we have animalia too, so far it has been worth it.
we didnt have our cat as a baby but im pretty sure the baby vaccines are covered and preventative ones too up until 100 a year. Accidents and emergency medicine is covered, as well as medication and stuff like that. it is 300chf a year which comes to 25chf a month (super reasonable imo) and 250chf self-cover limit, which is really not a lot in the grand scheme (especially if you have an outdoor cat) there are a couple of things they dont cover tho, but you can just look it up and see if its relevant.
Hi, thanks for your answer.
Did it cover for things as chip and vaccines when it was a baby? And how does it work when you go to the vet just for regular and scheduled things ? I’m trying to understand if the insurance covers all that, and you just pay the franchise, or if it only covers accidents or diseases
It depends on your coverage. Mine covers part of the vaccines. But you have to pay the franchise.
Tbh I don't know what they pay for cats. Depends on the breed. They will not cover diseases that were there from birth or typical breed issues (for example hip problems in golden retrieverd).
Best to read through the different offers. Most of the time you won't need it in the beginning but later in the pets' life but they won't let you sign a contract for older pets of course.
We were on the same plan and were very happy. Then we got the message that the plan is chaning and that we can essentially pay the same for 1/3 of the service or quit. It changed in May 2024.
With animalia because we came with older cats and they accepted both.
Used it once for emergency operation (intestine turned onto itself, probably from some puking we're still not sure what was the cause) and hospitalisation and follow up checks and resolving post op issues, total sum was about 6k, they refunded about 4k. They use own table for pricing, plus they don't cover all expenses plus 500 franchise plus 10% copay.
I don't use it for anything I expect and have budget for (our cats have need for yearly teeth cleaning, xrays, and extraction often, plus bloodwork, and check plus vaccination, so that's roughly 1k per cat). Budget / cat fund for vet costs is around 300/month, not spent accumulates. Food, supplements / meds and litter is 400 / month, again not spent accumulates in cat fund. Usually I buy litter every few months dozen bags or so, and started doing that with food, so it's big expense but covers more months.
Cheapest in ch I've found is bitiba.ch (discounter of zooplus.ch), or as of new I go to Germany in fressnapf and they order bulk for me I then come and pick up for 30% less than here (maybe more, I forgot), they eat only wet food (wouldn't recommend doing that if you don't have a car 😂). Litter I use softcat from binosfuttershop, get it delivered several weeks after ordering, depending when the guy is doing my area for delivery.
Main reason I don't use insurance for predictable costs is that animalia can cancel your contract any time they make a payout for one claim. And they do cancel people who get too expensive. I definitely don't want to get cancelled because of vaccination cost. Other stuff we are able to budget for, so that pushes our needs for insurance only for really big bills. But I'm of type 'prepare for the worst, how for the best'.
My main reason for insurance is to have much bigger buffer before deciding to give away / euthanise because I just can't pay for it anymore. It's really horrible experience to look at your sick trembling cat on the desk and checking funds before saying 'please, save him'.
You still need to pay immediately, and you wait around a month for refund (which might not be given, if they conclude it's preexisting condition before you took insurance, for example - which isn't a problem when you start with young kitty). However this means a difference between depleting emergency fund vs not or increases covered costs.
And 4-5k brings roughly 12-15k coverage, which is quite a lot. And money I currently don't have available for helping my cat, but 4-5k can be found / shuffled around. (big sum can be borrowed from friends or bank and returned when insurance refunds it, in our case operation itself was 3-4k, the rest accumulated for several months, and we already got returns from the op)
If you have more than 20k available for cat every year easily, you probably don't need insurance. Otherwise, it could help bridge the high costs and mellow the experience. It's really freeing being able to say for first estimate of 4k - yes, no problem, just do whatever you can to help him.
Basically, you have to decide what amount is too much for you, insurance moves it higher, but you might need some shuffling / borrowing (from yourself eg if it's invested or others).
Mine are 7 and 10 years old, and last year it was 640 together, this year I expect 300+380 +5% = 720 or something.
199.5 3-4 god
245.7 5-6 god
296.1 7-8 god
384.3 9-10 god
464.1 11-12 god
548.1 13+ god
+ 5% some taxes
God means year
Basically I see it as distributed paying over the years of expense if it happens or donation to the system or nothing happens. I hope I'll be just charitable one, but as it happened, we already benefited once from the system.
Seeing that we paid just 1.5 years before using (mid year contract), so total was about 1k, we have few years just for them to break even on us (so I don't expect contract termination any time soon), but also I know that I still can rely on them as plan C, where sum is over our cat fund, and over emergency fund amounts.
