The real cost of having pets

gettingready

Right - just got of the phone with Argos and PetPlan and moved George over to PetPlan.

Anythjing relating to his operation (3 years ago) for luxating patella will be excluded (that includes arthritis in his back legs) but there was never anything wrong with George apart from his op 3 years ago and can not risk a hike in premiums eventually with George as I just had with Zara so moved him now. PetPlan covers dental whch argos does not so will gain a bit here..

Argos for George was £25.00, PetPlan came up at £22.70 with first month free. So now all my cats (my 4 boys) are with PetPlan at the cost of around £92.00 per month. My daughter's 2 I am only paying this month and then she is taking over the payments, her two are £25.00 for both together.

I am about to cancel Zara's insurance. I do not generally believe in self insuring when premiums are low as if you put away say £30.00 per month instead of paying this for insurance I feel it is very risky.

BUT - if I put away £172 per month for Zara instead of paying the £172 for insurance, to me it makes sense.

Zara is just over 8 years old. She already had a double hip replacement. I would not put her through any extensive surgery if something went very wrong. She is on Onsior for life but I get it at £21.00 per month from Animed plus £10.00 prescription charge every 6 month. I used to claim it back but this is nowhere near the £172 per month Argos is asking for.

Gonna have a ciggy/coffee and call Argos to cancel Zara's insurance with them. Never thought it will come to that BUT the price hike is really way too high.

Any thought anyone?

gettingready

I know I am talking to myself (home today) but really worried about cancelling Zara's insurance and then not wanting to pay 172 PER MONTH either...

So thinking, aloud.. sighhhhh

Current costs:

Cats' Insurance (all 4) £92 per month
Cat Litter £20.00 per month (2 bags of the white version of golden grey lasts a month)
4x44 sachets of Felix "as good as it looks" (they are not interested in any other wet at the moment) around £48.00
Porta 21 (get 3 different ones 2kg each and mix them) around £30.00 per month

So cats total (not including flea/worming etc as this is random) is:

£190.00

And then comes Fred's k/d food at £15.00 for a box of 24 sachets so realistically need 8 boxes if he was fed just that - that is £120.00 just for Fred's food on top of the £190.00 above so :

The grand total for cats is now at £310.00 per month

Zara

dog walker - average of £220.00 per month
insurance - £172.00 per month
food (she gets 1 sachet of burns lamb and rice plus 180 gram of Orjen fish so....
Burns works out at £48.00 per month
Orijen works out at about £40 per month
Zara's Onsior is £21.00 per month

(not including worming/flea/prescription costs)


Zara total £501.00 per month


so £501 dog plus £310.00 for the 4 cats comes up to a new grand total of £811.00 add flea/worming/occasional treat/toy and we can safely say......


Grand Total for 1 dog and 4 cats £850.00 per month
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Too early for a drink? Hold on, I can not afford a drink - looking at those numbers...

purpleshoes_2

I dont insure any of my pets (indoor cats). I do understand why people do and I also understand that some pets have conditions where insurance is necessary. My mum had all her cats insured at one point but one of her pets is a chinchilla person and had a condition that the insurance company said if it happened again (which it did), they would pay out. They then refused to do so, was a hematoma in his ear which he then got in the other ear. Sometimes insurance companies can be really sticky about paying up.

I dont flea or worm treat my cats every month. I buy them cat litter from poundland, I rotate their dry food quite regularly but they are happy with go cat from home bargains (which has a really good choice of cat foods and some are much cheaper than you get in other stores, such as gocat)

I stopped feeding mine wet food a few years back, I probably spend about £25-30 a month on tinned tuna for them (I have 6)

Between food and litter, I probably spend about £55 a month on mine, maybe a bit more some months as I'll sometimes buy more expensive dry foods, but thats about it.

Hope you get it sorted to your satisfaction.

Misty_Blue

I generally do not believe in self-insuring either, but in a case like this I think you have to balance out the pros and cons.

In your situation, I would be tempted to cancel the insurance as you mentioned, and save about £150 a month. So you're saving a little on the quoted premium, but still putting away a good amount. For an 8 year old GSD who has had double THR but is otherwise generally healthy, I would agree that you would be unlikely to put her through any more surgery of anything like that degree. It's not like you're planning to put away £20 a month to cover any future bills - you would hopefully have a good amount stashed in case of any problems.

One of my dogs recently had a hip replacement, and his premiums were already £75 per month before that, so I might be in the same situation before too long!

Slinky

Does the insurance you pay cover anything like public liability as well as treatment. Just thinking you may want think about that also before cancelling it. £850 a month on your pets is huge.....

Misty_Blue

You can get free third party insurance with up to £1,000,000 cover through the Dogs Trust if you become a member.

gettingready

Thanks...

Zara's current insurance is paid till 28th October - may take her to vets NOW or a good check up which would still be covered.

She has several sabacious (spelling) cysts that do not cause her problems. Often problems with anal glands which costs £10 or £40 to sort out - depending on which vet I take her to. Sore paws when it is raining - this I sort out with sudocream, as whatever vets gave me never worked.

She is permanently on Onsior which costs me £21.00 per month from Animed plus £10 for prescription (twice per year cost as I get 6 months on each). Onsior is for her spine. If anything gone worse with her spine - I would not put her through any surgery anyway.

While typing, got her an appointment for this Friday to see vet and have her blood tests done (need to have those for repeated Onsior) and general health check. Arranged for a direct claim straight away too (no issues with that), will get a prescription for Onsior at the same time and then order 6 months from Animed and claim that as I normally do.

If her blood tests are fine - will cancel the insurance from the 29th...

Sighhh

gettingready

Misty Blue - i was just going to ask about that, do you have a link to more info please?

Thanks a lot xx

Misty_Blue

gettingready wrote: »

Misty Blue - i was just going to ask about that, do you have a link to more info please?

Thanks a lot xx

The third section down here has the FAQ section for the insurance. I don't have any personal experience but it seems to be well thought of in the various magazines, forums etc.

http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/giving/membership/faq/#faq269593

gettingready

Oh found it, thanks

http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/giving/membership/default.aspx#.VEet_PnF_7k