To not bother with rabbit insurance

[Cranfieldmc]

Wondered if you can help me. I'm new to having a proper pet that you need a vet for (have lots of fish and am a fairly enthusiastic owner but I always self-diagnose and treat my fish (with the help of the internet) rather than go to a vet). I am thinking of getting a pair of bunnies and am currently researching all aspects of care.

I have heard it said many times on mumsnet that you should have pet insurance for your cat and dog. I am wondering if the same applies for these bunnies. I have been quoted circa £30 a month for the pair (sure I can get it cheaper if I search around). I'm just wondering if this is worth it in bunny world. Do you take your bunnies to the vet often for illnesses and is it expensive (more expensive than £360 per year).

Just to be clear, if I didn't insure the bunnies I would be able to pay high vet fees if they arose (and would do so rather than leave an animal in pain or to be unnecessarily put down). I just want to make sure insurance is a sensible option. Many thanks for your help.

Yes and very tasty it is too

I'm being nasty? You knew fine well your post would upset people yet you posted it anyway. You were basically mocking people who choose to insure their rabbits or pay thousands. You were being nasty and you know it.

Oh and if you have insurance then you wouldn't need to pay thousands. Thats the whole fucking point.

I a rabbit owner. They can live as long as dogs and are as intelligent and as fun if cared for properly. Their operations can also be very costly (£250 for a lumpectomy for one of mine plus £40 to neuter and £60 to spay)

Both the expensive operations I mentioned were successful and the rabbits are fully recovered and healthy - they're young rabbits with potentially 7 or 8 years of life left.

They went in with the pair bonded rabbit to minimise stress and were treated by specialists before their conditions actually became life threatening so that they could adjust to being there before anything upsetting was done.

Why wouldn't somebody do that for their pet? They were curable conditions and a couple of days of carefully managed stress is well worth years on to their lifespan.

Bearing in mind they are somebody's pets, not livestock.

What insurance gives you is the ability to decide which treatment is best for them, not what you can afford.

With regards the jabs they need you'll be surprised how close you are to a wild rabbit population that could infect your outdoor living rabbit. I live in the burbs but there is a wild population over the road in the hedgerow and I'm taking no chances with my bunnies. One of my friends bun got myxi and my god it's a cruel condition. It's only treatable 10% of the time and she chose to try and save hers, cost an absolute fortune but was successful.

I agree with you, YouareBoring and understand your point. Thereisacar, no need for that attitude at all.

I have insurance for my cat but none for my hamsters. When my last hamster stopped walking, we took him to the vets who quickly put him to sleep- he had broken his back.
Total cost --£26.

Fiona, there was also no need for Borings attitude. Her post was upsetting and it certainly upset me. She was basically mocking people who pay thousands for their rabbits or insure them.

Why is she allowed to upset me and others?

Sorry but my rabbit is very sick right now and I found her post in bad taste. I have been upset about that buy you know i am sue someone will come along soon and mock for being upset over a rabbit

ThereIsACarInTheKitchen. Your last post is even more ridiculous than the previous ones. Suggesting that I only posted to upset other people is really mean, I posted because I was shocked that people spent so much on operations. I don't mind people disagreeing with me but to do it in the aggressive name-calling way that you have done is childish.

Cross posted

How the fuck was I mocking you!!!! I only said I wouldn't spend thousands on an operation for a rabbit. I wasn't joking or making fun of anyone.

I have never had insurance for either of mine. Vaccinations and spaying aren't usually covered (although I could be wrong there). One has died of natural causes at the age of 8. Misty is 8 and a half and still going strong, in fact the vet was surprised at her age last time we went as she is in such a good condition.

The notion that it is cruel not to give possibly expensive veterinary treatment to a sick or injured pet is anxiety-projecting anthropomorphism.

Pets can be placed in a hierarchy, the further down the hierarchy the less point there is in treating them.

Guide dog or any working animal (not really a pet!)
Pony
Dog
Cat
Rabbit
Budgerigar
Hamster
Mouse
Goldfish
Stick Insect

If an animal is exotic, rare, expensive or highly-trained then they get promoted up the list.

Any suffering of a pet should be dealt with, but this is likely to mean humane destruction or letting them die in peace & comfort.

Why spend hundreds of pounds treating a dog or cat, when that same money could be spent giving one or more healthy homeless dogs or cats a good home and a long, healthy, fulfilled life?

