Insurance for senior cat.

Insurance isn’t compulsory. It was a while ago when we had our last cat but we never insured any of ours. No one we knew insured pets at that time.
At 15 insurance would be prohibitive.
Not much help I know, but if I were in your shoes I’d consider pay as you go.

That’s what I was going to say silver. Maybe put £80-100 a month away and pay as and when MiniMoon. We had numerous cats and dogs over the years, but never insured any (at one point, according to an unsolicited call from an Insurer, it was going to be about £2K a month!!!) and just paid up as and when necessary.

I wouldn’t put a senior cat through surgery or eg cancer treatment anyway, I don’t have pet insurance but keep plenty of room on a credit card for reasonable emergencies.

Some years ago my 15 year old cat was diagnosed with kidney failure and as the family were so upset, against my better judgment I agreed to a regime of injections and daily tablets, spent nearly £1000 including all the diagnostic investigations, and it bought him another four months.

I wouldn’t do it again, much as I love my pets.

Would not insure a 15 year old cat. Our cat is now about 7 years old came to us as a rescue aged 12 months. We have not insured her . I will pay for treatment if necessary after a talk with the vet who we trust to to be honest with us. Our previous cat developed kidney
problems, we paid for medication but she died in her sleep one evening. My thoughts are we will pay as we go - within reason !!

Thank you for the replies everyone. I think we have decided against insurance. We are going to see the vet tomorrow and if Toby needs surgery we'll just have to pay up and look cheerful. My DD used the same vet when her little cat broke her leg. The vet let them pay for treatment in installments so if it's going to be very expensive I'll ask if he can do the same fir us.

We have an aging dog. We have decided that we will pay vets’ bills ourselves as insurance has become uneconomically expensive.

I’m probably being a bit callous here, but 15 is a good age for a cat. If they develop health problems the medication is prohibitively expensive as will be the insurance. I wouldn’t take it out and would have the cat put to sleep if it developed anything serious like kidney problems or diabetes.

All advice is good. No point in insuring. Put £X in a deposit account every month to cover vet bills. I have insured my new puppy but I will only keep it for a year, thereafter it will be the monthly deposit account scenario. Premiums have gone through the roof predominantly due to big conglomerates taking over vet practices and increasing the prices of everything. Criminally, in my view.

My DD doesn't insure her cat, who is only about 5, rescued from an uncertain future, and apparently in good health. What DD has chosen to do is to put away a small sum of money, roughly equivalent to what the monthly insurance premium would cost, into a high interest savings account each month, to cover the cost of any expensive medical treatment. So far, so good, no horrible injuries or illnesses, and the money in the savings account is mounting up. I should add that my daughter lives in Belgium, and I don't really know if Belgian vets are as greedy as British ones seem to be.

Try vets for pets as they used to have a non-interest loan scheme(i used it twice for over £500 plus dental bills) or animal trust,who have a monthly scheme, (about £20-£22 a mth)where you get visits to vet free and some other perks free(some blood tests/flea& tick treatments etc) and cheaper medications.I think they do a scheme connected to pet charity (blue cross) if your pets need a more expensive treatments like operations or scans etc.(thankfully we've not needed it yet) but our lovely old cat is 19 now, and either not eligible for some insurances or its too extortionate.

Only downside to animal trust is you pay every month wether your pet needs treatment or not.🙀

I've always had cats but never bothered with insurance- most companies won't insure cats over the age of 8 or 9, and the ones that do don't always cover things like extraction of teeth (I've had 4 elderly cats who needed to have teeth out). We used to have a credit card solely for get bills but now just pay as we go.

Our cat is now 16 1/2. We have her insured with Many Pets. It’s not cheap at her age but I feel it’s worth it. She has arthritis in her shoulder and has regular medication for that.
She’s also had problems with one paw necessitating several courses of steroids and antibiotics, two lots of sedation, including her paw being thoroughly cleaned to remove buildup of pus and biopsies. That lot was nearly £1k over several months.

Cats, especially indoor cats. statistically cost far less than dogs at the vets so insurance isn't so crucial. We have 2 uninsured cats who are 13-14 years old. The only time they needed treatment was when I managed to cut one of them whilst cutting out a knot. The third cat we lost last year when she was diagnosed with cancer. We would never subject her to the operation and chemo offered so when she was compromised to the point we thought it was stressful, we said good-bye. The diagnosis and goodbye were less than a year's insurance premium.

I stand corrected. Perhaps I couldn't get insurance for any of mine because they were all strays or from rescue centres

My last cat wasn’t insured. She developed thyroid and kidney problems. The resulting regular tests and medications took all my spare money and dug deep into my credit card.
My current cat is insured. He was a approx 18 month old rescue so we had no idea of his past history. He is now 7 and has had two expensive hospitalisations for pancreatitis. The cost was about £2.5k each time, mostly paid by the insurer. However, the monthly premium has now gone from £29.50 to nearly £100. The cost is such that when he had an abscess recently I paid the bill without referring to the insurer, for fear of further increases.
I am not sure that pet insurance is good value. Assuming he has another pancreatitis flare up in two years I will have covered the cost in premiums. However, if he had a serious accident and needed operations and aftercare I would not be able to fund that. My daughter’s cat recently needed surgery after he ate plastic, and then got an infection. Total cost £15k+
No doubt vet costs are outrageous.

HowVeryDareYou2

I stand corrected. Perhaps I couldn't get insurance for any of mine because they were all strays or from rescue centres

I think it is more difficult to get insurance if you've never had it before or if there has been a lapse since having it.

Even my vet suggested not continuing with insurance when our Tibetan terrier reached 14 as it was so expensive and he was a healthy dog. His advice was to put something away each month just in case and check our house insurance to make sure it covered 3rd party liability. The dog lived to the ripe old age of 17 with no problems.

Flippinheck

My last cat wasn’t insured. She developed thyroid and kidney problems. The resulting regular tests and medications took all my spare money and dug deep into my credit card.
My current cat is insured. He was a approx 18 month old rescue so we had no idea of his past history. He is now 7 and has had two expensive hospitalisations for pancreatitis. The cost was about £2.5k each time, mostly paid by the insurer. However, the monthly premium has now gone from £29.50 to nearly £100. The cost is such that when he had an abscess recently I paid the bill without referring to the insurer, for fear of further increases.
I am not sure that pet insurance is good value. Assuming he has another pancreatitis flare up in two years I will have covered the cost in premiums. However, if he had a serious accident and needed operations and aftercare I would not be able to fund that. My daughter’s cat recently needed surgery after he ate plastic, and then got an infection. Total cost £15k+
No doubt vet costs are outrageous.

One of my cats had thyroid and kidney problems which needed regular treatment. She lived to be 19. It became quite costly, but we used a credit card that we had specifically for that.

From what I have heard, no insurance company will be interested in taking on an elderly cat for the first time, and even if you found one the cost would be enormous. I have never insured my pets, and have saved money so far. My remaining cat is 21, but I wouldn't let him go through any major invasive procedures at this stage, although I have always had some money put by in case.