To insure or not?

Hoopylass

Looking for a bit of advice guys....

My pooch is 10, will be 11 in Jan and my insurance is up for renewal. I've just had my quote in from sainburys who want £32 a month!! He has allergies which aren't covered and had a tumour removed last year which was non cancerous thankfully. I've been getting quotes online and some won't insure due to his age and the others are too expensive.

I'm tempted to cancel the insurance and just put £20 a month away in an account for him to cover any bills that may arise. Is this a good idea or should I continue with insurance?

Either way um not staying with sainsburys!!

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi, I'd be very reluctant to move insurer a) 'cos of his age and b) if he's had a tumour removed in the past, any similar treatment would be excluded from a new policy.

I'd always say insure but I guess it depends on whether you feel you'd go for any "serious" treatment (should it be necessary) due to his age or if you're able to find a few £000 should it be required.

PinkPeach

Hi, personally I'd probably try to find a new insurer. I'm with John Lewis as they offer a range of cover which suited me well. I'm actually really thankful for this insurance as last week my dog badly damaged his cruciate ligaments and has had to have an operation which cost a few thousand pounds, plus the cost of hydrotherapy which will start in a few weeks time.

Previously I was with Homebase insurance as I found them very competitive.

However, my pooch is 2 so perhaps an older dog wouldnt' act like such a nutter and get himself in that state so perhaps putting a bit by each month would be sufficient.

CFC

Perhaps you should also think in terms of life expectancy of the breed and the amount of vet intervention you would want to put him through at that age. If he is a labrador he's very old for his breed, if he's a Yorkie then he's not. I think you need to take that into account.

Hoopylass

He's just a wee mongrel.
The tumour won't come back as it testosterone related and he was neutered at the same time as it was removed to prevent reoccurrence.
Thanks fir the advice so far, I will keep searching fir insurance that us reasonable I guess!

danaharrison

hi,
u gonna find it very hard to find a new insurance company with ur dogs age, the norm is they dont take on mongrels over 7 or pure breeds over 5. if i were u i would keep the insurance, my dog is now 14 and i pay £33 a month. she never had anything wrong with her untill she hit 12 and then had a stroke, we very nearly lost her but thanks to great medication she has made a full recovery and you wouldnt know she had ever been ill. with out the insurace i couldnt of afforded her medication for the last 2 years as it comes in at around £100 per month.

Soubrette

Depends how much money you have in addition to the £20 a month you would put away and how much intervention you would have for your dog.

I don't have insurance but I have an insurance pot that will cover two/three serious rts or two/three expensive on going illnesses. If he suffered two of these events, or even one mega expensive event, I might rethink about insurance as my pot would be depleted and I might not be able to cover another expensive event.

However my dog is also old (12 and the average lifespan is 12) so I wouldn't want to put him through invasive treatments if for example he had cancer. He is also never off lead and when he was younger was muzzled (keen greyhound) so although I considered joining the dogstrust for £20pa to benefit from their public liability insurance, I never bothered in the end.

So it's about thinking about all the variables, your dog, your attitudes and how much money you realistically think you would need including public liability -eg is he an escaper? would he bite someone?. If on balance these are affordable or extremely low risk, then personally I wouldn't get insurance. If on balance these are not affordable then I would get insurance.

vax2002

If insurance worked, all the insurance companies would be bankrupt long ago.

Debnatric

I have always insured our dogs - our current Labrador is a grazer - he will eat anything, he is currently at the vets after having a stuck sock and some of his intestines removed yesterday - current cost £1500 and rising daily.......god knows what the final cost will be, but hopefully the insurance will cover most of it.

rising_from_the_ashes

Debnatric wrote: »

I have always insured our dogs - our current Labrador is a grazer - he will eat anything, he is currently at the vets after having a stuck sock and some of his intestines removed yesterday - current cost £1500 and rising daily.......god knows what the final cost will be, but hopefully the insurance will cover most of it.

Oh boy, does he sound like my Lab!

Bits of curtains, part of a valance sheet, trousers, 1/4 of a jumper and, yes, even socks!

Somehow, he's always managed to bring them "back up the way" but I live in dread of the day he doesn't - he's 12 now and would be unlikely to survive an op due to other medical problems.

Fingers crossed your boy is on the mend soon.:)

suki1964

Debnatric wrote: »

I have always insured our dogs - our current Labrador is a grazer - he will eat anything, he is currently at the vets after having a stuck sock and some of his intestines removed yesterday - current cost £1500 and rising daily.......god knows what the final cost will be, but hopefully the insurance will cover most of it.

Just shows how much costs vary around the country. Same operation for a springer here two years back was £300 - with all follow ups. Was a tough week or so but he got through it


To the OP, changing insurers could be the worse thing, conditions hes been treated for in the past will no doubt be excluded and knowing insurers that will be any kind of tumour and anything they can possibly get away with attributing to his allergies (call me a cynic:D)

As been raised before, you need to think about how much medical intervention you would be happy with if he did get that poorly. Personally I dont agree with putting an animal through intensive medical procedures just to eek their lives out a few months longer.

I would say that if you are a saver and do have savings you can fall back on if needed - scrap the insurance and save the £20 a month in with your savings. Or like myself I have a lot of credit availible to me on cards which we keep at zero ( we buy and pay off straight away) that we could use if we really needed