Worth insuring the older horse?

Chumsmum

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My insurance is due for renewal this month and I'm contemplating what to do about my older pony regarding vets fees etc. Money is tight as I have 3 other ponies so every penny counts at the moment.

He is 18yo and is semi retired with Bone Spavin - gentle hacks up to an hour is all I think he is capable of though somedays he has other ideas lol. I'm waiting for him to tell me when he has had enough and he will be fully retired - he has a home for life with me.

Even though he is insured for loss of animal and vets fees at the moment I've already made my mind up that I wouldn't put him through any major surgery (thinking colic mainly) as I don't think it would be fair on him to be weeks on box rest etc - he lives out 24/7 and gets very stiff if stabled for a long time plus I know he would be very miserable etc - I owe him too much, he is my world.

I know it's like saying how long is a piece of string but what other scenerios would I need to think about and what are typical vet costs - thinking along the lines of Cushings etc?

The insurance excess is £200 so a 'normal' call out isn't covered anyway. I'll be saving approx £35 a month if I don't insure him. I could borrow money in an emergency but wouldn't want to borrow thousands. My ponies are all insured for public liability via BHS so that isn't an issue.

Thanks for any thoughts / replies.
 

loz9

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hi
we do have our veteran insured with nfu but due to his age this only covers accident or injury. Age related diseases/illnesses arent covered and this includes colic, not sure about Cushings but I doubt it. He is in his 30s & full retired due to arthritis so isnt covered for LOU, but then again none of my horses have LOU!
To be honest the insures for him alone isnt that much so we keep him insured, and as he his turned out with others accidents can & do happen. One such accident cost £3000 in vet bills when he recieved a puncture wound in the field. Without the insurance we wouldnt have been able to afford the treatment & would have had no option but to pts. The problem wasnt anything particularly serious, it just happened to be an antibiotic resistant bacteria. Some of the antibiotics we were using were costing a fortune per day.
However, if he was to get colic we wouldnt go down the route of surgery. He has had coliced 3x since being a veteran & luckily all it took was an injection to sort him out. There are certain things that we will put him through & believe we will know when the time has come. But we would like to have the back up of insurance as and when we need it.
Have a ring around the insurance companies to see who will give you the best veteran deal. Insuring them for the minimum value possible helps, although not sure how this works, re payout, when they die as our old lad is still going :) I believe Petplan will insure them for more problems for a longer time if you insure them before a certain age. But again not sure on this as ours was 24yo when we bought him!
 

Oberon

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I have had my arab insured with Petplan for the last 9 years, starting at age 15 (when he came back from loan). He has never had a problem that required an insurance claim until Feb at age 24. He had a puncture in his sole which abcessed and turned into oesteomylitis requiring a 9 day stint as an inpatient!

Due to his age he is on the Veteren Plan. This means he is only covered from fees occuring from an accident, not illness. Of the £1200 bill, Petplan have just agreed to pay £900 (which excludes the normal things - excess and inpatient fees, which are not covered). I am soooo happy they have paid up!

This month he suffered from an infected salivary gland - another inpatient stay! I cannot claim for this as it is an illness but at least the last bill was covered.

It is a tough call to make. If your horse is in a low risk field and is not prone to accidents, then probably just saving some money aside for vet's fees is a better option.
 

Liath

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Pet plan will cover horses for vets fees etc up to 25years old, providing they are insured before they are 18- however they are very strict about having to know EVERY time the horse sees a vet- even if it is something very minor or routine, and if you forget to disclose something on renewal, they will argue about paying out if it becomes necessary at a later date!
 

Wishful

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I'd probably tend not to - if you saved money each month that you would be paying on insurace, you'd soon have a decent sum, and anyway, if he would struggle to tolerate box rest, you'd be pretty unlikely to be able to spend thousands on treatment on him, particularly on something that insurance wouldn't try to get out of covering!

If you're paying for any treatment yourself, you don't have to worry about contacting the insurance company and waiting for them to make decisions, the decision is all yours, and you can make whatever decision is in the best interest of your horse, as you know him best, not a claims handler on the end of the phone.
 
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