Pet Insurance and the ever increasing costs

I mean each case is different. Ours is very much a cat that doesn't play with traffic, is indoors at night and not out that much.

If she had a different temperament maybe I'd think differently.

That doesn’t account for old age though.

I hope we never need our insurance, but my mums cat needed diabetes medication for years and both the mother in laws cats ended up with tumours needing surgery and the like. Vet bills are more eye watering than ever.
 
As we're about to get a kitten this thread has caught my eye. I saw MSE recommend the comparison sites and then PetPlan. Sounds like PetPlan is recommended over any of the GoCompare options from here though? Coming out at £10pm for lifetime cover.
 
As we're about to get a kitten this thread has caught my eye. I saw MSE recommend the comparison sites and then PetPlan. Sounds like PetPlan is recommended over any of the GoCompare options from here though? Coming out at £10pm for lifetime cover.

I would agree PetPlans service has been without fault. But our insurance started out low at around £15-£20 a month for their £7.5k lifetime on two cats. Years later they are wanting £82 a month
 
Which is why pre the pet insurance boom that sort of injury would have almost certainly resulted in the animal being put to sleep. Several friends had rabbits and cats put to sleep with broken legs and one of our dogs went the same way (was already a teenager at the time so surgery would probably have been cruel anyway) Then along cam pet insurance which at first was cheap because vet bills were cheap but not because people want thousands of pounds worth of operations and life long medication covered it costs a fortune!
I suppose the other way to look at it is pet insurance avoids a lot of animals being unnecessarily and avoidably put to sleep. Our dog was bitten by another dog the week before Christmas a couple of years ago. The out of hours care and regular checkups for dressing changes meant the bill came to a couple of grand. It healed without surgical intervention but needed a lot of vet and nurse time. Having him PTS for what is a comparatively minor injury would have been awful and denied him the totally happy, healthy life he has now.
 
We've never had pet insurance for our numerous pets over the years, can't say we've needed it, we've been luckier than some. On the subject of vet cost, my 18 year old dog Tyke has an anti-arthritis jab called Librela every month, costs £80. I've checked the price online, iirc it's about £20. So the vet is charging me £60 for the 30 second action of jabbing my dog.
 
I would agree PetPlans service has been without fault. But our insurance started out low at around £15-£20 a month for their £7.5k lifetime on two cats. Years later they are wanting £82 a month
Pretty standard, the risk increases exponentially with age, so does the price.

We've never had pet insurance for our numerous pets over the years, can't say we've needed it, we've been luckier than some. On the subject of vet cost, my 18 year old dog Tyke has an anti-arthritis jab called Librela every month, costs £80. I've checked the price online, iirc it's about £20. So the vet is charging me £60 for the 30 second action of jabbing my dog.
You can get a prescription from the vet and buy online.
 
Pretty standard, the risk increases exponentially with age, so does the price.


You can get a prescription from the vet and buy online.
I would need to do the injection though and whilst i'm sure i could i don't want to risk doing it wrong.
 
Vet prices are ridiculous but I guess health care in general is expensive, we’re shielded by the costs due to the NHS.

Pet insurance isn’t something I’d skimp on, been using pet plan for the last 9 years, if ever I’ve had an issue it gets sorted directly without having to cough up and make a claim.
 
Vet prices are ridiculous but I guess health care in general is expensive, we’re shielded by the costs due to the NHS.

Pet insurance isn’t something I’d skimp on, been using pet plan for the last 9 years, if ever I’ve had an issue it gets sorted directly without having to cough up and make a claim.

They’ve been great for us too. The vet always makes the claim for us, so we don’t have to do anything. They even covered surgery for a birth defect that we thought they didn’t cover, but the vet tried anyway and succeeded. There are also all kinds of added benefits of extras like hydrotherapy, tooth care etc included. My cats have better medical care than me.
 
I would need to do the injection though and whilst i'm sure i could i don't want to risk doing it wrong.

It's a none steroidal anti inflammatory that's injected sub cutaneously, meaning just under the skin, so is very easy to inject. I do all our ten dogs regular injections, nail clippings and ear pluckings, saves a fortune in vet fees, and travel time and petrol.

If you are nervous about doing an SC injection yourself any nurse in your acquaintance could show you or even ask the vet to give you a two minute course.

I'd be wary of doing an intra veinous injection on a dog myself, save in an emergency, but it's probably psychological as every self respecting druggie seems to manage to DIY it ;)
 
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I suppose the other way to look at it is pet insurance avoids a lot of animals being unnecessarily and avoidably put to sleep. Our dog was bitten by another dog the week before Christmas a couple of years ago. The out of hours care and regular checkups for dressing changes meant the bill came to a couple of grand. It healed without surgical intervention but needed a lot of vet and nurse time. Having him PTS for what is a comparatively minor injury would have been awful and denied him the totally happy, healthy life he has now.
Pre insurance I don't think that bill would have been a couple of grand, things being claimed on insurance always results in massive price gouging you only have to look at how much it costs an insurance company to fix a simple dent in a car! We had a cat bitten by a dog when I was a child and we changed the dressings ourselves after guidance from the vet and he was fine afterwards. I'm not totally anti pet insurance but I do think the market and the cost of vet care could do with some serious investigation as a lot of it seems pretty excessive.
 
It's a none steroidal anti inflammatory that's injected sub cutaneously, meaning just under the skin, so is very easy to inject. I do all our ten dogs regular injections, nail clippings and ear pluckings, saves a fortune in vet fees, and travel time and petrol.

If you are nervous about doing an SC injection yourself any nurse in your acquaintance could show you or even ask the vet to give you a two minute course.

I'd be wary of doing an intra veinous injection on a dog myself, save in an emergency, but it's probably psychological as every self respecting druggie seems to manage to DIY it ;)
If i had 10 dogs i think i'd put in the groundwork to learn to do the jab properly but it's only the 1 dog and thankfully i can afford it at the moment. On the plus side for my vet he hasn't charged me for doing nail clippings. The vets is only a few minute car journey so not much petrol cost.
 
£59/month with Petplan for our 2 year old lab, that's covered for life with £7k limit per year. It's a lot and I'm sure it'll go up in July come renewal time :/
 
Pre insurance I don't think that bill would have been a couple of grand, things being claimed on insurance always results in massive price gouging you only have to look at how much it costs an insurance company to fix a simple dent in a car! We had a cat bitten by a dog when I was a child and we changed the dressings ourselves after guidance from the vet and he was fine afterwards. I'm not totally anti pet insurance but I do think the market and the cost of vet care could do with some serious investigation as a lot of it seems pretty excessive.
That's fine, but when your pet needs hospital care, in patient stays the bills quickly run into multiple thousands, CT or MRI scans to even diagnose many issues run into thousands for pets with anaesthesia etc.
 
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