Cancel pet insurance?

tbourner

We have a pedigree Malamute whos parents had good hip scores and clear eyes. He's 4 years old and never needed vet treatment apart from a checkup after being bitten by a Staffie.
We then have a rescue Malamute who is clearly of worse breeding, she is also 4 and also never needed vet treatment. No signs currently of hip or eye problems.
Lastly we have a moggie cat who is 6, also never needed vet treatment.

So the obvious thing is if we go to self support savings sods law says they'll all become ill and get run over in the same week!

We're paying around £60 at the moment for all 3 of them, which isn't bad really, that's with MoreThan. I think it covers £7k per condition regardless of timescale, plus the theft/missing payments, 3rd party liability etc.

One problem is we don't vaccinate, we haven't for about 2 years. We don't believe in it. So is the insurance just invalid for vaccinated conditions?
We also feed the 2 dogs on the BARF diet and none of the vets in the area agree with it, I went around to all of them before we got the pup and they all said it was dangerous (and by the way why don't you buy this food that we happen to sell :mad: ), so I'm kind of worried that it might become an issue if anything happens that could be food related and they have to ask what we've been feeding - they'll obviously blame the BARF even if it's not related.

Anyway down to the harsh reality; we'd be willing to spend a couple of grand of our money on the pets, but over and above that we'd have to decide on the PTS option. I'm sorry to those of you on this board who disagree, we love our pets to bits but spending thousands of pounds on them isn't going to happen.

So do we keep our credit cards on standby until we've saved up some cash, and just hope they don't need treatment of more than a couple of thousand pounds? Or do we keep paying out for insurance?

gettingready

IN short - keep the insurance.

KxMx

I'd keep the insurance. Credit cards are always handy for an emergency but it's not free money and has to be paid back.

Imagine one of the pets needed several grand spend each year, it went onto credit cards, someone lost a job, can't meet payments and suddenly credit rating takes a dive...

~Chameleon~

It's a case of pot luck! I have two geriatric cats (20+) that have never needed anything other than routine treatment (spaying) but a young cat I had some time ago was accident prone, suffering a broken jaw and needing a tail amputation all within the first year of his life!

If you can afford the bills without insurance then that's fine, you might want to put money away into savings each month rather than rely on credit cards though. Vaccinations, or lack thereof, could pose a problem when trying to claim for certain conditions. At such a young age I wouldn't advise not doing them at all but perhaps every 3 years would be a better approach. Remember, you would need up to date vaccinations if you ever needed to kennel them for a reason too.

Tiglath

Keep the insurance. Our cats cost us £131/month with Direct Line, but it's worth it for us to have peace of mind to know they're covered.

orlao

Let me tell you my cautionary tale

I have a very well bred Rottweiler - his parents had all the relevant tests as did theirs, all with top notch scores. The rest of his litter (except him and one other) have been successful in both the show ring and performance (schutzhund.sp) with no serious health issues. His breeder tends to have long lived dogs with minimal problems - of course some do need cruciate repair ops and she has lost one or two to oestosarcoma, they are rotties after all.

I didn't insure as I've had multiple animals that have only needed routine vet care and maybe a bit more in old age - metacam, thyroid meds that kind of thing. Also, Petplan wanted £64 pm 8 years ago which seemed excessive compared to the bills I had experienced with my animals over the years...so I didn't bother. I now know why the premium was so high! To date this dog has run up 'specialist' (ie referrals to RVC, AHT type bills) of £10k in 5 years. These don't include the routine vaccs, castrations, xrays, dentals, metacam etc or his twice a week hydrotherapy @£36 pw btw. I'm too scared to start adding them up!

His last trip to the Animal Health Trust cost a fraction under £2k just for a work up that included an MRI scan - this was because he had a lump on his gum that could have been a mast cell tumour.As it happens it wasn't but the scan found a nasty adrenal tumour (that isn't showing any symptoms) but the location means that it would be a very risky to remove and to permanently remove the lump on his gum (benign but invasive tumour) would involve removing a chunk of his upper jaw bone, major surgery in itself.

Their estimate for these ops was £5k for the jaw if he survived the £8k op and aftercare for the adrenal gland op - there was also mention of 6 monthly MRIs to monitor any spread of the assumed to be malignant Adrenal tumour, then chemo to deal with that. It really wouldn't take long for the bill to hit £20k, would it?

The point of the essay above is that £2k or so really doesn't go far once you've been referred to a specialist vets - they have got so expensive, mainly because they can do so much much more now. I have decided not to let my boy have the ops - not just because of the cost, my lovely OH offered to pay - but because IMO they would be too much for him to take. But, if I ever have another Rott or any other pedigree I will have insurance, just for peace of mind. I do have a rescue JRT that isn't insured only because I couldn't get 'decent' cover as he was 8 when I got him...

Just had a quick look at Petplan's and Axa's conditions of insurance - they say that they won't cover any illnesses that vaccination might have prevented if the dogs aren't jabbed (fair enough) but there is no mention that you have to feed a certain diet to maintain cover so BARF shouldn't cause any issues.

zaksmum

Definitely keep the insurance.

Person_one

Keep the insurance.

Two grand doesn't actually go as far as you'd think, and your animals don't deserve to die of fully treatable illnesses or injuries just because that's the value you place on them.

I don't insure mine, but I have more than 10 grand available in savings and credit and I'd spend every penny on them if I had to.

tbourner

Thanks all for the advice, seems pretty unanimous so far!

Person_one wrote: »

Two grand doesn't actually go as far as you'd think, and your animals don't deserve to die of fully treatable illnesses or injuries just because that's the value you place on them.

I don't insure mine, but I have more than 10 grand available in savings and credit and I'd spend every penny on them if I had to.

This is the issue I think. I know I'd be willing to spend some money on them but I wouldn't be able to go silly due to our situation, and would have to end up making 'that' decision . Seeing as we run a rescue and make these decisions sometimes with those dogs I know how hard it is, let alone with my own dogs!
So saving £60 a month probably isn't worth it when you consider what could happen tomorrow. Maybe we'll think about it again once we're in a better position financially.

Fire_Fox

Regarding the vaccinations, you need to check the terms and conditions of your insurer. AXA was not bothered that my last cat was not vaccinated, he had a bad reaction so I had to tell them. Regarding others stuff, can you afford hundreds or thousands year on year for a chronic condition? If not you need insurance. The BARF is irrelevant unless they can demonstrate a link with the condition the animal gets.

Bluemeanie_2

Another one to add don't cancel it! I pay £5.22 a month for my cat. Had him insured for 4.5 years and not claimed once. He's been vets 3 times with bite injuries to the tail. Each time was £15 below the excess of £75. So, so far I have "lost" on this. (Though I don't want him to be ill or injured!).

I've had my dog for 1.5 years, she's about 7 (a rescue). She cost me £12.58 a month to insure with £70 excess and 10% of the final bills after the excess is subtracted. Max is £7k. I was honest with them and she's not vaccinated (no boosters, just original ones) or spayed. This is with MoreThan.
She's just had an op on her paw (two lumps removed). We're up to £480 and that's if it's not cancer. I've had my premiums back already from this one op.
It's just the law of sod isn't it. If you cancel it there'll be a problem!

I would do anything for my pets. I love them both with all my heart. When I pay all my bills on the 1st, I just see the £18 as an addition to my other bills. I don't have a sky TV package like most of my friends, so see paying for my pets insurance the same as having that.

I personally like to peace of mind, knowing I haven't just had to find £500 odd quid in one go.