symptom-free for a certain number of years, or can't have seen the vet for anything related to the condition for a certain period of time.

You're very unlikely to find someone who will cover this condition, I'm afraid. It's an expensive lesson to learn (been there!).

Yep it’s a sad lesson to learn unfortunately. I now won’t even bring a pet into the house without having insurance in place, even Guinea pigs etc (and yep there is Guinea pig insurance which I wish I’d known about before I ended up paying £700 for one to have an eye removed due to a tumour years ago).

From a family who bred their own pets or just let their female cat get impregnated by a random tom cat? Because if that's the case then you might have more issues ahead. A lot of tom cats carry feline aids or leukaemia. Never a good idea to get a cat under these circumstances.
However I don't think you would have been covered if you had taken out insurance as I'm assuming it's been picked up at first vet visit and all insurance companies have a 14 day waiting clause.

That's why you always get insurance in place 14 days before your pet arrives home!

A lot of insurance still wouldn't cover anything that a cat would have had at birth, so chances are you weren't covered anyway.

My cat was discovered to have a narrow oesophagus, he needed surgery. We didn't find out till he was almost a year old, and our insurance wouldn't cover it as they said it was a birth defect.

Thanks all yes I've learned the lesson the hard way and that is life sometimes.

The cat was random tom cat impregnating situation, again I didn't know about the disease carrying risks. The owner most definitely didn't know about the condition as the symptoms are almost impossible to spot...the only reason I picked up on it was because he sways everso from breathing even when he is relaxed and this seemed odd to me having owned 2 other cats and grown up with them.

It turns out his intestines are wrapped around his heart and lungs and so this is the reason, poor little guy. As horrible as this sounds, apparently many cats with this condition go undetected for years and only picked up on when they have a scan for something else but it does need to be addressed as impacts life expectancy.

So this was my own astute observation and rush for advice before having insurance in place which I'll pay the price for but it seems there is a chance the condition may not have been covered anyway regardless of whether we knew about it.

I'm curious about Many Pets and their pre existing conditions cover as if we can operate later down the road when he's fully grown and the risk of survival from the op is higher, then this would be preferable, by which time their policy may cover this. DH will not defraud the system by reregistering so I have to respect that!

You don’t want to wait with a condition like a diaphragmatic hernia - the sooner you operate the higher the chances of success.

Ah ok thank you I'll get the referral advice next week hopefully and will be doing whatever they suggest as he's so small they might suggest waiting but if they say he can afford to grow a bit to increase the odds of surviving, we'll go with that.

It's honestly worth trying with Many Pets. Elton has FIV and it can cause a myriad of other health problems - most of which he's also got and they have covered everything (apart from dental which we knew wouldn't be). I also don't recall there being a waiting period, as we adopted him in November and he started requiring treatment for various ailments almost immediately - certainly by Jan he was having monthly injections which were all covered.

I had Pet Plan from the second we brought all our cats home. My Maine Coon was discovered to have two ectopic ureters at 4 months old.

As it is a birth defect, Pet Plan refused to cover a penny. It cost us nearly 10k for the diagnosis and then surgery.

He is worth every penny and is a healthy, thriving 2 year old now... But I have given Pet Plan a fortune over the years and never claimed once, so it did hurt!

I now put money aside in a sperate bank account rather than have them insured. It's a personal choice, but I am happy with it.

Thank you this is really helpful I'm going to go with Many Pets

Yes I think it's a valid choice but personal one as you say. It's really good to hear everyone's experiences.

I kind of knowingly but perhaps foolishly got caught out with insurance because I adopted a cat from rescue with runny/crusty eyes. The rescue normally covers insurance for the first month but this was a rehome where the owner had died. I put him on Petplan straight away with my other two, but I was worried that his eye condition was unpleasant for him (he'd had cat flu as a kitten and this was the result) so I took him to the vet anyway instead of waiting for the qualifying period.

We've had mixed results and his eyes are still runny but now we are left in the situation where no eye condition is covered. I couldn't have just left him though!

Just be aware manypets can be a nightmare, I'm now paying £170 a month to insure 3 cats with them after a big claim, can't move the cats now due to pre-existing conditions either.
I'm currently 8 weeks into waiting for a claim to be paid out by them, small claims they pay quickly but they can drag paying out for ages this is only £270 so not even that big in the grand scheme of things

That's a fair comment @Iamme2023 they can be very slow to pay although their customer service team are very helpful in terms of speeding things up. But they do always pay up in the end - in my experience anyway!