It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

katieowl_2

shegar wrote: »

Ive just got my little yorkie billy insured , I did put a thread up on the pets section to ask what people thought about insurance for pets, it was quite surprising to me that a lot of pet owners said dont do it and keep saving the pet ins in the bank, I went with instinct and got him insured, because say if he had something that would be very expensive to him id probaly have to have him put down as I couldnt possibly afford the vet bills, or take out a loan , its a helluver decision to have to be faced with, so he is now insured and its definately peace of mind........................ @ £9.18 per month . I always say if you have pets/animals then you have to be prepared for the worst if or when they get ill....................

Bargain @ £9.18 my two girls are currently costing about £40 a month, but they are a bit older now and I'm not sure it will be easy to get cover if I move insurer.

This is why you have to have cover. My boy Tyler was seven years old when he climbed into my arm one evening looking really odd. OMG I say to OH he's having some kind of fit...Sunday evening it was (it's always a Sunday) a call to the emergency vet, we drove like manics, she said his blood sugar was dangerously low, kept him on a drip all night, and in the morning she called to say it didn't look good, and they would transfer him to our local vet, and please could we take him for a scan at the animal hospital, which necessitated another overnight stay. He was diagnosed with an inoperable insulin producing tumor on the pancreas, and they asked if I wanted him put down. I said no, because he was so freaked out by the hospital, and it was all so sudden, and my vet told me he could go on for a long time yet with steroid treatment (He was old school!) My overnight stay at the emergency vet was £800 - this was four years ago. The overnight stay at the hospital and the scan cost ANOTHER £1200.

When we got him home there was a visit to the vet, and poor baby was so stressed by now, the vet agreed to sign off seeing him at home from then on all covered by the insurance. We had meds, all covered by the insurance...but he lasted only another couple of months sadly. We got all bar 10% of the costs back.

Then one Sunday, during a long hot summer we had, I had decided he'd had enough, he wasn't coping well with the heat and the deed should be done on the following Monday, and I'd called my best friend to come and be with me, as I knew I was going to loose it entirely, she knew what I wanted done.

He saved me the agony of having to call the vet for the last time by having a massive hypoglycaemic fit on Sunday morning and dying at home while we were all with him. It was awful to see him die, and there was literally nothing we could do..I was rubbing honey onto his gums, but I knew it was too late. It was my birthday. I was heartbroken. I loved him so much, and as awful as it would have been to have had to say goodbye while the vet was there...the mental scars of the way he went were ten times worse.

If you don't have your pet insured you don't have any choice. There would be no period where a vet can say well there is this chance? And although my very expensive kennel club insurance didn't save him, it DID give us a chance to say goodbye and get used to the idea we were loosing him. If we hadn't had it, we'd probably have had to tell the Sunday night emergency vet to put him down as we couldn't afford any treatment....


Kate

VJsmum

Gosh, nothing is straightforward is it? Have spent the whole day trawling round this house and that flat - too much info is making my brain hurt. We are not rich people and this is our pension so we have to be careful what we do with it.

I guess there is only so much protection - how can the govt guarantee the first £85k of all savings, surely at some point the money might run out... I don;t know what to do for the best, i really don't. Quantitative Easing worries me it's inflationary effects will affect the poorest in society.

Am peed off with work who are currently treating me like i'm invisible. I'd love to leave, but need to stick it out for a year or two yet.

Moan, moan, moan - grumble grumble grumble. THe only answer is to drink more wine, I think :beer:

mardatha

My thinking Smiley is that if everybody in the vets made a fuss and "started" in front of the receptionist then she is sooner or later going to have a word with the vet. Is the only way to get through to a vet sometimes as some of them are too high & mighty to speak to their clients much. Probly lump us in with their patients LOL! But if everybody complains then the reception is going to get sick and tired of it and she will then complain to the vets, etc. So not so much a chain of command, more a chain of complaint

RAS

Lionel_Blair wrote: »

I am concerned you have mentioned about panic causing, yes you are right to do so, but let me say this. In all my many years of being in the banking sector I have never seen nor experienced anything so bad for so long. RAS - there will be hardly if any takeovers, banks are shoring up their capital and are having to separate their business from 'normal' banking conditions to investments with a fire wall being put in between.

