Insurance

We can no longer afford to insure our older dog now, due to ridiculously high costs. What we do do is put money aside into the (Dog's) account each month. The amount soon adds up. The pet business is a huge money making racket quite honestly.

I would take out a new policy with another company. I got a better rate doing that and because it’s two cats the second one is cheaper (multiple pet deal)

Don’t not get insurance . Friend has never insured and just had to pay a £10000 bill for a run over badly injured cat ( now recovering thanks to a “super vet” referral) She had to take out a loan to pay it !

Try another company.

However, when DD2 got a new puppy (already paying £80 a month for the elder dog) M&S offered a deal of £60 a month for both.

It’s a racket!

We never bothered with insurance - having up to 10 dogs at one time! When needed, we just bit the bullet, but thankfully, other than the odd operation here and there, we had no huge outlay.

A lot of vet practices these days are owned by multi-nationals. They install state of the art equipment, but that has to be paid for - often (IMO and experience) by suggesting unnecessary treatments and procedures.
I believe since Covid when a lot of new, inexperienced and dare I say gullible pet owners appeared, things have got worse, as some treat their pets as babies/child substitutes. I’m a great dog lover - but they’re dogs, descended from wolves, and should be treated appropriately - not dressed up and carried everywhere in handbags, backpacks or wheeled in pushchairs. (Unless necessary).

Sorry for the rant - not like me.

Just be careful if you have a dog who might be susceptible to long term or life long conditions as lots of companies won’t cover if they haven’t had the pet since you bought it.

I agree with the big conglomerates owning vets, but we use Medivet and have also found them second to none, have used them for 7 dogs now

I couldn't get insurance for Toby who l rescued last November.
He is originally from Romania. His passport states that he will be 17 on February 1st.
I like others put money aside each month. Unfortunately it hasn't covered his costs so far. The vet really didnt have a clue what was wrong with him. After numerous tests l have changed to a family run vet who tells me it is old age and arthritis.
In my opinion the big conglomerate owning vets only wants to do test after test.

Maya1

You could be right. My brother in law took their dog to the vet.
“We need to do an X-ray.”
OK
“Good news, the x-ray doesn’t show any damage.
OK I’ll pay up now.
“Ah but we think we ought to do another
x-ray just to check.
O…K…
“Good news, that x-ray doesn’t show any damage either. The cost for two x-rays will be . . .

Thank you for that Cossy. I shall investigate Medivet. Insurance for my 2 year old boy has increased by £100 (via Admiral) despite there being no claims.

I called Many Pets which insure my 4 year old at a reasonable price. They offered to put the 2 year old on the policy and the price for the 4 your old would be discounted. TALK ABOUT BLINDING ME WITH SCIENCE!!! (Caps not intended!). It sounded good but whichever way I calculated, the sums did not add up. The discounted premium was more than two individual ones. Yes a con job..

One thing which concerns me about not having insurance is public liability, should one of them cause an accident. We have become such a litigious society. However, I did discover a year or so ago that the Kennel Club does PL cover as a stand alone policy. Only about £25.

I cannot begin to explain why I did not do it and put money monthly into a dog account..................... Inefficiency.

You can use price comparison sites for pet insurance, just as you do with cars and property. I got what I thought were decent deals for two kittens with LV insurance. You can choose levels of cover eg the maximum payout per year eg £1000, or £4000 or £10,000 etc.

When it comes to testing our previous vet (family-run) would offer tests but he’d also ask what you’d do with the result. If a test wouldn’t change the course of treatment, then why bother. One of our rescue cats developed suspected lymphoma. He had an op for that which confirmed the diagnosis. More testing could have been carried out which would have possibly meant chemotherapy treatment was available but there was no way I was going to making regular 250 mile round trips with a 16yo cat for something that might or migh not prolong his life. So we didn’t test and he went on to live his best life for the next fifteen months before he was PTS when it all got too much for him in the last couple of weeks.

Sue Donim, that seems perfectly reasonable of your previous vets. My vet did numerous tests couldn't find anything and then a couple of months later a different vet tried to repeat the tests saying Toby might have Cushings. Luckily l had made notes and told her to read Tobys record as he had already been tested for that. The final straw was he had a thyroid blood test, £125.00. It came back inconclusive. They then said they wanted to do a different more indepth thyroid blood test, another £125.00. I asked her why not do this one in the beginning, no reasonable explanation.

I do agree that having no insurance means that l don't have PL for Toby but he is never off lead. He is painfully slow when walking so l don't think he will cause an accident. Plus he is a gentle giant and loves everyone so won't be biting anyone either.