[carolmanycats]

Hello @Meowgical and welcome

Diarrhoea is something that can often affect young kittens when they are in a new environment, with a change of diet etc. If your kitten's diarrhoea was a short term problem which cleared up quickly with treatment I can't see an insurer could justify placing an exclusion on any future digestive issues.

Insurers may differ but IMHO they will pick on anything possible to exclude cover. I used to insure mine but I now put away a monthly sum instead as with the ages of some of mine and the excesses and the pre existing not covered issues I decide it would actually be cheaper to put away a decent sum each month which, at the end of the day if i do not need it is still there for me. I may be lucky but my fund currently stands at several thousand pounds and is growing monthly which is a cushion against a sudden emergency. But when I DID have them insured I had one who before she was insured developed a small mole on her nose. The vet looked at it and said it was only a mole, it didn't warrant investigation or treatment but obviously to take her back if it grew or changed. That was several years ago and it has never changed. In 2017 she developed a slight lump on top of her nose (the mole is at the bottom of one nostril) and the vet WAS concerned so did a biopsy. Luckily it turned out to be nothing but the insurance company refused to pay out saying that anything to do with her nose was not covered because of the mole, even though she had never had or needed any treatment for it whatsoever, because it was on her record it counted as a pre-existing condition and therefore precluded them paying out for anything to do with her nose. So whilst a different insurer may take a more lenient view and not exclude any future digestive issues I wouldn't bank on it!

 

[carolmanycats]

I've got both a cat savings account and pet insurance because treatment can run into the thousands for one condition and that could deplete all of my savings. Even with pet insurance most people still have to pay out themselves occasionally because some treatments only cost the same price as the excess fee and isn't worth claiming on. I've had a few bills myself like this so I'm glad I put some money by.

I worked it out after losing the two who were costing me the most and resulting in the highest claims. I took into account the vet bills I still paid after excesses/uninsured items etc, added the premiums I was paying to that, and compared that against my average monthly vet bill ignoring what I got back. Taking into account the cats I was insuring who I never claimed for as either they were never ill or else anything that they did need treatment for was below the excess and which, therefore, was "lost" money, I decided on what I thought was a "safe" amount to put away each month, being slightly more than my average monthly bill over the last 3 years. . So far I have been lucky and have not had any extraordinary bills in the 9 months I have been doing it so have built up a pot that is currently not much less than my average annual total vet bill over the last few years. I also have other savings that I could use in a dire emergency plus a credit card I never use that again is there as back up. OK one single incident could wipe that out but it's working so far. Fingers crossed

 

[carolmanycats]

I think putting money away every month could work if you only have 1 possibly 2 cats and neither of them have any life long illnesses or huge bills , but I personally wouldn't want to take the risk.
The way the workplace is now no ones job is "safe"
Meeko has life cover with Pet Plan and has had IBD for the past 7/8 years.
His vet bills have been fairly large at times and there is no way the premiums plus any excess that was paid comes even close to the amount I have claimed ,and that still left a fair bit of the yearly insured amount available if something cropped up .

I am not saying it would work for everyone, nor that I might not be unlucky in the long run, but for now it is working, whether it will continue to remains to be seen but I am willing to take that chance, others may not and you have to do what is right for you, and I have quite a few more then "1 or 2" cats lol.

I think i am also lucky in having a really good vet who is very reasonably priced which helps, I am horrified at what some friends in other areas of the country pay, often almost twice as much as mine for the same procedure, or else they have vets who will throw in every procedure they can think of just to hike the price up, whether it is necessary or not.