Final thought: We all know that millions of rabbits, as well as countless other wild animals, die slow lingering deaths every year. Why is the suffering of a pet rabbit any worse than the suffering of a wild rabbit?

"Why spend hundreds of pounds treating a dog or cat, when that same money could be spent giving one or more healthy homeless dogs or cats a good home and a long, healthy, fulfilled life?"

Because they're not interchangeable

They're not household appliances that only serve a function, they have personalities and people get attached to them.

It absolutely can be better to have a pet put to sleep than to treat something where the quality of life for the animal afterwards doesn't warrant invasive treatment...but to choose by cost over the welfare of a pet is something I wouldn't want to have to do.

I have a parrotlet which is much loved and adored and whom I have spent hundreds if pounds on vet treatment for from a specialist vet - but I have to say I agree with youare I reay wouldn't spend thousands of pounds on surgery or even put him through that. Maybe it's different for rabbits in regard to stress/chances of survival/complications of surgery I don't know.

But there is a limit to what I would do to save him. If there was a good chance if success for a reasonable amount I would try. But thousands of pounds for a maybe ? No I wouldn't do it.

I would recommend insurance; you are probably going to have to neuter your rabbits at some stage (female neutering is more expensive than male castration) and that can be expensive; never mind other potential teeth problems etc, and as others have said; rabbits can live up to 10 yrs or so. YOu can be lucky and not need lots of expensive vet care but personally I like the peace of mind that insurance affords.

Cranfield there is lots of useful info: here Check out their advice leaflets on all aspects of rabbit welfare.

UrbaneLandlord I am not over-sentimental about animals, or particularly prone to anthropomorphism; but I am not sure I entirely agree with your hierachy. I've had much-loved horses and dogs when I was growing up but now I live in a city and out of necessity only have rabbits. I can honestly say that my rabbits mean just as much to me as my previous pets did and therefore I would spend the animal equivalent amount on them ifyswim. (I would always take veterinary advice and never let them suffer unnecessarily either.)

Youareboring I think you have unwittingly touched a raw nerve on here because, owing to huge ignorance among the populace about proper rabbit welfare there is a prevailing attitude that "they are just rabbits that you can stick in a hutch at the bottom of the garden and not bother about much" and unfortunately a lot of well meaning people think this is the case. If you take a bit of time to look around the Rabbit Welfare Soc site linked above (eg look at the advice lleaflets such as 'A Hutch is NOt enough' 'Rabbit care' and 'Rabbit behaviour' ) you will see that rabbits are in fact intelligent, curious, active (can jump and climb extraordinarily high) need stimulation and creative husbandry and like every animal, have distinctive personalities of their own. Keeping a rabbit in your home is a bit like having a puppy around.

Meant to say - the sad thing is that people don't realise how intelligent and active rabbits are when they are kept in a hutch - because in a hutch they can't do anything active or intelligent and it becomes a vicious circle.

Sorry, but first world problems!

Maybe Ouch but Cranfield is doing the right thing by getting advice and checking out all the options.

Meant to say - the sad thing is that people don't realise how intelligent and active rabbits are when they are kept in a hutch - because in a hutch they can't do anything active or intelligent and it becomes a vicious circle.

Totally. Mine lives indoors and is all kinds of awesome.

Don't get the hutch thing. You wouldn't keep a dog or cat in the garden in a cage.

The hutch thing - to be fair, I don't think the message is quite out there that they're not good...it's just how people think rabbits are supposed to be kept.

My friend's rabbits have an 8 ft shed with an attached run and the rest of the garden when she's about - they come in the house through the cat flap, but she's not happy leaving then unsupervised.

The difference between those rabbits and ones kept in hutches is unbelievable.

My buns have a 6' hutch they can stand up in. They also have free run of the garden in the day. They're outdoor animals who give me great pleasure to watch when they have a mad moment and do circuits of the garden whilst doing binkys

Thanks for all the helpful posts and general info. I have been reading with interest and I'm really glad I posted.

I think the indoor vs outdoor question is quite interesting. When I first started reading up on rabbits I was stunned to hear that many animal charities recommend that they are kept inside. However, the more I have thought about it the more it makes sense, at least in our situation. I suspect the bunnies will get more love and attention that way. I hope to also have an outdoor run for them where I will put them for exercise and grazing when the weather is ok.

Damn, I though this was going to be a thread about a sex aid and some over enthusiastic use........

Good god. Its a rabbit! Thousands are killed by cars everyday. It is not a family member.

Clearly you've never had a rabbit!

It is not a family member.

Mine is.