Older Cat Insurance

Our Lifetime Elite Extra Plus policy provides £5,000 of vet fee cover per condition minus your excess and any co-payment.

There’s no limit to the number of conditions or accidents you can claim for. However, keep in mind that related injuries or illnesses may be grouped together and covered under the same policy limits.

And because it’s a lifetime policy, your cover reinstates each year when you renew – so you can continue to claim for ongoing conditions, year after year.

Older cat insurance helps pay the vet bills when your cat picks up a new illness or injury as they get older. With our lifetime cover, that’s up to £5,000 per condition, per year, with no upper age limit and no cap on the number of conditions you can claim for.

It really comes into its own with the conditions vets see most in senior cats, like arthritis, kidney disease and an overactive thyroid, as long as they’re new and not something your cat already had. Choose lifetime pet insurance and your limits reset each year when you renew, so you can keep claiming towards an ongoing condition for the rest of their life.

There’s a bit more in there too, including complementary treatments like physiotherapy, free 24/7 vet advice, direct payments to your vet and a low £90 excess.

Two things worth knowing: we can’t cover pre-existing conditions or routine care like vaccinations, and for cats aged ten and over a 15% co-payment applies alongside the excess when you claim.

Lifetime pet insurance is the most comprehensive types of policies for pets. It’s designed to protect your pet not just in the short term, but for life, so long as your policy is renewed each year with no break in cover.

With lifetime cover, your pet’s insured for new conditions that started after the waiting period (14 days for illnesses and 5 days for accidents and injuries). Each year, all the limits are reinstated, so long as your premiums are up to date and there hasn’t been a break in your cover. This means that even ongoing treatments can continue to be covered.

While lifetime insurance typically costs more than maximum benefit or time-limited plans, it offers lasting value by ensuring your pet receives the care they need throughout their life.

It’s always a good idea to check your policy documents to know what’s covered and what isn’t for any type of policy.

Not usually, no. Like most pet insurance, our cat cover is there for the unexpected, so it helps with the vet bills for new illnesses, accidents and injuries rather than the everyday, planned bits of care. That means routine costs like vaccinations, flea and worming treatments and annual check-ups aren’t covered by the policy itself. It’s not all bad news on the everyday stuff, though. Your cover does include complementary treatments, for example physiotherapy or acupuncture, if your cat ever needs them, plus free 24/7 Vet Assist calls so you can check in with a real vet nurse any time without it counting as a claim. And every Perfect Pet customer gets our included discounts and perks. You’ll find average savings of 57% on prescription medication delivered to your door, along with money off flea and worm treatments and other everyday pet essentials, to help keep those regular costs down.

Your cat insurance cover with Perfect Pet Insurance includes emergency dental treatment for injuries, but routine dental cleaning or dental illnesses aren’t covered. Always check the policy wording to understand what’s included.

There’s no single type that’s best for every cat, as the right cover really comes down to your cat’s age and health, how much protection you want and what suits your budget.

If you want the most comprehensive option, lifetime pet insurance covers new illnesses and injuries up to £5,000 per condition, per year, and refreshes those limits each year when you renew. That makes it the type that keeps covering ongoing conditions like arthritis or kidney disease for the rest of your cat’s life, which is why many owners of older cats look at it first.

The other levels do less, at a lower cost. Maximum benefit gives you a fixed amount per condition with no time limit until it’s used up. Time limited covers each condition for up to 365 days from when it starts. Accident only is the most basic, helping with vet fees after an accident but not illness.

The best way to weigh it up is to think about what you’d want covered if your cat became unwell, then compare the levels side by side and get a quote to see the price for each.

Yes, you can still take out a policy for a cat with an existing health condition. The important thing to understand is that, like most insurers, we can’t cover pre-existing conditions themselves, but your cat can still be insured for new, unrelated illnesses and injuries that crop up later.

A pre-existing condition means anything your cat has had, or had treatment, medication or advice for, before your policy started or during the waiting period (14 days for illness, 5 days for accidents). It also covers undiagnosed signs, so if your cat was limping beforehand and was later diagnosed with arthritis, that would count as pre-existing.

So while an ongoing condition your cat already has wouldn’t be covered, a policy can still protect them against the many other things that might happen down the line. If you’re not sure how your cat’s history would be treated, it’s worth checking your policy documents before you buy.