Pet insurance - to have or not to have?

I would always recommend insurance, my latest rescue dog became unwell at 6 months old (has her a few months then) her vet bill was £6000, she has a life long condition and if i had not had her insured i dont know how i would have paid the vet bill, having insurance also takes away the worry about any future vet fees

Also if getting insurance the best to get is a "for life policy"

Yes I agree with above. Mind you it doesn’t stop the insurance going up as your dog ages, but I like the peace of mind, and at the same time hope I never need it.

I take a chance and save a certain amount each month in case, personal choice

I do rather resent paying £54 a month for pet insurance. However, about four years ago our dog needed investigations and surgery and the final bill was around £7,000. I was very relieved then that we had pet insurance.

What irritated me, was that, having purchased a "for life" insurance (whereby your pet is theoretically covered in subsequent years, and indefinitely, for a recurrence of a particular condition or injury), we were then informed that the underwriters to the scheme had pulled out of the UK. This, we were told, meant that, although the company had been able to arrange cover "for life" for everything else, our dog would not be covered for a recurrence of the condition which had required surgery. It had not occurred to me that the company we insured with was, in effect, just a middle man and that if the underwriters were changed this could affect the policy.

On balance, though, I would always get pet insurance if I could possibly afford it. As whitewave said, it has to be borne in mind that the premium goes up each year, more as a pet gets older.

I believe that if people are in receipt of certain benefits they may be able to get help with treatment from Blue Cross and, I think, the PDSA.

Yes; I'd always get pet insurance now but, as has been said, be aware that it will go up a lot as the pet gets older. Hattie has year insurance which was a mistake [I'd never taken out insurance before] and I now pay £40 a month even though she is now pretty much excluded from just about everything that could go wrong. But, if your dog has an accident and gets rushed to a vets it could run up a bill of thousands before you even get a chance to think about what's happening because vets assume everyone is insured. But you must take it out asap as any condition that occurs now will be excluded from the policy. I use Petplan. A good breeder will, I would have thought, sell the pup with an initial insurance cover that can be continued [Hattie was].

We hadn't planned on insuring our previous dog but when she was taken for her first injection at 8 weeks the vet gave us one months insurance cover. During that month the pup broke her leg so we had to continue the insurance. That is over 20 years ago. Two dogs later were still paying pet insurance.
I would say we are very out of pocket but you just never know.

We have a cat and a dog. We have never had pet insurance. Previously we had acat and a dog too. Our dog is now 14 and cat 17 and a half.

Food for thought everyone. I have been on the comparison websites and I saw the lifelong option which I wondered about.
Eloethan - yes i agree these only last while the insurance company still exists along the line.

We have a dog and live out in the country so she has lots of 'off lead' exercise. This has led to a couple of trips to the vets for cuts on legs probably from long discarded barbed wire or similar. We have also found the Insurance company's advise line very helpful for advise on a couple of occasions - you get to speak to an experienced veterinary nurse and is all part of the package.
A good friend came to bitterly regret not having insurance when they worried about the potential cost of a visit and did not take an aging dog to the vets - poor thing suffered and then had to be put too sleep. Vet explained that they would probably not have made much difference to fate of the dog but it very much increased their guilt and feelings of loss and also led to many recriminations)
All I know is that when we do have a poorly dog its a huge relief to just phone up vets....get it sorted knowing we will not have to worry about a huge bill.
Our dog is now 7 and we have been discussing going down the 'self insuring' (i.e. just putting aside a sum monthly)route once she is 10 or so - by then we have rationalised that she will be much less likely to need massive surgery for something - we would probably not put her through that as she reached her 'old age'. Asking an elderly dog to endure complex treatment has always seemed to me to be more about the owner's needs than the dog's. But I suppose you never know until you go through it yourself. We will see.....and until then continue to have pet insurance.

We pay insurance on our two dogs. The springer (5) has never really needed much, but the cocker (3) has had problems from young. She has luxating patella on both back legs (sort of floating kneecaps), and needed x-rays involving anaesthetic, and also had hydrotherapy for a while, all of which we were able to claim from the insurance. Not cheap though.

I regret not having lifelong insurance for Hattie as she has a spindle cell cancer that has come back and is not covered because she is excluded from any treatment regarding tumours or lumps of any kind; trouble is, if I had life cover and not year cover I've no idea how much I would be paying now [it's £40 per month and she's 10]. I've never insured a dog before and I've never had a dog that's had so many operations/problems. I took out the insurance because, being a whippet I was concerned about her running fast and getting a fracture of some kind but, thus far [touching wood] that's about the only thing she hasn't had. Tumours/allergies ie rushed to the vets after a wasp sting when her whole body came up in lumps; lameness; caused by a corn but had it not been picked up she would have had no end of exploratory work done. Then, of course, if a problem does occur out of hours the consultation fee is astronomical [and these things do tend to happen out of hours!]. I've never had a dog with so many problems although [I know this is a contradiction] she is very healthy most of the time and people who see her think she's still a youngster. I do swear by PetPlan who did pay up for an operation for something she'd been excluded from [still don't know why they paid but wasn't going to query it!]. I agree, Hilda; we've said that Hattie would have no more operations as the last one knocked her for six. Whether we'll stick to that, I don't know but, if it takes her three months to get over a major operation that's the equivalent of a couple of years in human time. I also had a spaniel that, one day ran off and almost caused an accident on a main road and feel that pet owners should be insured to cover any eventuality.

