As I commented before I thought I’d add an update, last premium jumped to £1k p/a for a 4 year old dog. Luckily her lifelong condition has settled down now after hammering the vets in the first 2 years. We have (touch wood) not needed it much since. Depending on renewal quote (our policy only covers £5k total per year as we didn’t know what we were doing when we arranged it and you can’t change without losing any cover for the lifetime illness) we might go with the self insured option, however, after the last big vets bill 2 years ago I started building up a ‘just in case account’ which is over £6k at this point, a sum she’s been easily able to spend at the specialists in the past. So it is possible to self cover and it may or may not help later in life.
A friends dog went from happy and healthy to passing in his sleep one night recently, I hope for that for her over more vets trips and trauma, although she associates the vets with good things so going is a treat for her!
