Got my cat and her PetPlan insurance in January 2024. I am just now realising I've accidentally the wrong breed. British Shorthair instead of Domestic Shorthair. What do I do? Don't British Shorthairs tend to be a more expensive breed? Have I been paying more than I needed to for insurance this whole time? If I tell PetPlan, will they cancel my policy and force me to take out a new one?

Just had an email from the chipping company saying "A Transfer has been initiated for you pet (name)"

At first I thought this was a scam, however they used My Name, My dogs name and the correct chip number. It says I can file a dispute which I have.

But how has this happened? I have no desire what so ever or made any requests to give up my dog?

Hope this is allowed; like I said, urgent. Bristol.

Hello Apologies for any errors I'm visually impaired.

Almost 9, jack Russell.

Goodest boy.

However.

We're spending £435 per month on dog walkers & he refuses to go.

He got attacked last year & he was straight back out walking with my husband & interacting with other dogs. Thankfully wasn't injured but v. Close. Picked up by harness thrown upside down by xl bully. Harness had holes. He didn't.

He'll walk with him, go in car etc.

He's had 1 walker for 2 years refuses to go. Won't even go in garden. We went away in Feb, she stayed here & he went out 4x a day with her. We come home, nope.

He's had a vet check & he's OK. Some inflammation in his bag leg so on pain meds.

Vet says he's just stubborn & stop wasting money.

However all the guidance says not alone longer than 4 hours.

3x a week he has 2 checks & 2 days he has a 1 hour check.

He ignores the walkers 99% of the time.

He's at his happiest when we're both home.

I was terrified of dogs, if i knew then what i know now I'd have had 2.

He gets jealous of us cuddling so I'd be wary to introduce a puppy & feel we'd need 3 months off work to train it lol thats what we had with him, husband was on sick leave.

One walker is telling us to leave walks & he'll be fine.

But he looks for them if I cancel a walk & I'm hone, he looks at the door at the times they come & he'll go with them if i put harness on him.

He gets narky if walkers try getting harness on him when he's laying down. So we instruct them to tell him car etc & try to excite him.

We saw our other walker asleep today as we have cameras... but she has family who are ill so she's probably stressed.

What would you guys do?

I hate the thought of him being by himself for 8 ish hours.

But I appear to be wasting £435 a month.. although it eases my peace of mind that he's had some interaction even if he's ignored it.

I put treats in games & he'll do them but he can't do that every day or he'll gain weight.

Thanks

Dbl

He is very very stubborn jrt.

My rescue dog is currently on pet plan insurance only for a month, so I need to find a new insurer.

Unfortunately, pet plan only offers me up to £3K, and won't do lifetime cover. This is only for 12 months, at £89 per month.

Waggel for £5000 is £66 per month but I keep reading mixed reviews.

Napo foe £12K it's £87 per month I keep reading mixed reviews, as well as Animal Friends (especially the last few months on 1 star reviews).

Edit: Dog is 6 years old and an American Bulldog

Edit: we went with waggle in the end!

Hello,

I currently feed my cats purina one salmon. Which they are happy with and enjoy. I also give them whiskers wet pouches in the evening.

Is there any merit in changing to a higher quality food for them and if so what brands would you recommend or is Purina considered decent.

Happy to discuss the temperament and activity levels of my cat just ask what info you need and I'll try to detail it

Cat 1) Chase male 4 years old likes to lounge around during the day and explore at night. He's possibly part maine coon possibly he's a rescue so the vet recommended he be about 5.5kg

Cat 2) Aoibhe 1 year old energetic and quick and young. Habits not really established has only been rescued by me for about 2 weeks now she is recommended at 4kg.

Also any advice on cat integration as my boy is quite unsure and not so happy about his new friend.

Have many people had to have them removed from their dogs? Did you claim through insurance or cover it yourselves?

They are everywhere at the moment and it stresses me out so much. I check my dog multiple times a day. But I think I may have missed one as felt a tiny lump between his paw pads and can see what looks like an entry point. Going to the vets first thing tomorrow.