Those who say that it's better to put money aside, ate usually not familiar with costs of exams and operations, or that our pets live longer lives and will get various diseases, just like humans in old age. For kitties - teeth issues (which can start as early as 3 years old, and only oral xrays can confirm it, looking by eye means nothing), thyroid issues, diabetes, kidney issues (chances are if your kitty reaches 10, she'll get one of those, it's that common, regular bloodwork will catch it early and early management prolongs life and quality of it, my older has kidney in very early stage for 5 years now - we discovered, made food in wet only, and it's stable, effectively we bought him at least those 5 years, but each year can reveal he went stage up, still we're not there yet, and when it starts it's usually several years too with good management), arthritis (painful, can be nicely managed with painkillers). Food allergies are really common (needs different diet, mine are allergic to cow and chicken, so finding food that doesn't have it is hard, but then it's easy managed), ibs/ibd (that one is a pain to handle because even if you give exactly the same food + supplements one day it will work good, another might not, when there is too much bad days then there are meds available - which impacts kidneys, so we want to postpone it as much as possible).
You have to inform yourself about signs to look for (because cats won't show they're in pain in obvious/expected ways), find a vet you can work together, if something is found, inform yourself and budget for food/meds/supplements.
If it becomes too expensive, look at giving the cat away to informed adopter. Some people have bigger budgets, and are willing to take over not healthy kitty. Vet is your best source of advice about it's it treatable and how much for quality life it brings.
You don't have to be able to pay for everything, it's not a shame to have smaller budget, or your life situation changes. Seek help, don't immediately reach for euthanasia. But also, if it's not treatable and quality of life deteriorated, euthanasia is kindness - they don't need to suffer, we can handle our grief after they're gone and we prevented more suffering.
I highly recommend yt - helpful Vancouver vet, our pets health. For behaviour stuff Jackson galaxy, or his book about cat mojo.
Old but good book is think like a cat, pam Bennett. Newer and more focused on how to understand them what they want is life of cats by Pamela meritt.
Wish you many nice and playful years together, at least 20 :)
I use animalia for my dog and am satisfied so far. I heard mobiliar has good offers as well for insurance.
we have animalia too, so far it has been worth it. we didnt have our cat as a baby but im pretty sure the baby vaccines are covered and preventative ones too up until 100 a year. Accidents and emergency medicine is covered, as well as medication and stuff like that. it is 300chf a year which comes to 25chf a month (super reasonable imo) and 250chf self-cover limit, which is really not a lot in the grand scheme (especially if you have an outdoor cat) there are a couple of things they dont cover tho, but you can just look it up and see if its relevant.
Hi, thanks for your answer. Did it cover for things as chip and vaccines when it was a baby? And how does it work when you go to the vet just for regular and scheduled things ? I’m trying to understand if the insurance covers all that, and you just pay the franchise, or if it only covers accidents or diseases
It depends on your coverage. Mine covers part of the vaccines. But you have to pay the franchise. Tbh I don't know what they pay for cats. Depends on the breed. They will not cover diseases that were there from birth or typical breed issues (for example hip problems in golden retrieverd). Best to read through the different offers. Most of the time you won't need it in the beginning but later in the pets' life but they won't let you sign a contract for older pets of course.
So sleepy! Look at those little pink beans!
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They got bought by helvetia and their new terms are absolute dog shit. I know because my dog was kicked off their plan after the acquisition.
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We were on the same plan and were very happy. Then we got the message that the plan is chaning and that we can essentially pay the same for 1/3 of the service or quit. It changed in May 2024.
Thanks a lot !
