Thank you so very much for all the lovely comments and good wishes for Magic. I am touched and very grateful for your support. Magic is improving but very slowly however I am grateful for any improvement. She is still being tube fed, receiving her antibiotics and hepatic medicine and insulin. Her mood remains very quiet and flat but there are little flickers of interest as time passes. I am writing up a proper post of everything since she came home and will publish it once I've organised my thoughts as it is a bit of a chaotic diatribe right now. In the interim, I wonder if I can push my luck and ask if any UK readers can offer advice on cat insurance?
Neither of the cats are insured. This was a choice made when I was much younger, there were fewer treatment options were available for cats and I was more financially solvent. I did consider insurance with my first cat but having carefully looked into some policies I realised the majority of things offered under them were not relevant, too limited to be of value or useless when a cat got older. I also once had an experience where a vet was planning all sorts of expensive and invasive immunological testing until he found out the cat was uninsured. The condition turned out to be a simple itchy rash and not a major connective tissue disorder!
In the light of Magic's life threatening and very expensive illness I have realised I am not as financially flexible as I once was and I need to rethink my options. It is too late for Magic. She is 11yrs old and now has a chronic health condition that it would be easy to imply was responsible for any new illness as a means of not paying out. For Red I think I need to get him insured and just take the financial monthly cost as a way of off-setting a massive and unexpected bill while he is still technically 'young' at 4yrs old and pre-existing illness free.
I've done some comparison price shopping but that only tells part of the story. So far I think a lifetime policy would be right with as high coverage as possible balanced against the monthly cost. Other than that I am a little stuck as there are so many providers out there. With car insurance I can easily ask around regarding good providers but cat insurance seems to be a much rarer thing especially for a non-pedigree. As you may have noticed, like everyone who blogs about their cat, these two are ever so slightly adored. While I don't relate an animal's value to how much I paid for them, insurers do and some policies seem geared towards valuing animals by their initial price or weighting the policy benefits to this. I just want reassuring coverage for illness.
So I would love to ask if any of you have UK cat insurance advice, have had experience of making a claim and how helpful/hassle-free the insurer was. I'd also welcome any relevant advice or information that might help me make a decision? If you can answer any of these questions in a comment or privately by email at irishredsetter AT live DOT co DOT uk I'd be really grateful for your shared wisdom.
My last cat (Prozac) lived until he was 17. One year and the only year he had to be taken to the vets cost me just under £3000 but if you divide that over 17 years it is about £14 a month so I broke even as such. I have others cats who have never had anything major so I'm quids in.
ReplyDeleteNow I have a £2 jar and I keep £1000 emergency vet money in for the four dogs and three cats, I'm still saving and would like the pot to hold about £3000.
I hope this helps x
We are so glad to hear that Magic is holding her own. Please keep us posted and we'll be purring for her.
ReplyDeleteWe aren't from the UK, so we don't have any advice on pet insurance for there, but we hope there are a lot of options for you. It seems that there are a growing number here in the states.
I am so sorry that Magic is so sick but glad to hear she is a little better. I don't think I have heard of cat insurance and it has to be sky high. We live in the US also, so can't help with the UK policies. I hope you find something. We certainly send tons of purrs and prayers to Magic. We have you in our thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI am, very glad that Magic is showing some improvement and hope it continues.
ReplyDeleteI used to insure Eric and Flynn with Sainsburys pet insurance and I think it was around £8 a month each. When they reached their 8th birthday it shot up to £15 each even though I had never claimed so I cancelled it. I opened a separate savings account and have £20 a month paid into it by standing order from my bank account. It doesn't add up to a huge sum but it will help if I have any large bills. I don't use it for small routine bills.
We hope that Magic will keep improving little by little. I have both my cats insured with Petplan - they are youngish now but they could become expensive as they get older. I pay around £26 per month for them both which only works out as £13 each which isn't too bad. I hope I won't have to use it but need some back up just in case. I have to pay an excess on each claim though!
ReplyDeleteLuv Hannah and Lucy xx xx
Unfortunately because of a preexisting condition, you won't be able to insure against the diabetes and anything related to it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I added new cats after my diabetic cat I considered insurance. I added up the cost of the premiums vs pay outs for typical vet visits and conditions that were likely to occur, and I concluded that I would be far ahead of the game if I simply put the premiums in a savings account. If something happened I would have a nest egg, and if nothing did I would have one for the next cat.