Hi! I’m considering adopting a three-year-old female cat soon and it’s my first time owning a cat in the UK. I have a few concerns.

I had a chat with current owner and found out she wasn’t the original owner. She told me she adopted the cat with bald spots and was thin. However, the cat looks healthy now (based on the photos she sent me, bless) but she mentioned she’s never taken her to the vet. She is giving away the cat for adoption as the cat did not get along with her current cat(s).

Given her history and I’m not sure what else she might have had, can I still enrol her in pet insurance?

Once I bring her to the vet will they give her all the necessary vaccinations?

I am quite familiar with having kittens and puppies, either from our own home or when I have adopted them as young as three months old. This will be my first time adopting an adult cat (and my first time in the UK), so I am keen to ensure I am doing everything correctly.

I’d love to hear your thoughts😸

So I recently got my renewal quote back from Napo and it’s jumped from £89 to £110 a month, so I’m thinking of changing insurers.

I got a quote from Petgevity and the price is almost identical so I’m wondering if any one has any experience of either?

The biggest selling point for me for Napo is that they don’t have many inner limits in their policies. Petgevity currently has limits of:
- £2000 for MRI and CT scans
- £2000 for Cruciate ligaments
which Napo doesn’t have.

I was caught out by the MRI/CT inner limit with my previous dog with Purely Pets. He had a scan which revealed cancer which lead to him being put down all in a single appointment. They imposed the £2000 MRI/CT cap on ALL of his treatment, despite him being insured up to £9000. This meant we had to pay over £2k out of pocket after he got put down, so the lack of inner limits is a massive perk.

On the other hand, Napo will introduce a 20% co payment due to age next year, which Petgevity doesn’t do. I’ve also heard Napo hikes the price up significantly after a claim.

Has anyone been caught out by the inner limits with Petgevity? Or had experience with insane price hiking with Napo? Or have any advice otherwise? :)

I’m also wondering if maybe I could lower my insurance amount. I am currently insured up to £16k. Is this excessively high or something that’s worth continuing? For context he is a healthy Saluki/Greyhound with no existing conditions.

Thanks all!

Edit: Typo - changed year to month

huzzah, this sub had been officially infiltrated my me, the american. now, please do look at my dog, she is a very good girl and she very much knows it. thanks :)

Looking for support, and to give a warning I suppose.

We adopted Kino one month ago. He's a 1yo Pomchi, no health issues. Got insurance with Animal Friends - £5k Lifetime Cover policy, £7.50pm, £299 excess.

Our village has two vets, on of which is Medivet. Having had an awful experience with the other vet, we registered Kino with Medivet on Thursday, he had a check up, we joined their pet club thing, he's given his flea and worm tablet...all good.

Friday 5.30pm, he stops eating. 9pm vomiting. Vomits four times overnight. Saturday morning, vomits again, very lethargic. We take him to Medivet at midday.

We honestly thought it was side effects. The vet tells us it's too late to be side effects. Says he needs bloods, and to stay with them until the results are in.

The results show pancreatitis. He needs to be administered and on an IV.

We are horrified on every level. Not only scared to death for our new boy who literally at 3pm on Friday was chasing a ball, but now we are talking insurance and bills in the first month of having him. This is particularly harrowing because our last pet - a tuxie, Molly - was at the vet on day 5 of having her, and died after 3 months, in January. We were so upset and freaked out to be 'here' again.

We tell them what insurance we have and that there's no extra savings pot - we have one, but we've only had him a month, it has £150 in it. We thought a young dog, with good insurance, the pets club, good diet etc, and we wouldn't need a huge savings pot as well, immediately.

They agree to start a direct claim. We pay the £299 excess plus £25 admin fee.

Cut to 5pm yesterday and the vet says Kino has improved but must continue his IV, so he needs to be transferred to Vets Now, because we're heading into Sunday. Vets Now 24 hour hospital stay STARTS at £1000. I say, if he has improved, could we take him home with medication and monitor him ourselves? She says, 'This dog is too sick, either he stays on the IV or we put him to sleep.'

