Lapsed insurance / new condition

[PurrfectFloof]

I’m partly looking for a vent and partly for experience.

6yo ragdoll looked like he’d lost a bit of weight - I took him to the vets yesterday and he’s lost 700g since May. Not good. They did a blood test, including thyroid, and apparently his vein blew, signalling poor clotting. Doubly not good.

Googling throughout night suggests this could be quite bad, with liver problems being the most obvious cause.

Asked ‘D’H to put a claim in on insurance today for him to find out he forgot to renew it back in March - this was a policy we’d had for 10 years. So we’re down £300 on the test, but also, and more worryingly, if this is as bad as I think it could be, there’s no way we can afford £1000s on treatment.

I was here 5 years ago with my heart cat and the insurance company was magnificent, allowing us to spend £7k on trying to get him better - it didn’t work but I was comforted that we’d done everything in our power for him. I feel like I’m facing down the barrel of a gun again and I’m not going to be able to do the same for this cat.

I don’t think there are any solutions to the insurance - even buying a policy today would, I think, mean the results of this test would be counted as a pre-existing condition. Has anybody got any experience of something similar and it hasn’t been as bad as I think this might be?

Is there a reason why you’ve jumped straight to liver problems based on symptoms you’ve described? I would see what the results of the blood tests say before you start worrying too much.

As an aside £300 is a ridiculous amount of money for a blood test 😬

Cats veins blow all the time when we take bloods. The one cat I currently had who has a clotting disorder never blows a vein when I take a sample from him.
At this point you are reading way too much into this, wait for the results.

Thank you both for talking me down - we had a cat years ago who lost weight and didn’t clot, who ended up having liver cancer, so I’m probably leaping to conclusions unnecessarily! I’m also so mindful of not catching a couple of things earlier with other cats because I hadn’t clocked slight changes in behaviour, small weight drops etc. partly my fault for always adopting the cats with ‘issues’ 🙂

Bless you, please try not to worry.

My cats always lose weight in summer as they're much more active and roam much further - it really could be something as simple as that.

As stated above, cats and dogs blow veins all the time, it’s really common and often the result of the animal moving or flinching when trying to get the needle in thus having to attempt the same vein more than once. I’ve never heard of it relating to clotting issues. You are reading too much into this and if thats something your vet has told you they’re an idiot!

I agree £300 for just a consult and blood test sounds quite high.

In relation to your insurance you are correct that any policy will now consider this a pre-existing condition and this will not be covered.

Edited: Spelling!

Exactly. The same happens on humans. I would’t be particularly worried about that on its own.