Switching Pet Insurance

I've never insured any of my cats.

First one was PTS due to kidney failure, attempted treatment and injection to PTS was under £200.

Next cat was run over, instantly killed.

Third cat had cancer three times, total operation costs / scans were under £700, as far as I can recall, for two cancer removal operations, three scans and blood works (because of her twin with his kidney failure and she had mild haemophilia); didn't have a third op as it was clearly inoperable.

In 25 years of owning cats I've paid out well under £1,500 for all treatment and castrations / spaying.

Technically I'm quids in because of not having insurance.

Sat here still debating whether to insure our greyhound though as I know dogs cost more to sort out.

I've never insured any of my dogs. Quick breakdown:

Peri - I was a child here so my recollections are hazy, but I don't remember anything going wrong with him and he died in his sleep age 14

Nermal - nothing wrong with him until the day before he died of some type of seizure age 13. Cost notional

Prince - Had bladder stones, cost was a few hundred, plus metacam in his last two years for arthritis, died at 17

Bugs/aka bugslet;) - he had epilepsy from the age of three. He had the occasional bloodtest and some cheap meds all his life. I think he is the one for whom Insurance would have put me on the winning side. Died age 13 within a day of having a stroke.

Billy - died 16 after a few weeks of epilepsy type fits. Cost notional

Skip - died age 10 of haemangio sarcoma. Pretty quick, nothing they could do for him, again a few blood tests, cost a few hundred

Poppy - rescue that I knew when I got her was not in good health. She had two occasions when she was in the vets with a collapsed trachea ( not operable), around £700.00 for those events and then daily Xanax. She also had a skin condition, though that didn't cost much. I took her on knowing she was a bit of a disaster and couldn't have got Insurance anyway. Only had her 3 years.

Tilly - died age 16 of mast cell tumours. She had two ops, <1000.00, all in the last few months of her life.

Stella - died age 14. Age 10 she developed spindle cell carcinoma, big op cost 1400.00. It came back but there was nothing we could do and it didn't cause her problems other than her having a fat leg! She had Cushings for about 4 months which cost 90.00 in medication per month.

Ruby - died four weeks ago age 11. Always been rock solid then Weds morning she was off colour and by Sunday she was put to sleep. Cost me around 1300.00, suspected brain lesions.


I currently have an 8.5 year old spitz that has had no health issues so far and a 2.5 year old giant schnauzer, again no problems so far.

Out of the ten that have died, I'm ignoring Poppy because I knew the score when I got her and couldn't have insured her for the conditions she had already anyway, the other 9, two (Bugs and Stella) would have broken about even had I insured them instead. The other were big wins, so over all I tend to think that I am better off self-insuring.

I've never not done anything because of cost.

It really does depend on individual circumstances sheramber. I'm lucky that a. it generally has worked out better for me not having insurance and b. that I can afford to pay for them.

Ruby, that died just before Xmas, was due an MRI scan on Xmas Eve that would have cost 3k. I'd have happily paid it, but a big discussion with the excellent vet on the Saturday, then went in to see Ruby on Sunday and I took the decision that it wasn't worth it. She'd stopped breathing on Saturday afternoon, luckily they were there at the time and got her back. But Sunday, I 'think' she knew I was there. A scan would have most likely shown lesions on the brain and what do you do then.

The other part of the equation besides money, is do you do things because you can, because medical science allows you to, or do you say, yes we could x, y and z but, as in Ruby's case, I have an 11 year old dog that has had a very happy life, either surgery or chemo is difficult and it's too much. If you are pragmatic like me, it perhaps determines that you won't take medicine to its maximum.

And, and I know some people will slate me for this. If I thought that the scan would have revealed something that resulted in a treatment that was not overly traumatic, then I'd have paid for it, not a problem...but, it did go through my mind that I was preparing to shell out several thousand pounds two days before Christmas when people a few miles from me would be eating from a food bank. That wouldn't change anything about me paying, but I can't say it sat entirely comfortably.

Here endeth the ramble!:o