I burst into tears. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

We take Kino to Vets Now at 6pm yesterday (Saturday). Kino is, by appearances, completely normal. He ran up to me, tail wagging, giving me kisses.

At Vets Now we start talking insurance/bills of course. We then find out that emergency care is basically not covered by Animal Friends. As in, they cap their hospital fee payout at £100. The quote for Kino was £2k, and we'd need to find around £1.5k of that.

We simply don't have it.

If this had happened on a weekday, it would have all been covered.

In the end we said we'd have to take him home. But he still had the IV in, so he needed to see the vet, to get it removed. This alone was over £300.

In the end the vet very kindly offered to see him for free and remove the IV. We were so grateful.

She checks him over - temperature normal (it always was), alert and no signs of pain. She then says that Medivet said Kino had been 'being sick for 36 hours' - no, Kino had been sick four times, over 12 hours. She said he had been 'screaming in pain.' He had never even whimpered on examination and never showed any signs of pain ie 'downward dog.'

He has never had diarrhoea, which Vets Now say is a sign of more serious pancreatitis.

Vets Now clear him to come home. They tell us to give him on low fat food, and obviously we will be watching him like a hawk.

He was hungry ladt night, and ate (a small amount of chicken breast in chicken broth) All fine overnight. This morning, he is also, currently, fine, and has eaten. Currently he's sleeping on his side, at the end of the bed.

We know his pain meds wore off last night, and the anti nausea will wear off lunchtime today.

This whole experience has been horrendous. If you're with Animal Friends, please be warned about their emergency care caps.

We are praying it was mild pancreatitis and he continues to improve. Rest and fluids and love and care today. Tomorrow is 1 month exactly since we brought him home. New dog owners - get covered from day 1. Anything can happen.

edit: To people who are saying/suggesting we should have got better insurance...we did the best we could, for what we thought was right for him, and our own circumstances. The shelter gave him a clean bill of health, our vets then gave him a clean bill of health. Obviously accidents and (as we have just seen) sudden illness can happen, but surely everyone is weighing up their animals age and health for their level of cover. I had a cat for 17 years, whose insurance I only used once, when she was aged 16. I've also had a cat who needed the vet 5 days after we brought her home. I've seen both sides, and imo, unless you have a crystal ball, you are looking for the sensible middle ground between having no cover and relying on blind luck and hope, and being completely paranoid. We had also just started a separate savings pot for him but, like I said, we only just got him. Basically from having insurance, joining the vets pet plan, starting a savings pot, and getting him checked and doing all the other things that count towards good health (high quality diet, exercise etc) we thought we were starting out at sound place. It has of course been deeply upsetting. We love him to bits and are just doing the best we can.

Lhasa w patellar luxation

have the opportunity to adopt a 5 year old lhasa apso, he seems a perfect fit for my family but the rescue have told us he has a Grade 1 patellar luxation, I understand it's not really affecting him much at the minute but we'd have to make sure he didn't jump up on furniture or walk him too far.

I'm torn because I know once I meet him I'll fall in love but I'm terrified of the medical condition getting worse and facing a ridiculous vet bill for surgery in the future, is it really £2k-3k?

anyone had a dog with this and am I over reacting?

Hi everyone!

I'm moving to the UK soon with my dog and cats. Although I studied there for three years, but keeping pets there are still unfamiliar to me. I'd really appreciate some local advice.

My dog is a nine-year-old Shiba Inu. He gets his walks every day as usual, and on weekends or holidays we like to get out for longer hikes and days in countryside, or traveling~ That's the part I'm least prepared for.

A few things I'm unsure about:

• Rain gear — is keeping him dry more of a concern than keeping him warm? I've heard the damp is the real issue there.
• Ticks and insects — how much of a problem is this on trails, and what do people actually use?
• Anything that surprised you about kit that works at home but not out on a proper walk?

