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.

It's just a part of life we like to think we have evolved away from, but in doing so, many of our children do not understand where food comes from, and that things die. We dress things up in colloquialisms, prettying things get poorly, and some of us never let our kids watch Bambi or Babe for fear that our kids may net be able to handle to concept of death or bacon. Teaching kids the value of caring for all things, but framing the reality that all things have both lifespan and purpose, does not have to mean having to avoid telling them about the realities of life.

Part of life is teaching kids sick things need care and how to go about getting that care.

Even farmers take livestock to the vet

Yes, teaching them to care about things is not "This pet is ill therefore we let it die." This is how we keep on breeding irresponsible pet owners. Completely different to teaching kids about where food comes from IMO.

I didn't get our rabbits for DD, they are mine. So elephants point is pretty useless.

We had a couple of pets die, both of whom were treated to the extent that the vet could go down until the very end, including some very expensive Cancer treatment for our pain in the arse rescue Rottweiller. We only had her two years, and she was a very troubled dog, but I don't regret a second of the time we spent with her or the cash we spent on her. To do anything less than we did would have been unthinkable. DD still speaks of her and knows how hard we tried to save her. She also knows that when the end came it was the right thing to do.

Same goes for any pet in our care.

Fair point Eve I don't even have children, the rats are all mine too

We had to get one of our rats PTS in August. It was her time, we'd spent a bit of money on exploitative surgery and tumour removal before the end came though. Do not regret it for a second and likewise, it was the right thing to do.

Get it get it get it.

I will never forget my best friends mum having their rabbit put down because 'they could get 10 rabbits with the cost of the operation'

elephants things do get ill and die, people also!

But we do our damned best to maintain their health, treat any problems and ensure they have a good life.

If that's they way you view animals then please don't have them as pets, it is your duty to help them be healthy. Not to let them die and poo poo it as being a life lesson.

The whole point of insurance is surely that you don't have to spend thousands on vet treatment. I don't personally feel a rabbit is any less valuable than a dog or cat or any less deserving of treatment. Rabbits do need to see specialist vets though and without doing so, treatment is unlikely to be effective. Most vets only have two weeks worth of rabbit training apparently. They are classed as exotics. I am very lucky to be able to use some of the top rabbit vets in the country and that means treatment is likely to be successful. They have access to incubators, IV fluids, extensive medication, ultrasound, CT scanners and more. I have had bills in excess of £1000 for fairly basic treatment for three bunnies in the last year. Insurance takes the sting out.

As far as I'm concerned, insurance is part of the costs you consider when getting a pet. £30 a month for two rabbits is a lot though and presumably with petplan. There are cheaper and arguably better companies.

I completley agree with everything you've just said there Midori.

elephantspoo you do realise that plenty of adults without kids have pet rabbits, right? And other pets. So you're point about kids needing to learn doesn't really make sense.

Welcome to MN though

there is a difference between caring for an animal and deciding to let it go because it is too expensive to pay for treatment. I have 3 cats, 1 is 15 (15yrs @ 15 a month is £2,700) and the other 2 are 8 (£2,880) - we have never had insurance, and touch wood never needed it but even if i did i wouldnt spend £5,580 to save a cat,.....

(i dont know how much t is to insure a cat - i'm using the £15 a month example)

I don't have a rabbit (DH put his foot down on that one!) but if I did I would insure it. My cat is insured as I want to know that, if he needs treatment, I can afford it. The insurance costs £21 a month so it would take a long time for me to save enough money for any treatment so insurance is the obvious solution.

The attitude of some posters on here reminds me why I prefer animals to a lot of humans

Our rabbits aren't insured, I'm not a big fan of insurance in general but then again I'm in the fortunate position of being able to pay a bill as and when it comes in. Having said that, much as I enjoy watching the bunnies run around the garden, if they got seriously ill I would have them put to sleep. I'm not sure that it's fair to them to subject them to invasive surgery and to be honest I don't love them 1000 pounds worth.
My view is that they have a good life, running wild in the garden, living down a burrow they've dug, and the price of living wild is dying wild.

Ilove, they aren't 'living wild' though, are they? They are your pets. Ones that you presumably chose to get and are responsible for. Hopefully you at least vaccinate them?

As for spending thousands of pounds on vet bills, proper accomodation for a rabbit will set you back around £500 or much, much more.

