Sense checking costs of cats’ vet plan and insurance

[TopCatLuther]

My vet’s pet plan has just increased again and I’m looking to sense check how much I’m paying vs the value of it. We have 3 rescue cats, all between 5-10 and in reasonably good health, barring one with IBD that we manage through specialist food. Two of them are hunters.

Currently paying £25 per month for each of them, which includes their yearly boosters plus flea and worm meds. Looking at their page, it includes other things that we don’t use eg a “wellness blood screen” and 10% of food, which has a high mark up to begin with.

They’re all insured to a high level, and I’m wondering if I’m paying more than I should for that as well - premium is £900 a year for all 3.

Looking for perspectives on what other people are paying and any tips to lower these costs - when I’ve looked into it previously, our vet charges a lot for a prescription for flea and worm meds, which makes it expensive to then try and source meds online. Thanks 🙏

Sodding cat’s renewal came through today. He’s a 6 year old pedigree, energetic outdoor cat with a nose for trouble. It’s top of the range cover. The new quote is £110 pm, so £1200pa. It is an insane amount but he has frequent scrapes. His treatment every year so far has been more than his premiums, including one year where he was at death’s door and it topped £4.5k so we stick with it. DH and I have talked about how this won’t be possible once we retire. For now he’s our expensive hobby.

I'm afraid I think the vet plans are a scam because they provide services you don't actuslly need.
We worm and flea treat as a cure not as a preventative. Four cats, all of whom go outdoor and catch rodents, yet we have had no fleas at all since just before Covid - so zero cost of flea treatment for 6 years. One cat had a tape worm during this period. Quick trip to the vet, one pill and resolved.
We do have an annual checkup and boosters - but it's far cheaper just paying for that directly rather than having the vet plan.
Insurance - we don't bother. Pet insurance didn't really exist when we first got cats 🤣. We've had a few expensive bills - but we're still quids in paying ourselves having had mutiple cats for the last 40 odd years. I do realise we are in a minority here regarding insurance though.

I pay £55 a month for my cat’s insurance but she’s 17 and I currently claim more per year for ongoing tests and medication. One year she needed a 3k operation. Her premiums started at £12 per month when she was a kitten but the treatment she has had has overtaken all payments I have made by quite a way. I would say it’s definitely worth it.

My cats are 13 years old …... £12 a month insurance and annual booster is £45 … don’t flea and worm unless there is an issue which might be once a year or less ….

Timely thread... I'm between insurances for mine - my previous provider shot up in price for renewal and all others seem very expensive, so I was researching pet plans and trying to decide what to do. And then the bloody cat had a fight a couple of days ago and today his leg looks swollen. I'm bricking myself that it's broken as I simply cannot afford the astronomical cost to fix it - the vet bill this morning if it's 'just' something simple will be hard enough to cover.

our vet charges a lot for a prescription for flea and worm meds, which makes it expensive to then try and source meds online

BBC News - Vet prescription fees to be capped at £21 - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj32d05x702o?app-referrer=deep-link

We are the same never had insurance for any of our cats. Maybe we were lucky but never needed expensive treatment just routine, all lived to late teens. The 19 year old man we have now has hardly ever been ill and apart from checkups didn't have any problems at all for 10 years straight.

Our cat is almost 11, Petplan insurance with a cap at £4000 is £23.83, our vet health club is £13.00pm. Vets scheme covers flea/worming treatment, annual vaccination, one free consultation and discount on food and certain medical procedures (we had 20% off teeth extraction). Also includes claw clipping - but our cat doesn’t need that.
Putting a cap on your insurance would reduce the premium, if something really expensive was required we would pay the difference.

Vet plans are a total waste of money.

Mine jumped from £62 pcm to £124 pcm on renewal so I cancelled it. 13 year old cat, but with kidney disease. Vet bills amounted to about £500 last year. Unf she’s been ill recently so maybe i was a bit rash, but we’re at a decent vets who don’t overcharge and I told them we don’t have insurance anymore.

We have always had insurance for our rescue moggies.
The first 2 lived to 17 and 19, we stopped insurance at about 10 as we had never claimed, one needed a lipoma removed which cost less than.a years insurance.
Our current 2, one had liver cancer at 5, a short course of treatment after a scan, then PTS. Insurance paid for it all.
Her sister was diagnosed with a heart murmur this year, at 7. A cardiac scan (£1300) and lifelong meds. Insurance paid. Very pleased we still.have it.
We flea monthly but rarely worm.

Never insured my moggy. I have kept a rough track of costs. I paid for the £99 vaccines for life vets4pets when I got him so that's covered. I buy occasional flea and worm treatment online when needed. He has had several abscesses treated with antibiotics, a foot injury and had an eye removed after some impressive mischief. Taking in to account excess that would need to be paid I would have paid far more in premiums than I have received in care.

I think often for cats if you put the premiums in a savings account instead then you will have more than enough to pay for any vet bills and save yourself a chunk of money.

