Pre-existing illness/condition on pet insurance

cybergibbons

I'm just wondering if anyone can clarify some terms in pet insurance, specifically AXA pet insurance.

We've just picked up a rescue cat, and he started sneezing a bit and was a bit snuffly. I think it's quite common for cats to get a little ill after a stressful time. He tested negative for FIV and FELV.

We took him to the vet for his second lot of vaccinations, as the rescue centre routinely vaccinate regardless of the cat's history or age.

The vet checked him out, found no other symptoms, such as discharge, temperature etc. She did decide to give him an antibiotic injection just in case. It could be an upper respiratory tract infection, allergy, or just due to him sniffing everything that is new to him in the house.

Now, regarding the insurance - this classes as a pre-existing condition. But what does that mean?

Does this mean he wouldn't be covered for anything related to an upper respiratory tract infection? e.g. if he got pneumonia as a result of cat flu (which he is vaccinated for)?

Or does it simply mean he isn't covered for this specific bout of illness, as it isn't ongoing?

I realise this isn't cut and dried by any means, but an idea would be good!

My reason for asking is that we are covered by Petplan right now, but want to move to Axa as they provide better cover for not much more.

I don't mind paying £60 odd quid if he gets a cold in the future, as it is below the excess, and quite unlikely to happen.

But say he got pneumonia (maybe from something totally unrelated), I wouldn't like to have to pay thousands.

So do we stay with Petplan, with less good cover (and possibly having to pay 10% excess later on), or move to Axa with fixed excess?

I can't post links, but the policy wording for Axa can be found by googling "axa pet insurance" and looking on the right hand side.

Thanks.

lowis

i had a kitten who had the sniffles before i had taken out a policy. she was treated with anti-biotics and it all cleared up. when i came to insure her a few weeks later she was excluded for 'all upper respiratory illnesses' for the rest of her life - this was with Petplan. fyi - she never ever suffered from this condition again, she lived to almost 13 (cancer got her in the end).

i am not sure how AXA would treat this. perhaps it might be worth calling them and asking them what they would exclude? when i adopted an elderly rescue cat with no medical history AXA were great and said i just needed to fax/email over the vet check-up report from the rescue organisation to confirm that there should be no exclusions. i found them very helpful so don;t be afraid to give them a ring.

jaymac_2

I phoned AXA yesterday to ask about disclosing preexisting conditions and was told that they'd ask the vet for a history of illnesses before paying out.

tankgirl1

Unfortunatley, I think you will probably find they would put an exclusion on URT problems. However, some companies (ie PetPlan) will review exclusions after a set period of time, and I have known for them to be removed. Might be worth asking AXA if that is something they do?

cybergibbons

Thanks everyone for the responses. I'm going to be out of the country for a while, so will need to call them when I'm back. I'm hoping just plain URT problems are excluded, as the chance of them being more than the excess is really low.