Thinking of scrapping horse/ cat insurance & saving - advice needed

xmillyx

Hi CC,

I have a 22 year old mare who is currently uninsured, she is very vet-phobic and unfortunately if she had anything that would require serious veterinary attention eg a stay in horsepital, colic surgery basically anything over £1k really she would be PTS, it breaks my heart to say this as she is my 1 in a lifetime mare but I have to be realistic she is not getting any younger and I wouldn't put her through anything unnecessarily. She is semi-retired though still used as a happy hacker in the summer months as she LOVES to be out exploring.

However, in general I would say insurance is a good thing, yes it's expensive but vet bills are even more so! And unfortunately seem to pop up at the worst times

I also really recommend becoming a gold member of the BHS if you aren't already, you get 3rd party insurance included in the membership.

Oh and I'm another who after suffering from an awful experience with E&L I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole!

Sorry about that rambling but I really hope that helps xxx

rising_from_the_ashes

I'm with Bugslet in that I do think it depends on your particular animals & their ages AND also their natures / how they would cope with difficult treatments

It does also depend on your finances and, for a lot of multi-pet households, the cost of insurance for all + excess + maybe a % of costs (depending on age of pet) makes it financially unsustainable to insure

For instance, if my insurance costs were say £200+ / month, then putting that away each month will mount up pretty quickly

I know that while I would put mine through say a repair to a broken leg or amputation following an accident*, I certainly wouldn't be putting say Maisie through a double hip replacement or similar difficult surgery to recover from as even at her age, with her temperment I don't think that would be in her best interests.

Once the pet gets to within the range of 'average life expectancy' for their breed then I wouldn't do anything drastic and choose to take more of a 'make them comfortable and happy' approach to things

Sadly, this approach now seems to be excluding more & more people from insurance - as it's got so expensive which is sadly down to advances in treatments / surgeries and down to the difference in costs of insurers having to pay prices for meds obtained from vets compared to the costs they are actually available for

Ben's meds were £68 from the vet and £18 online .... (several years ago now - the difference is probably more now) - the insurers will recoup those differences through the premiums we all pay

* I would always have accident / injury insurance which would cover most of the costs and could top up if needed (and haven't yet managed to take the big plunge and cancel their insurances - but with Axa looking to sell their customers & not being able to find cover for under double what I currently pay, it won't be long happening)

GR I think you've been sadly very unlucky as having one pet need extensive treatment is one thing, but more than that I would believe is pretty unusual

lostinrates

gettingready wrote: »

Definitely - too often people "self insure" by putting too little money away and when tragedy happens....

Yes, my vet bills were massive but then having 4 cats and a dog with me and 2 more cats with my daughter - I could not possibly "self insure" enough to cover possible emergency.. so they are all insured

We have several animals too, more bigger ones, so individuals vet bills can escalate quickly, but so do premiums.


Ultimately I wouldn't have our anupimals if I didn't feel we could afford them, whether that's self insuring or insuring or our hybrid.

I hal joke that our kitchen Is in one of dog dogs broken legs and our central heating in the other, but sometimes decisions would be made on such a basis. If you don't have the luxury of choosing between things you don't have the luxury of self insuring really. With old dog its very clear decision, we would not put her through another major surgery. She's not even going to be spayed now.

Comparing horse insurance and costs to other pets is slightly confusing in any event.


Re call out costs for vets, it might be worth checking other local vets charges. Mine don't charge me 'call out' on top of consult for routine appointments made on the day of the week they are in my area. I am extra lucky as fall on the border of two areas, so we have two charge free days each week.

lostinrates

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

For instance, if my insurance costs were say £200+ / month, then putting that away each month will mount up pretty quickly

To put this in perspective, there are times when in our house hold the pet insurance on current prices would have been MUCH more. Its simply not practical or cost effective and self insuring at that sort of level makes 'pay back' for the decision very quickly, but it does require discipline and resource,

rising_from_the_ashes

I do also think it depends on the type of animals you have

Personally I would never have contemplated not having any of the horses insured - they, from the nature of their work, tend to injure themselves more often and even a relatively minor injury can quickly add up, often just by the fact that in the majority of cases, the vet has to come to you

gettingready

Well insurance for my dog and 4 cats plus my daughter's 2 cats comes up to almost 280 per month but I would not put this amount away as "self insure" as in emergency vet bills could be much higher...

OP - sorry not horse related but my general view on insurance.

bugslet

gettingready wrote: »

Well insurance for my dog and 4 cats plus my daughter's 2 cats comes up to almost 280 per month but I would not put this amount away as "self insure" as in emergency vet bills could be much higher...
.

I don't put money aside ring-fenced as some people do, it all sort of goes into one pot and comes out of said pot. Maybe I am lucky that I can afford to do that, if you can't then fine, have insurance. I think it's part of your risk personality as well and I'm not risk averse.

gettingready

I currently work as a contractor. While working I can make 6k per month working 20 days at £300 a day. But then I may have few months with no work at all. Did not happen yet but can happen easily. Or I can chose to have few weeks/month off.So just to keep my pets safe (and myself sane and worry free) - insurance is a must

moggymutt

I find the comments really bizarre about rehoming- I haven't ridden for over 20 years, but still have horses as companion animals.

The big worry with any animal is 3rd party liability. Not relevant for cats, but for dogs and horses yes. My horses never leave their barns or fields, and so there's no worry of them causing an RTA etc. 3rd party claims can run to millions of pounds.

Problems I had with previous veteran horse insurance was that accidental injury was included, illnesses were not. When my horse broke his neck they tried to argue it was caused by illness!!!! As it was, apart from initial meds, no treatment was called for, it was all down to majorly adapting his stable and keeping fingers crossed for 6 months. Put me off veteran insurance though- I would have thought that a broken neck was a pretty obvious accidental injury, not an illness.

lostinrates

moggymutt wrote: »

I find the comments really bizarre about rehoming- I haven't ridden for over 20 years, but still have horses as companion animals.

The big worry with any animal is 3rd party liability. Not relevant for cats, but for dogs and horses yes. My horses never leave their barns or fields, and so there's no worry of them causing an RTA etc. 3rd party claims can run to millions of pounds.

Problems I had with previous veteran horse insurance was that accidental injury was included, illnesses were not. When my horse broke his neck they tried to argue it was caused by illness!!!! As it was, apart from initial meds, no treatment was called for, it was all down to majorly adapting his stable and keeping fingers crossed for 6 months. Put me off veteran insurance though- I would have thought that a broken neck was a pretty obvious accidental injury, not an illness.

The only time I've been seriously concerned I might be in aposition of risk of claim of liability is exactly from horses at pasture when they have got on to roads from fences being knocked done by drivers, or gates opened /removed by intruders. Or even horses jumping out (sadly has happened to me).

Landowners/renters are always advised to have liability insurance I think.

Liability is I think still at cheaply covered by something like BHS membership. I don't know, because our liability for horses under my care or handling is covered by our other insurance. (Much cheaper than horse insurance relevant to my role as a business owner)