I'm just curious whether any of you have your Maine Coons insured? Was thinking about it but not sure whether to or not as he is an indoor cat, so he will be less likely to be injured or catch any diseases. :confused:
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I'm just curious whether any of you have your Maine Coons insured? Was thinking about it but not sure whether to or not as he is an indoor cat, so he will be less likely to be injured or catch any diseases. :confused:
I was wondering about that too Ria. Both my dogs are insured and I didn't know whether to with the kitten as he will be indoors but they can still have accidents indoors especially if you have young children or like me two boisterous dogs! and they can still get illnesses so it may be better to be safe. I had a dog once that was having a mad fit around the living room and ran head first into the patio windows :rush:- not sure a cat would be quite that stupid though? I am going to ring up my insurers and ask how much extra they will charge for adding on a kitten - can't think it would be that much especially if I tell them he will be an indoors cat - although not sure they would take that on word or perhaps they would only cover accidents that happened in the home or illnesses. I go with Healthy Pets as they quoted me the lowest when I first took it out. I have claimed with them and they were pretty sharp about paying up so had no hassle from them.
We were also thinking about it too and our breeder recommended it. We've been sitting on the fence so far. I think she gave us a figure of €12 p/m not sure what that is in sterling! Even though he is an indoor cat you just never know when a big vet bill might arise!
That is true Dee. We're also sitting on the fence as you put it. I think we had a quote of about £8.00 pm so I guess thats not too bad. :relieved:Quote:
Originally Posted by IrishKitty
Ours have always been indoor cats and have always been insured. Despite being indoor cats, we have had:
1. Three with Cat Flu that they picked up in the last ever cattery that we used - their vaccinations were all up to date, but of course, that doesn't necessarily mean they won't get it. The bill for that little lot was around the £500-mark. They now stay home if we go away and we use a pet-sitting service.
2. Widget's diagnosis and subsequent treatment for HCM - that was a total of, I think, £750-800.
3. Spike's "mystery eye" complaint, where his left eye bulged alarmingly to the size of a ping-pong ball. Never did get to the bottom of that one, but that was a bill around £250.00
4. Gabby's kidney cancer - diagnosis, ultrasound, blood-work and palliative treatment (only for a week after diagnosis as she went down so quickly, we had no choice but to be kind and let her go) £600.00
5. Alice's illness, which is being diagnosed as FIP - so far, the bill is at £550.00, with blood tests, x-rays, abdominal fluid slides etc and of course, consultations.
Now, this all sounds really alarming, I know, but we have had six Maine Coons over fourteen years. HCM was starting to be recognised when Widget was diagnosed and now breeding lines are tested. Gabby was almost 14 when she was diagnosed with cancer - so, an older cat - heartbreaking but not unusual. Spike's weird eye lasted a couple of weeks and the Cat Flu incident was a real one-off. Mostly, our lot have only seen the vet for their annual check-up & boosters.
We have ours insured on the Insured for Life policy - there are multi-pet discounts available - so there is no cut-off age point (except for death by illness, of course). The excesses increase as the cat gets older, obviously.
My husband and I run a small company and there have been times over the years that we have had to take cuts in our income to ensure the company's survival. A significant vets bill at the "wrong" time could have been difficult to meet, so for us, there is no question - we continue to insure our indoor Coonies.
I have always insured mine for the first year as very often big problems can show themselves at that point,heredity etc,normally then stop,although with two babes at the moment Welly hares around & jumps half way up doors & spins round & off again so suspect he could do big injury so have given them a second year !
I then put the insurance premium for each into a seperate account & to begin with kept fingers crossed that nothing big occured before I had a tidy amount in there but with four others it is surprising how quick that mounted up. When you think a lot of the time a one off visit comes to less than you can claim on & as they get older the premiums go up & the excess you have to pay gets higher it all becomes a calculated risk but....!
I have to say that I am better off than if I had paid insurance premiums even covering the old girls monthly tablets her insurance premium would have been higher than they cost I have also got a nice nest egg for them so providing no more than two need big treatments at once we will be ok plus pot grows every month...