LB

I am not referring to take-overs in the future but to the ones that took place in the round of chaos in 2008 onward. So Santander took over Abbey and ...and ... The big question for people in the short term is whether those three companies now share the same licence and therefore the same government protection limit?

I am not in the least sanguine about the current situation, by the way, but am aware of the risk of panic making things even worse that they need be.

And we need to be careful not to go off topic on this thread or we will be banished to Discussion Time.

oldtractor

That vet bill is an absolute disgrace,I would report it to the Royal college of Veterinary surgeons. Most people just wring the necks of hens when they need PTS. That vet needs investigating,no way can it be that much money for 2 little injections. It only costs a couple of hundred quid to have a horse destroyed and disposed of.

mardatha

Yea Lionel Blair this isnt the forum for that, we got enough problems in here trying to cope with wartime cookery, padding out meals, and using hayboxes! :rotfl::rotfl:

Lionel_Blair

RAS wrote: »

LB

I am not referring to take-overs in the future but to the ones that took place in the round of chaos in 2008 onward. So Santander took over Abbey and ...and ... The big question for people in the short term is whether those three companies now share the same licence and therefore the same government protection limit?

I am not in the least sanguine about the current situation, by the way, but am aware of the risk of panic making things even worse that they need be.

And we need to be careful not to go off topic on this thread or we will be banished to Discussion Time.

I don't work for any of the above so I have no immediate first to hand knowledge of how they have amalgamated this. It literally could be £85k all in and thats it, which takes you under the £30k threshold for each account should you bank within the same group. You would need to seek advice from both the financial services authority and the bank in order to clarify. The problem for everyone is that when the proverbial hits it is always, always buried in the small print of what the extent of the liabilites towards you are. The sad fact is you never find out before the event in which to take steps to protect your finances.

Panic can go one of one of several ways, as seen with Northern Rock it forced the Governments hand to stop the bank rush on deposits and bring about a guarantee - that in the main part has been substially a good thing. 2. It allows people to prepare and consider careful contingency plans, but by the same token it also stops people from spending so it hits the economy harder still because the economy relies upon people spending, but in the main it allows those sensible enough to make informed choices such as do we have that new car, expensive holiday, or do we hold off and see what happens. 3. There can be widespread panic - hardly likely as the British by and large are a restrained bunch which we saw with Northern Rock with customers forming orderly queues.

The balance is such that you have to say do we tell the truth say it as it is, or do we hide it? This Government has allowed Stagflation to go on without stating the true extent of how dire the economy has been. Many, many of you on here have said over and over again when you gone to buy something it has gone up in price that is in all probability going to become more of the norm for the next 12 or so months ahead. We could see a return to how stagflation affected the economy in the 1970's if you are old enough to remember.

Either way, I would rather be informed to be allow us to make the right choices that affect us directly and personally. I have never believed that smoke and mirrors is the way forward in dangerous economic times, it is simply fudging the issue and giving a false, dangerous sense of security. These are troubled times and we will come out to see brighter days ahead - I am sure of it! But in the meantime it important that we all take heed of what is happening in the economy and understanding how that it can and will impact - even if only the food bill rises - on our budgets and for those who wish to express their concerns and fears, they should be allowed to do so without restriction or concern that they are 'ramping' things up/

[Deleted User]

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Rowan9

To be fair to LB, everyone else here seems to have been discussing the economy lately and in quite some detail!!
W

RAS

kittie wrote: »

Now back to beetroots: GQ those late sowings in july, have produced large beetroots and I have dozens. I am very pleased but what will I do with them as there is only so much chutney that I can make?

kittie

Use the small roots for chutneys and picked beets.

The large ones are safe left in the ground unless we have very very harsh weather (they will be ok in minus 11 degrees C but not at minus 19 based on my experience of the last two winters).

Bring them in in batches and keep them somewhere cool and damp.

Personally I like to quarter them and use them in roast root veg mixes alongside carrots and potatoes. I do not think they go well with parsnip but you may think otherwise.

I have also seen a very colourful beet and swede rosti - both grated with some potato and pan fried as a "cake". Tastes good but have not tried to cook it.