Hi
I was just looking for a bit of advice on Pet Insurance for my two cats. They are brother and sister one long haired grey and white boy called Purrbear one short haired black and white girl called Charlie who is nearly fully blind and also had tests at the vets for a slight tremor and wobbly legs and the vet said it is a chemical imbalance in her liver but nothing to worry about, I never knew she was blind until that trip to the vets either, she is quite amazing to me. They are house cats and neutered and just wondered were was the best place to go. Will Charlie's previous medical conditions make a difference? It's all quite confusing and just want to make sure I choose the best for my babies.

Thanks for your help

Although I have insurance for two of my cats, it's a bit of a lottery as to whether or not it's worth it. I can tell you now that if you apply for insurance for a cat with a pre-existing condition, you either won't get it at all, or you will only get insurance for conditions that are not directly related to the pre-existing one. So in your case, if your cat gets anything related to the liver, they might not honour your claim.

Sainsburys Pet Insurance might be a reasonable place to start, they seem to offer a good range of cover, but the high-end policies aren't cheap, and you only really get your money back (unfortunately!) if your cat gets a major illness. Some people (and I'm one of them) would rather put aside a sum of money each month for pet emergencies. That way, the money's there whenever you need it with no conditions attached, and if you don't need it, you've got a nice little pot there for the future.

I'm afraid your cat's medical history will impact on premiums, just as it would with human health insurance. Premiums and excesses also rocket after the cat reaches 10 (at least with Petplan).

I've always been with Petplan and have had a good relationship with them. Vets are happy to deal directly with them and they settle claims quickly without trying to get out of paying. My vet tells me that some insurers try their hardest to find ways of avoiding settling claims and she says filling in claim forms can be a minefield.

I would make sure you take the covered for life option with whatever insurer you choose because some policies only pay out for a specific illness or problem within the set 12 month period but many cat illnesses are chronic or may go into the following year. This is obviously a more expensive option but cheap insurance isn't worth much when it won't cover your cat's illness.

Insurance gives me peace of mind but I've only ever claimed for my late Tabitha, twice when she broke legs and then for her final illness (cancer) when I had an excess of nearly £1000 to pay because she was elderly. My Bernard is 6 and I've never claimed for him and my 2 young cats are about 18 months old. I pay just over £40/month for all 3. I know I could get a lot cheaper insurance but I prefer the security of knowing that Petplan are reliable and reputable and have been so helpful to me in my times of need.

Some people like to put money aside for potential pet emergencies but I worked out that I actually 'saved' money with what Petplan paid out in total over the tears for Tabitha - and it takes a while to accrue savings.

Remember too that you will still need to pay for routine check-ups and boosters - and most insurance companies won't pay unless you can prove your cats receive these.

If I could turn the clock back I would get insurance.

I did have my dog covered but then money got tight, when she was about 3 so we cancelled and never took it back up. She is about 11 now.

We were paying £10 a month for goldplan at the vets (all annual checkups, injections, flea thingys, worming included in the price plus 15% of all vet bills) which I kept up after cancelling the insurance. We since found out the T&Cs changed and its only 10% off some operations...

She was fine up until last year (she is 11) she fainted one day so we took her to the vets and we got xrays and blood tests done (about £400) and it turns out she has a big heart (twice the size of normal) and a grade 5 heart murmer (it only goes up to 6!). Just after she started the meds, she had a really bad fainting attack and we rushed her to the emergency vets - another £120. Since then her meds have stabilised her heart. We were offered an ECG to find out exactly what was going on but that would have cost another £500.

We pay £60 a month now for her meds on top of the £10 petplan.

I called the insurance and they said she probably wouldnt be covered for heart related problems, so we decided not to bother.

Since then she has had teeth out (£300) and yesterday she had a tumour removed from a mammary (£450 inc. xrays). After delaying the operation for a month, because money was tight, the difficult part yesterday was deciding whether or not to get xrays as they were about £120 on top of the operation. If the xrays showed the tumour in her lungs, there would have been no point operating. But I needed to know, so we go tthe xrays and they didnt show anything so she had the Op. but its one thing after another.

So now, insurance will probably not cover her for cancer or her heart.

If we had kept up the payments, we probably would be about £1000 better off in the last 6 months or so.


Its the gamble you take, there may never be anything wrong with your cat and may die of old age, but if there are problems, at least you know you can take the cat into the vets and get all the tests you need.

Sorry to hear about your dog, I hope she recovers ok, I hate hearing of sick animals. But that is what made me look into Pet Insurance as I just want the best options if something does happen. Its just very confusing especially with Charlie's previous conditions. I may go and speak to the vet about Petplan and just put some away while I decide I just didn't want talking into their policies if they were not the best. Sainsbury's only seemed to give me a quote for one cat and I think you get a discount for 2 cats. I wish insurance companies would make things clearer.

Ah she'll be ok - 24 hours after her op she is almost back to her usual annoying self She is a strong little bugger

Best thing to do I would guess is call a few more insurance companies and ask for a quote and ask them to name any exclusions with regard to Charlie, also call back sainsburys and Petplan asking them to clarify things. The worst thing to happen would be you take up the insurance in good faith only for them to wiggle out 5 years later because of some obscure clause in the T&Cs

Even though Charlie may have some exclusions, you have to think about if he got ran over or developed arthiritis, at least they would probably be covered.

I'd definitely agree about getting insurance for life, if you go for insurance at all. I've got two elderly cats, one who is diabetic and one who needs antithyroid medication and heart medication. The diabetic one (15 years old) was only insured for diabetes for the first 12 months, so I have to pay out for his insulin and syringes, and the other one (who's now 20 years old!!) wasn't insured at all. I find that vets sometimes forget that not every animal is insured, so you have to be careful about blood tests - I take the pragmatic view with my two that if the clinical picture's OK (i.e. cat behaving normally), the biochemistry probably isn't that important, so I try to avoid blood tests at £100 a go! I can't give up on my two, and I'm really pleased that they're doing so well, but I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford their care. I don't know what would happen if I couldn't - I suppose they'd have to be put down, which is unthinkable.

It was interesting that the OP's cat is blind, as my old boy has now become completely deaf. Fortunately he seems to realise his limitations and doesn't leave the garden any more, but we have to be careful not to creep up on him, as he can't hear a thing and it makes him jump! His eyesight seems to be as good as ever, though.

We've always been with Petplan and found them very good.

A few years ago our cat was ill and referred to a specialist. Was diagnosed with Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia (a rare cancer).

Sadly, the only real option we had was to send her to sleep but over the course of those three weeks our bill amounted to over £3000.00.

At least being insured we knew she'd had the best treatment possible and Petplan paid out with no quibble.

I would defo get insurance!

My cat is a year and a half old and has been outside since April this year.

He has had a broken paw and cut himself real badly all before Christmas (in seperate incidences). The broken paw amounted to £300 and the bad cut was £400 :O

And that's just one year...

We went with Tesco as they had a deal on with existing customers and they are very good and were cheapest too (with no dodgy small print type things)

I have not actually rang any companies all online quotes so I think I might ring some on Monday it might be a bit clearer. The small print is exactly what I am bothered about. You would never know Charlie was blind, I was stunned when the vet told me. She is also very wobbly on her legs and very small so I do worry about her even though the vet said its nothing to worry about and just want to be prepared. Thanks for all the advice.