I would definitely recommend it - my son's dog was poisoned last year and then also had a serious womb infection so their insurance paid out two large vet bills. Thankfully she recovered. I never had pet insurance until about 6 years ago when our latest cat came to us so have it for her and our other boy who is about 9 or 10 - his has gone up quite a bit as I had some tests on him last year which thankfully came to nothing but it goes up yearly anyway due to age. However I'm pleased we have it as my girl has just been diagnosed with an over active thyroid and I'm going to put her forward for the radioactive thyroid treatment which is £1800 which is a cure but we can't do it until Feb as she has to be in isolation when she comes home after the two weeks treatment - we have 2 small children coming next month for 6 weeks so daren't have it done till they've gone home. Unfortunately I've already spent £300 on sedation and medication so far and another sedation this Friday for more blood tests (she can't be handled so has to be sedated) which will be another £200. I haven't claimed for this in case it jeopardises her claim for the other. Vet bills and medication are high.

I think it depends on what kind of insurance you take out. Be careful there aren't any limits on the amount they will pay. I had insurance for my cat and dog for the first few years but there was a £200 excess so I could never claim vets fees for minor ailments. Then the insurance soared so much I just thought I'll take my chance. My hairdresser found her insurance only paid for the first course of treatment for her dog as there was a limit on the amount she could claim back. Look at the small print carefully but overall its like any insurance - a lotto

I agree with Tegan2 that third party insurance is worth paying for. I agree with HildaW that it's kinder to have an old dog euthanised than to put it through operations and absences from its home. Both my German Shepherds who were euthanised aged nine had inoperable cancer. I will stop paying ins. for my lurcher Kitty when she is really elderly. I think she is about nine or ten now and as far as the vet and I can see has athletic good health.

My two current dogs both arrived with 6 weeks insurance from the breeders. My vet suggested keeping it going because the dogs are high energy, very bright with family backgrounds in hunting/retrieving so he thought they could be injury prone. One of them had emergency treatment in three different years, including overnight stays in the pet hospital. Those three incidents more than covered the annual cost of the dogs insurance. Second dog is less injury prone but after being attacked by other dogs on two occasions, one on/one off lead the dog became highly anxious and reactive. The insurance paid for a behaviourist to see the dog and give us a programme to work with. That was a year's insurance. It is expensive but we have them insured for life, one has daily medication. I'd say look for a good company, check reviews on line and yes, insure the dog if you can afford it.

We've always had our cats covered on lifetime insurance, and were glad of it when one had an encounter with a fox and came off worse. His jugular was nicked and he lost so much blood, but was saved after micro surgery, scans, drugs and a stay at the vet's, all totting up to several thousand pounds. So I'd say yes, definitely get it for a young, active pet, when it's cheaper anyway.

But now we're down to the one elderly cat, it's costing us £24 a month and the excess is £110 plus 20% of all costs. She's not covered by anything she can be vaccinated against, as we don't have her vaccinated now she doesn't go out. Add the fact that if she developed a debilitating illness we wouldn't want her to suffer, and I don't think we'll be renewing this year.

I agree too with Hilda's view about elderly dogs, it will be hard, but when their time has come why prolong their suffering.
We have an elderly dog and cat, and they aren't insured. Country people here don't insure their pets, they have a different attitude. Nearest neighbour has 5 dogs, couldn't afford it.
But probably if it was a valuable working dog they might do.
Hoping this reply doesn't upset people, but the thought of an operation costing thousands of pounds amazes me. More than my hip replacement.

We always had pet insurance for our dogs. Not only for their vet care but also in case of an accident caused by them. Better safe than sorry...

Fennel, I absolutely agree about not using insurance to prolong the life of an elderly dog. A broken leg could cost thousands and I've found the insurance invaluable when one of mine has needed overnight emergency care and surgery. I wouldn't want to put mine through painful operations that may prolong life briefly. I hope to make similar choices for myself if it becomes necessary.

The issue of insurance in case the dog causes an accident is increasingly relevant. I had a bad fall recently, caused by a dog, not my own. Several people stopped to help and offered to be witnesses so I could sue the other dog owner. I was grateful for their kind help but didn't want to prolong the incident and in any event, as a dog owner, I know dogs can be unpredictable.

Hoping this reply doesn't upset people, but the thought of an operation costing thousands of pounds amazes me.

It amazed me too, Fennel, so I'm not upset! The thing is, this was a young, healthy cat and we had him insured, so why would we not have said yes to it? We paid around £20 excess. It does serve as a warning as to how high veterinarian costs can be.

A few years on, and another cat had a tumour that could have been removed, but this would have left him with a poor quality of life, compromised immune system, constant medication and a special diet. We still had the insurance, but chose to have him put to sleep.

If I had a dog then I would definitely have pet insurance. They are far more likely to get into trouble and need help. My neighbour's dog got stuck in a fence, hit by flying debris in a storm, had cancer and heart trouble and all in all, would have cost them many thousands of pounds.
We have a cat who was insured originally but when the premium nearly doubled in three years we stopped it. I had just retired with my lump sum so I calculated 12 years at the last premium and put that money in a savings account. She is now 9 yrs old and has had treatment for two fox attacks costing just over £200 so I am quids in, apart from annual vaccinations etc which are not covered. She is now reluctant to go much further than our garden and we dropped a hint in the pub about the fox problem and heard gunshots a few days later. Haven't seen one since! Fingers crossed.

That's interesting, Minniesmum. Our vet hadn't come across a fox attack on a cat before. He speculated that our cat (jet black, even the whites of his eyes were grey) had startled the fox in the dark. It certainly startled us when he staggered through the cat flap, blood spraying up the walls and on our clothes!