I have just rung the insurers about the new additions policy. As he has HD and a grade 1 luxating patela I was going to exclude HD off the policy as looking at him and his movement I think he will be managed by diet and the right excercise regime.

His policy per month is over £30 so thought that excluding HD off the policy would reduce the amount and have been told no.

You can guess what my answer was to whether I was going to carry on with the policy !

Do any insurers do take on with existing conditions as would like to see about what deals I could get by shopping around?

Not a chance - if you want it covered, you'll need to stick with them.  I have yet to find an insurer who will cover an existing condition, no matter what it is.

I would also be VERY wary of assuming it won't cost you much and might be worth just not having it covered - I made that mistake with Remy, not the same condition but his thyroid, I figured thyroids are always pretty straightforward with dogs so I changed policy.

I now have a dog with an extremely unusual form of thyroid trouble, on a medication that very few dogs go on, costing me £30 a month in meds only, and around £100 minimum per test because I HAVE to check his T3, the standard tests are pointless.

I am not worried about HD as have ten year old who has severe HD and have managed it without any intervention so don't see that he will pose any challenges .

I think I may just open an account for him and stop the cover as really hate giving insurers money when I feel we are being ripped off.

Vet fees can soooooo easily get out of hand though. Hamish's insurance was costing £66 a month at the end of his life, which may sound a lot, but he was on arthritis medication and supplements which I claimed for so that balanced out. He didn't show any problems until he was 9, when severe HD was diagnosed, along with other joint/bone problems. So you just don't know how any problems will manifest themselves. At the end of the day I was so glad I kept his insurance going as his final 3 days, spent in veterinary care, cost nearly £4k.

I've got one dog uninsured and to be honest it scares the living daylights out of me.......

It might be worth having a chat with the pet insurance brokers vip4u.co.uk
I've found them very helpful when I needed to insure an older dog with a lot of history.

> His policy per month is over £30

That's not expensive, for pet insurance.  I have one that costs me £92.79 per month...

If it were me I would continue with the policy - at least for the next year, whilst you assess his health.

I think it is expensive and the point I was trying to make was I wanted to exclude the HD and so the amount should reduce.

I am going to do se research and get a few quotes on pedigree and non pedigree for a Lab pup and see what that shows me.

Thanks Wolfiestruppi will have a look at that

on pedigree and non pedigree for a Lab pup

For insurance purposes it doesn't matter whether a certain breed is a pedigree or not. Unless you know that it is a cross, a lab - or any other breed or course - needs to be insured as a pure breed.

(Oh, and me too would be over the moon with a monthly payment of just £30... my most expensive is now £107, the next one around £65 and the next one down around £35...only my young cocker is cheap so far at £18.)