Should I insure my cat? In the last two weeks in this column I looked at the worry of coping if your cat is run over. This week I count the cost and ask is it worth insuring your cat? The short answer is probably yes but the question is a little more complicated than it seems.

Pet health insurance has come into its own over the last 20 years as veterinary treatments have become great deal more sophisticated. No longer is a cat's broken leg a matter of either a plaster cast or amputation.

Veterinary orthopaedics now makes the effective repair of many difficult fractures using pins or plates possible. The drawback is that this often means bills of several hundred pounds. Where once a diagnosis of cancer meant that owners would almost automatically think of euthanasia as the next step, now surgery chemotherapy or radiotherapy are real options. Even a seemingly simple skin problem can be surprising expensive if it proves to need complex tests for diagnosis and then regular treatment to control it.

All insurance is gambling, and pet health insurance is no different. Insurance will not take away all vets bills but it will take away the worry of being faced with a sudden, unexpected large bill at a time when spare cash is hard to find. It will make sure your cat has the very best treatment available.

Insurance does not cover vaccinations, neutering or flea and worm treatments, nor does it cover the first £50 or so of the cost of a course of treatment. By far the biggest problem I see with pet health insurance is the fact that insurance companies will not pay out for problems that started before the insurance as taken out. Insurance companies usually also insist cats are regularly vaccinated.

For a single cat who goes out into the garden for part of the time and lives indoors the rest insurance makes a lot of sense. At around £5 a month it is a long time before what you pay makes up a major vet bill. By contrast the owner with five cats who live an exclusively indoor life would almost certainly be better off putting £5 a week into a savings account to be their own insurer. Indoor cats are at considerably less risk.

The better companies offer lifetime cover - that is they will continue to insure your pet even if you have had to make claims and they will continue cover (at a price) when the cat is old. Some of the cheaper companies may not renew your cover if you have a large claim. The other main trade off is between higher premiums and a lower excess or lower premiums if you pay a larger excess or the first 25 per cent of the claim. Finally as a canny consumer it is worth remembering that it is cats in their first year of life and those over ten years old that most often need treatment.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.