Daughter looks at it a different way,if something big goes wrong I will use credit card & pay that off.
Working at a vets I see both sides of the coin but I have chosen the tail side !
If they get the dreaded HCM it will cost thousands until they die so mine is insured.
We have Louie insured with the PDSA £7000 per condition per year life cover only £71 for the year BARGIN :smile:
I know he is a house cat but after our old MC broke his leg as a house cat :sad1: after I had just canceld his ins DOH! never again that was nearly £600 atleast 9 yrs ago.
I have both Sarah and Zack insured for about $27 each per month.
I wish I had insured my dog - she has cost about $13,000 AUS over the past 4 years with several unusual illnesses and a knee reconstruction.
Insurance sounds like a really good option, well certainly for Menolly.
Is there anything to watch out for which may not be covered by a general policy? Also, when is a cat most vulnerable to illness and is it most important while they are still kittens?
I think all policys will not cover an existing problem we are stuck with Banjos naff company as no one else will insure him for bone disease :sad1:
You have to also be careful that if you swop companys there is a lap over as the policy may not actually start for 14 days except possilbly accidents. Most companys will not cover dental unless the animal has annual check ups & they will not cover any illness that results from something the animal could have been vaccinated against.
Most kittens come with 4 - 6 weeks free cover the kitten we got last year who had to be pts because of FIP was coverd with his free ins but we had to pay 2 excesses never did work than one out :sad2:
Hard luck Louie-Louie,I can't see why you should have to pay out twice either,if your cat was diagnosed FIP & any other treatment & subsequent euthanasia was all to do with this you should have had only one excess,could your veterinary practice not sort it out for you or at least found out the reason why you were charged twice.I think some companies do have some weird & wonderful rules so like any policies read all the small print,like most things the more you pay the more you get,some will cover drugs for any diagnosed treatment for life,some up to a certain amount of money,some just for the year,some companies will pay for alternative type treatments as well,some don't,it can be a minefield.
Like everything now the fact that more can be done for our animals & a lot of it is very expensive treatment the insurance companies are having to make the "Gold Star"policies high & as you step down the rungs less & less is covered.I think they shoud be like cars,you earn no claim bonus & not as your animal gets older & have never made a claim they put it up sky high as your reward.
It was Petplan JC aparently it was because he became ill 2 weeks into his kitten insurace & then when the 4 wks free cover finished it was classed as a new claim even though it was the same illness I have read that other people have had the same problem.
It dosent make any difference in the end we still lost our beautiful Merlin we would have paid all the money in the world to have saved him :sad2: but I do strongly advise yourself to atleast insure any kitten for the 1st year :nod:
RyanM forgot to mention some insurance companys will only pay for so many complementary therapys eg only 12 hydro sessions not that thats a major concern with Louie but he would probably enjoy it :LOL:
This is something I've really wondered about.
I've heard some bad reports on pet health insurance where the company won't pay out. I really need to look into it, but I'm wondering if I would be better putting the money into an account....?
I looked into pet insurance nearly two years ago when we got a male MC to replace our MC mix that had died from HCM. I could not find a single (USA) pet insurance program that did not have absolutely terrible reviews online. Many many people were having trouble with claims being denied or having to repeatedly submit the same claims ("we didn't receive it"). The only people who were happy were those that had yet to submit a claim (!) and those whose cats were injured in an accident (e.g., with a car). Furthermore, every single one had an exclusion for genetic diseases and pre-exsiting conditions. Unfortunately, those two exclusions represent a massive loophole that could allow denials of essentially anything except for an accident. Virtually all HCM has a genetic component as do hip problems and lots of other diseases. Since the pet insurance market in the USA isn't regulated like human health insurance (and that still is a mess of refused claims), I decided it was too likely to be a waste of money. Sounds like UK pet insurance is better. If any USA members have positive experiences actually getting reimbursed for non-injury claims, I would love to hear about the company.
I looked into this last night and every policy has an excess of $100 per condition. DH and I are thinking we're better off putting the money it would cost us for insurance into a bank account each month....
And there were also a lot of exclusions...