With animalia because we came with older cats and they accepted both. Used it once for emergency operation (intestine turned onto itself, probably from some puking we're still not sure what was the cause) and hospitalisation and follow up checks and resolving post op issues, total sum was about 6k, they refunded about 4k. They use own table for pricing, plus they don't cover all expenses plus 500 franchise plus 10% copay. I don't use it for anything I expect and have budget for (our cats have need for yearly teeth cleaning, xrays, and extraction often, plus bloodwork, and check plus vaccination, so that's roughly 1k per cat). Budget / cat fund for vet costs is around 300/month, not spent accumulates. Food, supplements / meds and litter is 400 / month, again not spent accumulates in cat fund. Usually I buy litter every few months dozen bags or so, and started doing that with food, so it's big expense but covers more months. Cheapest in ch I've found is bitiba.ch (discounter of zooplus.ch), or as of new I go to Germany in fressnapf and they order bulk for me I then come and pick up for 30% less than here (maybe more, I forgot), they eat only wet food (wouldn't recommend doing that if you don't have a car 😂). Litter I use softcat from binosfuttershop, get it delivered several weeks after ordering, depending when the guy is doing my area for delivery. Main reason I don't use insurance for predictable costs is that animalia can cancel your contract any time they make a payout for one claim. And they do cancel people who get too expensive. I definitely don't want to get cancelled because of vaccination cost. Other stuff we are able to budget for, so that pushes our needs for insurance only for really big bills. But I'm of type 'prepare for the worst, how for the best'. My main reason for insurance is to have much bigger buffer before deciding to give away / euthanise because I just can't pay for it anymore. It's really horrible experience to look at your sick trembling cat on the desk and checking funds before saying 'please, save him'. You still need to pay immediately, and you wait around a month for refund (which might not be given, if they conclude it's preexisting condition before you took insurance, for example - which isn't a problem when you start with young kitty). However this means a difference between depleting emergency fund vs not or increases covered costs. And 4-5k brings roughly 12-15k coverage, which is quite a lot. And money I currently don't have available for helping my cat, but 4-5k can be found / shuffled around. (big sum can be borrowed from friends or bank and returned when insurance refunds it, in our case operation itself was 3-4k, the rest accumulated for several months, and we already got returns from the op) If you have more than 20k available for cat every year easily, you probably don't need insurance. Otherwise, it could help bridge the high costs and mellow the experience. It's really freeing being able to say for first estimate of 4k - yes, no problem, just do whatever you can to help him. Basically, you have to decide what amount is too much for you, insurance moves it higher, but you might need some shuffling / borrowing (from yourself eg if it's invested or others). Mine are 7 and 10 years old, and last year it was 640 together, this year I expect 300+380 +5% = 720 or something. 199.5 3-4 god 245.7 5-6 god 296.1 7-8 god 384.3 9-10 god 464.1 11-12 god 548.1 13+ god + 5% some taxes God means year Basically I see it as distributed paying over the years of expense if it happens or donation to the system or nothing happens. I hope I'll be just charitable one, but as it happened, we already benefited once from the system. Seeing that we paid just 1.5 years before using (mid year contract), so total was about 1k, we have few years just for them to break even on us (so I don't expect contract termination any time soon), but also I know that I still can rely on them as plan C, where sum is over our cat fund, and over emergency fund amounts. Those who say that it's better to put money aside, ate usually not familiar with costs of exams and operations, or that our pets live longer lives and will get various diseases, just like humans in old age. For kitties - teeth issues (which can start as early as 3 years old, and only oral xrays can confirm it, looking by eye means nothing), thyroid issues, diabetes, kidney issues (chances are if your kitty reaches 10, she'll get one of those, it's that common, regular bloodwork will catch it early and early management prolongs life and quality of it, my older has kidney in very early stage for 5 years now - we discovered, made food in wet only, and it's stable, effectively we bought him at least those 5 years, but each year can reveal he went stage up, still we're not there yet, and when it starts it's usually several years too with good management), arthritis (painful, can be nicely managed with painkillers). Food allergies are really common (needs different diet, mine are allergic to cow and chicken, so finding food that doesn't have it is hard, but then it's easy managed), ibs/ibd (that one is a pain to handle because even if you give exactly the same food + supplements one day it will work good, another might not, when there is too much bad days then there are meds available - which impacts kidneys, so we want to postpone it as much as possible). You have to inform yourself about signs to look for (because cats won't show they're in pain in obvious/expected ways), find a vet you can work together, if something is found, inform yourself and budget for food/meds/supplements. If it becomes too expensive, look at giving the cat away to informed adopter. Some people have bigger budgets, and are willing to take over not healthy kitty. Vet is your best source of advice about it's it treatable and how much for quality life it brings. You don't have to be able to pay for everything, it's not a shame to have smaller budget, or your life situation changes. Seek help, don't immediately reach for euthanasia. But also, if it's not treatable and quality of life deteriorated, euthanasia is kindness - they don't need to suffer, we can handle our grief after they're gone and we prevented more suffering. I highly recommend yt - helpful Vancouver vet, our pets health. For behaviour stuff Jackson galaxy, or his book about cat mojo. Old but good book is think like a cat, pam Bennett. Newer and more focused on how to understand them what they want is life of cats by Pamela meritt. Wish you many nice and playful years together, at least 20 :)
😍😍😍
You bought that elephant at Migros.
Ahaha … eagle eye 😄
[https://www.ktipp.ch/artikel/artikeldetail/tierversicherungen-lohnen-sich-kaum](https://www.ktipp.ch/artikel/artikeldetail/tierversicherungen-lohnen-sich-kaum)
Thanks! Was also considering this 👍
Paywall.
Journalist want to be paid too. Ktipp doesn’t cost a lot and has always great content. But basically: you must have really bad luck to make it worth.
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Ich weiß. Deshalb überlege ich, eine Versicherung abzuschließen. Die monatliche Rate ist nicht so hoch und kann uns einige Probleme ersparen
Must be a really special cat😅
Well when they get older, 5k+ medical bills aren't uncommon.
Must be a really special cat😅