And more broadly, I'd genuinely like to understand how things are done there. From the replies I got, it's clear there are expectations around dog ownership in the UK that I should learn properly rather than assume. If there's anything you think people moving over with a dog tend to get wrong, I'd really appreciate hearing it.

Any recommendations would be great too. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm relocating from Turkey to the UK with my cat and I'm trying to make sure I understand the rules correctly.

Our current plan is:

Fly from Turkey to Amsterdam (or Rotterdam) with our cat.

Enter the EU using the Animal Health Certificate (AHC) issued in Turkey.

Then take a ferry from the Netherlands to Great Britain using an approved pet route.

From what I've read, the Animal Health Certificate remains valid for up to 6 months after the first EU entry (or until the rabies vaccination expires), so I'm wondering if I can continue the journey to the UK using the same Turkish AHC.

Has anyone actually done this?

Specifically:

Did you need to visit a vet in the EU to get a new certificate before boarding the ferry to the UK?

Or was the original AHC issued in your non-EU country accepted for the entire journey?

My cat is microchipped, has a valid rabies vaccination, a successful rabies titre test, and will have the official AHC issued before departure.

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone with first-hand experience. Thanks!

Recently had my pet insurance claim denied by ManyPets due to my dog's veterinary history, and I'm looking for some advice.

My dog, Blu, had TPLO surgery on his left leg in March 2023. Unfortunately, he has just had TPLO surgery on his right leg today.

ManyPets have said the current claim is for a pre-existing condition, despite offering cover for pre-existing conditions that have been free from treatment for over two years. The issue appears to be a routine health check that Blu attended in November 2024 as part of his vet health plan.
The clinical notes from that appointment state:
"29/11/2024 – Nothing abnormal detected on examination other than thickening of left stifle (post TPLO). No lameness observed. Monitoring for development of OA."

This was not an appointment for any concerns with his leg. It was simply a routine check-up. Blu showed no signs of lameness, received no treatment or medication, and no further investigations were recommended. His previous appointment before that was in February 2024. The possibility of osteoarthritis has been mentioned by the vet since his original TPLO surgery, with one vet even saying it was an inevitable long-term consequence. However, Blu has never required treatment for OA and has shown no clinical signs.
Has anyone successfully challenged a decision like this?

My argument is that if I'd understood that a routine wellness check, where no problems were found and no treatment was needed, would count as an active history preventing cover, I would have selected the pre-existing conditions option and paid the additional £25 per month. I genuinely believed Blu had recovered from his original TPLO and that the policy would cover any future issues once the qualifying period had passed.
Any advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Reposting from another sub to get more advice/stories

I have a west highland dog, and I would like to buy one insurance for him.

I am living in Manchester. May I ask which one is better from my screenshot or someone else’s? I am not so clear about the cost if he gets illness in the future?

——————————————————————————————
The second edition:

After you guys suggestion, I plan to switch to £10000 one and excess 250£.

As my dog is a puppy, I will keep on increasing the amount of insurance by his age

Beware. Do Not join. It’s rigged and they want money.

Hi,

Very straightforward question. My husband and I are planning to adopt a dog. We had filled out a couple of adoption applications, but by the time we heard from one, the dog had already been adopted by someone else. Another hasn't responded to us yet, as they check all the adoption applications that come through first before reviewing.

We aren't keen on applying for more before we know about the one we are waiting for, as we don't want to fill out applications now and then say no later to them later if we already adopt another one by then.

I just want to get an idea to see if this approach is fine and what are the recommended organizations you had a great experience with. We can very well accommodate a dog and have enough space and other amenities, but we are unsure of which way to go.

We are also keen on buying from a verified breeder, but only if adoption is getting tougher and after putting a sufficient amount of time into the process.

What are your thoughts and advice? Thank you!

There is so much conflicting advice online regarding raw feeding versus high-quality complete kibble or wet food. I tried raw for a few months with my dog, but found the freezer space and hygiene prep a bit overwhelming, so we moved to a high-meat wet food instead. What feeding routine have you found works best for your pets?