Insurance for cat over 20

[TofuTuesday]

Hi our insurance is up for renewal, it’s £280 a year. Cat is 20, and ok. Blind and asleep a lot, occasional foray into the garden. Possibly too skinny but not apparently unwell. Rickety but content.
insurance will only cover an annual per condition limit of £2000 and pay a percentage of purchase cost on death (she was a rescue so this is negligible).
we also have to co-pay 20% of vet fees.
im thinking that realistically she won’t be treated for conditions at this age? What do people do about insurance with elderly cats?

I'm gobsmacked youngot itnfor £280. Pretty sure my old boy was £80pcm aged 14 when he died but it was pretty comprehensive.

I'd probably keep it going at that price in case she gets something chronic.

I’d do the opposite of pp, as I wouldn’t put an elderly cat through investigations if she did get ill. Presumably she’s not going off on mad rampages and at risk from traffic etc either.

I cancelled the insurance for our cat when she got to about 16/17. It was close to £500 per year with an excess of £170 and a 20% co pay.

As well as that, she has a vet phobia which means being dragged to the vet to be prodded and poked will be hugely stressful for her. Plus due to her age, I'm sure they'd be reluctant for her to undergo surgery.

Therefore it won't be kind to her to be taking her to the vets for anything big and we've accepted that if that time comes, it will be time to say goodbye, although now that we've not paid for any insurance for a couple of years, if we do need to pay for some medication/consultations, it will likely be less than the insurance we haven't paid.

She's currently 18 and in good health as far as we know and still fairly active/well looking, although we do think she is deaf. Apart from the extreme grumpiness, the vet says that he'd put her at a good five or more years younger if he didn't have records on his system that proves her age.

Yes, I thought £280 per year for a 20 YO cat seemed comparatively cheap. We're not with an expensive insurer and ours was nearly double that for a cat not quite as old and with a fairly large excess and same co-pay, which I think is fairly standard for older pets.

We have never insured our cats, and for one that age, it really isn't worth it. Put the money in a savings pot instead.

If the cat needs an operation, chances are it would be too risky for her to have an anaesthetic at her age anyway. We lost one cat like that, who didn't come round after the op. If she has some other condition which is affecting her quality of life, well she's had a good long one already. You don't want to put a very elderly cat under the stress of all the treatment and the upset of back-and-forth to the vets, which would only prolong things for a relatively short while anyway. If you get my drift.

I’m keen to avoid the vet tbh she hates it. Gets really upset and now I’ve learned to clip her nails so they don’t get embedded I don’t have that to put her through.
i don’t want to prolong her life tbh, she’s very comfortable with a couple of beds, wet food, litter tray, sun spots etc and garden access on request (blocked up cat flap as other cats came in).

In most cases I’d always swear by insurance, but I wouldn’t at your cats age and that level of cover is pretty rubbish in cat terms.

I wish I was paying £280 per year. I pay £420 per year for my 10 year old moggy. Lifetime policy with Petplan.
She has never been ill, touch wood. I feel ripped off now.😐

I bought my cat a cardboard scratch board from B&M, it's helped her claws a lot, she loves it. Your cat might like one. Just a thought.

Our cat is eighteen and recently got lost a lot of weight, she was trying to pee everywhere, we thought she had kidney failure. She had blood tests and scans, they treated her and she's fine now but I said then if she'd needed an operation I wouldn't put her through it. I doubt the vet would of either.

We don't have insurance, I'm taking the gamble. Your renewal seems quite reasonable though.

I’m also gobsmacked it’s only £280! My 6 year old is £1500 a year!

That’s so weird. It’s Animal Friends, and I’ve just checked - it’s £295.
but we have to co-pay and there’s a limit of £2000 per condition annually.
I don’t think we get anything if she dies , a percentage of what we paid (but she’s a rescue and we donated).

I had a pedigree cat with an average life expectancy of 10-12 years. I stopped insuring her at about 10 and decided id pay for minor problems but bigger things might mean it was her time. The crafty old rascal lived to 20 and cost me nothing until the day I had to make a decision for her in her best interests.

My last 21 year old cat had insurance thank god as she cost me £££££ for her pain killers, vets fees and check ups. I made sure she was comfortable.
She would get diarrhoea and allergies and eye infections all of which needed treatment in her last year.

Oh no two very different examples here!

We cancelled our 12yo’s insurance as they wanted £70 a month! £280 a year is a bloody bargain.

I think £2k is a relatively low policy limit these days, which probably explains the low premium. I don't know what ours currently are, but going back a few years, they seemed to be around £4k pa, and vets prices have increased substantially since then. You might even struggle to get one round of surgery and aftercare for £2k these days.

Honestly don't bother with insurance. I have 3 cats all over the age of 10. One is 16. I have an extremely minimal insurance for them so it simply covers x rays or anything acute if they got in an accident or something. They are all rescues, I have given them a good life and I won't be prolonging it if they have severe medical conditions.

Thanks all, I think I’m going to cancel it, and just save the money. I can’t see us putting her through anything treatment wise, she’s almost 21 and I think a calm end would be best for her. She’s a fussy eater and so adding meds to food if necessary wouldn’t happen. She’s not in any obvious pain and pootles around - caught her climbing a low fence the other day! That was a shock as she’s usually just finding somewhere sunny to sit.