I have insurance for both of mine, but no pet plan as they are indoor only so the only injections they have are the annual ones (not even that for Tobias as they are contra indicated for FIV) so the savings on flea and worm treatment aren't there.

I'm with Petplan which isn't cheap, but bearing in mind I lost Boycat to CKD which cost more in his last year than 2-3 years insurance with the monitoring and check ups made that worth while. They also covered the PTS costs when he progressed too far.

Tobias has turned out to have contracted FIV when he was a stray, so again the vet bills to date have come to way more than insurance has cost me especially as he also has a bowel problem which has cost a fortune in scans & bloods to finally determine; the FIV diagnosis was a by product of the bloods for his bowels. I have a nasty feeling he will have to have another visit soon as I think he may have lost more weight, which I will have to pay they annual excess for as we've moved into a new insurance year.

The thing that does annoy me about the insurance was when I first got Boycat & Girlcat I shopped around of course. Just about every company wanted more for Boycat as "they are more likely to get into fights", but no discount at all for them being indoor only which reduces the chances of fight injuries to zero (all very chilled and bonded over the years)

We’re insured via Asda which gives us 24/7 access to video or telephone calls with vets, and I think £8,000 (or maybe £10,000?) cover. It’s about £15 a month I think but DP paid it in one this year. We don’t pay a vet plan, and when his boosters were due in March it was about £180 for those, flea/worm stuff (I usually just go and pick that up, pay as we go, the timing was coincidence) and some ear drops because he kept scratching his right ear so we got the vet to have a look at that while we were there.

I find the vet helpline really useful as I am an anxious person!

Interesting range of responses! I’ve gone heavy on insurance because a previous cat developed CKD and the insurer at the time paid about £9k towards tests and treatment. Sadly it was all to no avail and we ended up having to put him to sleep anyway 😔

I think that’s partly what I’m weighing up - although in theory the insurance provides the feeling of a safety blanket, in reality for something really serious it’s not likely to cure, just diagnose. The cat with the IBD I’m now managing with the world’s most expensive diet and insurance hasn’t helped at all with that, so feels like an extra cost.

do people find the online non-prescription flea and worm treatment effective? Mine are on Milbemax and Bravecto (I think) and the vets will only issue a prescription for one dose for one cat each time - and it’s £20 per prescription per cat! Hence me questioning the need and value…

Everything I've heard is that the non-prescription treatments are getting less and less effective as time goes by, as the fleas and worms have evolved a tolerance to them. In some parts of the UK, certain types are almost completely ineffective now.

One dose at a time seems very odd to me. Mine automatically prescribe in a pack of 3 so you don't have to keep going back and asking them all the time for more. And at that prescription cost, you probably wouldn't be saving or would only just break even with a 3 treatment pack. Pain for me, as mine only get done once a year as a precaution in case I pick something up petting strange dogs or cats when I'm out.

OH signs up for stupid things all the time and signed up to the VIP service. Includes a health check twice a year (we would never normally take her in for this), flea treatment which they havent even bothered to remind us about meaning we've missed one dose anyway so thats money thrown away. Vaccinations which we also dont normally bother with. Then we took her in for an appointment for something, turns out the health check they have to perform for that specific appointment isnt included because its an 'appointment' rather than a 'health check'

Hmmm

We dont do insurance. Never have, over several pets over several decades.

She may well need some teeth taken out. Im still going to have spent less than if we had insurance for the past 6 years for her (she is actually 13 but was a rescue)

Bog standard moggies are as hard as nails.

Bog standard moggies are as hard as nails.

Not always - I've lost one at under 10 (CKD) and am likely to lose another (FIV and bowel issues). To a degree it depends on if they've been close bred e.g. feral colony or a hoarders house leads to intergenerational and fraternal breeding e.g. a tom breeds with his own daughter, who then breeds with him again or a brother/half brother. A rough life as a stray or feral can also lead to longer term health issues.

Two cats, a year and change old. £43pm insurance and £31pm vet plan. I perhaps shouldn’t have taken the vet plan, I’ll have to see how it compares for just paying for stuff.

We insured the previous two cats. One ruptured his cruciate ligament aged about 5, we claimed back more than we’d paid for BOTH cats since we got them at 8 weeks. Then his brother developed diabetes aged 12, lived for nearly 3 years. Insurance paid for itself for him at least over those years.

Oh and one of the newbies has a fairly worrying heart murmur, fortunately we had continuity between the free insurance and the paid-for - I was worried it would be considered pre-existing and they wouldn’t cover it.

I have always 'bet' on them being healthy and had no insurance. I have a lot of animals, livestock for my smallholding as well as pets so I have a contingency fund for vets fees. We don't let them out, have a lot of fresh water, very high quality food and in 14 and 10 years no vets visits except to be vacinated and spayed. Fingers crossed. The money I have saved (they are an expensive pedigree to insure) would more pay than pay for any treatment needed.