dilemma...

In_Search_Of_Me

aww Kazmeister...really sad for you & its just confirmed my gut feeling that I should keep the insurance. I dd some research last year & M&S came out alot cheaper so swapped from petplan to them as they also do for the life of the pet insurance. You have to be REALLY careful getting pet insurance as many will only insure for a year and if your pet gets something like diabetes they rocket your cover or refuse it all togeather & you would struggle to get more (direct line & tesco I think both do this)...Off to ring M&S & see if I can get a reduction in premium!!

POSSETTE

Hi..Try this as alternative to saving the payment..we have 3 dogs,1 is 10 1 is 8 and 1 is 7..we have never had insurance on any of them..if i had paid out £9 a month for each one..i would have paid £2700 out.

we have a credit card with £6500 credit limit with a zero balance that is thier backup if they ever need anything..

7 years ago the eldest dog had a stroke of some sort,he lost his eye which went manky! and we had to be referred to Cambridge Uni vets for 3 days while they did all the MRI and ecg scans etc..this came to £651, so with that and the minor other bills we have had (one boy had colitis and pancreatitis) which came to around£390 over 2 years, we are still in "credit" so to speak.

you then know you are paying £30 a month for something you have had instead of paying an insurance company for something you may never have.


ps Cambridge is very nice...went on bus tour 3 times!!

elliethecat

I don't have a cat at the moment but, after our last experience, would not let one through my door without insuring it for vet's bills. Last year, my four year old and previously healthy cat stopped eating. Several trips to the vet followed, different antibiotics etc., each time. As there was no improvement the cat ended up staying at the vet's for a week. Despite xrays, being on IV fluids etc., it was downhill all the way until she had to be put down.

Turned out this cat was suffering from Feline Infective Peritonitis, which up until then I hadn't heard of and the vet had not seen a case of it. However there's loads of info about this disease on the net and it's becoming more and more common in the UK.

In the end, our cat died and the final vet's bill was only a little under £500.00 - a very great shock to my finances - any and all future animals in my household will be insured!

kazmeister

Hi Fishface,

I have my little dog insured with M & S after shopping around, they deffo came up with the best price for the plan they offered. Recently had a renewal which went from £10 per month to nearly £15 so I rang to ask why as the dog is only 16 months old. Apparently they are underwritten by Axa, and they had changed they way they wrote the policies so were unable to come down on the price. As I wasnt sure about changing and needing to have another credit search I decided for the extra fiver a month I would stay put! SO they may not give you a better price - they wouldnt me.

LJD1_2

Hiya
My personal view is that i'd never have a cat or dog again without insurance and i'd make sure that the insurance paid for life. Our cat became diabetic and with insulin he was back to normal. The insurance company paid for a year and then it was down to us and it was about £80 a month for all his medication. Sadly he's no longer with us. We also have a dog that we got from a dog's home. She's now ten and adorable. When we got her we took out insurance which didn't kick in for ten days...on the eleventh day she got ill due to being starved and beaten and suddenly being fed regularly. She has ulceratice colitis and is and always will be on medication. The insurance has paid out thousands on her but she's a pretty healthy and very happy dog with medication. I guess it's a lottery really but i think you're making the right decision to keep insurance but shop around for cheaper if you can. Good luck xx

boothebirdy

I would keep the insurance personally. I have claimed more than £3,500 for my (indoor cat) pedigree British Blue due to a deformed knee joint and cruiciate ligament injury (its a myth that indoor cats can't hurt themselves ) that required an op by a specialist orthopaedic surgeon. If I didn't have the insurance she would have lost her leg! I feel comforted should she ever need anymore treatment in the future she won't not be able to have because I couldn't afford it.

anniestar

Hi for what its worth I would keep the insurance. We are just in the process of getting our 7:eek: :eek: (ys thats right 7!!) insured. Prior to April this year I used to pay a DD to our then vets to be used whenevet it was needed (which was a Godsend as no "wasted" cash IYSWIM) anyway we became a bit disenchanted with said vets(new personnell etc) and moved to a specialist practice who don't do this and advise insurance. Had a bit of a problem a ssome of ours are on the wrong side of 7. M&S seem pretty good. Have a poorly at the mo and she is costing us a small fortune! But worth every penny.

smudgemanc26

I personally would keep the insurance you never know what might happen in the future. Both the cats we have at home are insured I got the first one insured when my parents went away for 6 months just incase anything happened and luckily we kept it going when they got back cos then the cat had a bad accident to its leg and ended up having surgery and metal plates and pins put in it! Luckily he's fine now has no problems at all and gets into all kinds of mischief being a lad cat thats expected i suppose! haha:rotfl: Anyway if we didnt have the insurance we would have had to pay over a thousand pound outright for his treatment - we wouldnt have hesitated though cos he's our baby in the family even though we would have had to scrape together the money but luckily we didnt have to thanks to the insurance.

The only thing now is that the insurance went up quite a bit, we were with direct line my dad since rescued another cat and so has her insured too and has found out he can get both cats insured for the price he was paying for one! I think he's gone with Tesco now so try them for a quote.

About the injections thing aswell i think someone might have mentioned this before but you'll have to be careful with the cat that does go out as that cat could bring things into the house which can effect the other cats.

It might be worth checking to see if they have some kind of payment plan to help with the cost of injections at the vet.