Dopey and luvved-up puss back on her paws - anyone insure their pet?

[abendgules]

Last week - feels like ages ago now - Harley went off her food, and barfed herself to an empty stomach. She spent a very subdued day on her favourite chair; no playing, no loves, no trots outside, no hopeful visits to the kitchen following us and, most distressing to Robert, no good conversation.

Robert duly took her to the V-E-T, which is a 15 min walk with a cat carrier. DO NOT WANT, said Harley!

Our lovely plain-spoken Saffa vet prodded and pulled and poked, hummed and hawed, did his best Gallic shrug, and said, yes, she has a non-specific illness. I can give her something to treat symptoms...or you can drop £300 on tests.

Much of veterinary medicine must be like this, when the patients are so uncommunicative about their ailments.

We went with symptom relief.
 
A dose of anti-nausea stuff, a shot of B vitamins to help appetite, an antibiotic, and a muscle relaxant(?), possibly to help bowels, not sure.

£77 for a non-specific illness. Ooooof.

After spending the rest of the afternoon sulking under the sofa (only venturing out with her tail down - had enough of that exam, thank you very much) Harley surfaced for a light meal of fish and bulgar wheat prepared by her personal chef, and then a long evening of serious lovin'.

She stretched out the length of my legs and purred and purred and purred and PURRED, all evening. Whatever that relaxant stuff was, it was good s***.

Madam got a one-night reprieve from the bedroom ban, on account of her condition.

From then, she has gradually regained her bounce: returning to the typical tail-up position, regaining her appetite, supported with custom meals, and finally her playfulness and sociable chatter.

So now I'm wondering: does anyone use pet insurance? I keep seeing flyers in the grocery stores.

We had a serious hard-sell call us at home, from a company that must buy mailing addresses from the pet microchip people, but fortunately Robert is immune to most telesales technique, having been on both sides of the phone.

Any suggestions?

Comments

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

If our cats were outdoor cats at all, I would probably seriously consider it. Too much could go wrong where I could end up wanting veterinary assistance, and wanting it now without caring what the costs. Inside the house, though, pretty much the worst that could happen is Slinky eating a pin (something I live in horror of her doing, since I'm pretty sure that would involve an immediate call to the cat-ambulance).

Last year Widget had a run-in with diarrhea which lasted long enough (~two days) that Joel went to the vet to ask about it (I don't remember if he took Widget in with, or if they just said "come on over without him" when he called them). They suggested that for whatever reason he was having some digestion problems and suggested a tin of canned cat food, which is easier on the stomach, and if things didn't clear up for him after a day or two on that then they'd do more specific tests. Buying the tin of canned food did the trick, but not in the expected way -- he simply could not be convinced to eat it (I think he found it a bit scary: it was cold and wet when he touched his nose to it), and after about two days of not eating, his diarrhea cleared up and when he went back to normal food he was fine again.

Glad to hear Madame is doing well again.

[bernina2000de.livejournal.com]

We have two indoor cats and have Petcare Insurance for both. It is worth its weight in gold as I have a male that eats foam and needed surgery the second time. Our co-pay was $50 on a 1200$ bill. His yearly insurance is 127.00 Canadian.

I wish Canada had it for bunnies, too, but we don't (Britian does).

[maredudd1066.livejournal.com]

Both our two are insured with Petplan - we got a month free when we got them from Cats Protection which we just continued.
We are well ahead of the game as they have both caused us to have our moneys worth. Jessica is now on tablets for life that the insurance will at least help with (at £30 per month plus £45 every two months for blood tests to ensure the correct dosage.
Jessica also (several years ago) got some sort of chemical on her fur that she then licked off - result: severe stomach and kidney problems and an ulcerated mouth and a trip to the emergency vet on Christmas Day - would have cost over a thousand pounds but was just the £50 excess

[suelet.livejournal.com]

I think it turns into one of those "if hindsight were 20-20" issues.
For the most part, in their younger years, our babies were trouble free. Being as they were indoor cats, very little ever went wrong. As they've aged though I've made much more use of the vet...and I sometimes wonder if I might not be making more beneficial decisions for them now if I had opted for the insurance.

Check the plans, find out about "fine print" clauses about various regular conditions (FIV, Diabetes, kidney issues...) that might make the decision for you.

[ormsweird.livejournal.com]

Also ensured with petplan, and they've been great over everything, even when the last two had cancer and liver problems. I'd heartily recommend them, for indoor or outdoor cats.

[my-stitching.livejournal.com]

We have Tesco pet insurance on our dog, Allie, and had it on Simon before he died. We don't use it for the small stuff, but I'm glad we had it when Simon went through his illness. His bills came to about 3800 pounds. Tesco paid for everything except for a can of food which was about a pound thirty and his cremation which was around 150 pounds (not included in the 3800 above).

[ethnowoman.livejournal.com]

I looked into it with my kitties, but of course I had two, and the plan I looked at was something like 20$/ mo. So it would be 480$/ year and I figured the money might be better put to use in a sock under the mattress.

Also, more importantly, Sasha had chronic pre-existing issues which the pet plan did not cover.

[larmer.livejournal.com]

"light meal ... prepared by personal chef, and then a long evening of serious lovin'"

That sounds like my idea of a perfect evening. :)

[siglinde99.livejournal.com]

A friend has it for her dogs (they are big, and young). He has found it worth the expense with her previous large dogs. I didn't get it for Kaboone and I sometimes regret it. He has been on relatively costly anti-epilepsy medication for several years, and now takes thyroid meds too. He has needed a couple of surgeries (both minor, but still expensive). It would have been nice for Max when he got crystals so badly he needed to have his little kitty penis amputated, but he has otherwise been perfectly healthy for almost a decade, so that probably would have been a wash.

Wouldn't be without it

[alysdewiteby.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine not having pet insurance for my dogs, and would definitely have it for any cats I owned, too. The last thing you need to add into a car accident or a suspected poisoning is worry about the cost, and it tends to be in the sort of '50p per day' price range - trickle spending. The hounds are with PetPlan; it's not the cheapest option out there (Tesco are popular with many), but they cover more than average, too (Tesco are vilified by many, too).

[maryf.livejournal.com]

I've got our 2 insured with Direct Line at about £14/month for both. never tried to claim though, cos every time we've ahd to take one to the vet the costs has been just below the £50 excess