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

rising_from_the_ashes

Dogs Liability Insurance

You can get 3rd party liability insurance by having membership of Dogs Trust

http://dogstrust.org.uk/giving/membership/faq/default.aspx#.UxiqxxC0RSI

£25 or £12.50 for over 60s

CreditCrunchie

gettingready wrote: »

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

This is a very good point as I am self employed too! Until now I was still on the fence over this. I was thinking perhaps keep the horse insurance but have a savings account for the cats.. but one of my babies has just been diagnosed with kidney problems, and will need tablets and possible treatment for the rest of her life.

It's just so hard deciding

I think for now I am going to stick with AXA for the girl with kidney probs, shop around for a new insurer for the horse, and have a savings account for the other 3 kitties. Phew, confusing!:rotfl:

kitty08

I can't comment on the horse insurance as I don't have any experience, but I would recommend keeping the insurance for the cats. My eldest cat was diagnosed with kidney disease four years ago. She is doing very well, and to look at her you wouldn't think there was anything wrong, BUT she has to have regular checkups and blood tests, and as the disease has progressed she has become more prone to infections, as well as having more meds to take. Kidney cats become dehydrated very quickly, so if she is ever unwell I dont have the "wait and see" option, she has to go to the vet straight away. Last week she developed an infection and the bill for that was £300 by the time she was finally better, 80% covered by the insurance. She's around 14-15 years (rescue cat so don't have exact birth date) so I now have to pay 20% of bills.This covered 4 visits to vet, two lots of antibiotic injections, subcut fluids, blood test, urine test to lab, and a couple of other things that I can't remember! She's on a renal support diet that the insurance (petplan) don't pay, but they do pay 80% of the bill for all her meds each month. (fortekor and she's now on famotidine as well)
My second cat developed arthritis when she was only eight, She is now on painkillers and various supplements, all of which are paid for by the insurance. She also has regular checkups. Its possible she may need knee surgery sometime in the future, but this seems to have stabilised for now. (X-rays are another expense!) On a "good" month when no one is ill, the meds bill and the insurance premium just about cancel each other out. But there are still the check ups and blood and urine tests to be factored in, not to mention the times when the eldest cat gets ill and the younger one has an arthritis flare up.
Very often its the chronic conditions that end up costing the most, as an animal can live a good quality life for several years (if not longer!) with the appropriate treatment, the cost of which soon mounts up! Another thing to bear in mind is how amenable your cats are to medical treatment. My eldest cat has been labelled "impossible to pill" so receives antibiotic injections. These are very effective, but are often more expensive than tablets.
Good luck! I hope your kidney cat does well.

gettingready

@credit crunchie - sigh.. my current contract finishes end of April (recruitment freeze in my current place where... 80% of staff are/were contractors, new big boss nearly got a heart attack at the pay figures), will hopefully find something else sooner rather than later but just in case - stocking up on food/litter/worming/flea/etc etc etc and no way I could even consider cancelling the insurance

Zara will be 8 years this August - have to check her policy and see if "percentage of bills" kick in when she is 8, if so - got to get all possible diagnostics done before August...

Oh dear, just realised Teddy will be 8 too.... and he needs dental, do does Fred.. next month then LOL