This thread makes me sad. I'm not sure why people don't hold small pets, such as rabbits, in the same regard as they do cats or dogs. They are one of the most neglected pets there are, with around 70,000 in UK rescue at any time.

Well, they are sort of living wild aren't they? They live down a burrow and won't come near us. Yes, we own them, but they aren't cuddly pet bunnies, they are animals living in our garden.

At the end of the day, they've got a much nicer life than the one they had before we bought them. When they were stuck in a hutch in a garage all day and the owners hadn't even bothered to name them. If they only live to 6 instead of 8 because I'm not happy to spend 1000s on them then so be it. I'm pretty sure I know which life they would have preferred if given the choice.

Ah so it's that old chestnut 'they should be lucky I own them at all' then?

No, how about you take responsibility for a living creature.

If you haven't got £1000's, that's why you get insurance.

Midori it makes me sad too. I had a house rabbit who was amazing. People would comment how like a dog she was because she'd snuggle up to us and lick us, I'd say it's because she was allowed to be around us and socialised. She'd do the little 'love buzz' and run around our feet. Miss her loads.

Well, yes actually Grays. It is a better life than they had before. Not sure what your point is?

Look, I'm not saying that I don't take them to vets, I'm just saying that to me, rabbits are not worth spending 1000s on. Obviously some people do, and that's fine, I'm not calling them crazy or whatever, I'm just saying that I, personally, do not think that way.

Had rabbits for years never taken one to the vets! However daughter had the most expensive guinea pig in the world! Was rescued as baby so free but developed teeth problems and cost around £400 in dental treatments. Was such a lovely creature was sad when he died ??

www.rspca.org.uk/servlet/Satellite?blobcol=urlblob&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=RSPCABlob&blobwhere=1210683196122&ssbinary=true The Five Freedoms. This is the law.

Having insurance makes those difficult decisions so much easier. When my rabbit had kidney failure at just three years old, it cost over £900 at the vet. I still miss her.

You can't see my point? ILove You think that just because you've taken them from an even shittier situation, that not giving them adequate healthcare would be excused? It doesn't work that way.

And by adequate healthcare I mean the treatment they need, not the treatment you've decided you're willing to pay for.

I just really don't understand how people don't come to love and respect their animals enough to do whats needed to ensure their health. But I suppose it's your right to differ in opinion, I just hope they remain healthy :)

But that's the thing Grays, everyone has their own cut off point at which they think they've given their pet adequate health care don't they? At what point do you just say enough is enough?

And if by saying "an even shittier situation" you were trying to upset me by implying they are currently in a shit situation, then congratulations, it worked. I happen to think that my rabbits have a lovely life. When I look at them running free in my garden it makes me so glad that we asked that ad in the paper and "rescued" them from a life of being caged.

Answered, not asked.

Best advice I can give you as a vet is to keep the rabbit healthy in the first place!

Rabbits teeth grow every day as they eat most of the day in the wild. If you feed a bowl of the cheap rabbit mixes they get all their calories in a small amount of food, so they don't wear their teeth down and can get fat quickly. Rabbits need hay so they eat all day and also a pelleted mix and not a cereal mix. Rabbits tend to selective feed from a cereal mix and just pick out the bits they like. With pellets, every pellet contains all that they need.

Overgrown teeth stop them eating, cut their mouths, stop them cleaning themselves and can cause eye problems. The upper molar roots can press on the lacrimal ducts and block them.

Fat rabbits can't clean themselves. Rabbits are coprophagic, eat some of their own poo, (special soft poo that contains healthy bacteria), it is very sticky and will cause fly strike if left on their bottom.

Dirty hutches can cause scald of their feet and flystrike.

Vaccinate against myxomatosis, you get a health check in the vaccine cost.

Best advice I can give you as a vet is to keep the rabbit healthy in the first place!

Couldn't agree more. I've got two rabbits (and no children at home!) and they are both extremely healthy, as have all my pets been, with no expensive vet bills or need for insurance.

I suspect the rabbits with vets bills running into the £1000s were either extremely unlucky or unhealthy, possibly due to how they had been kept. I personally think that keeping rabbits inside dramatically cuts their life-span and causes issues. Rabbits should live outside, imho. Although if they've been adopted as house rabbits, that's how they have to remain.

Enough is enough when you have exhausted the options or the vet recommends it. Not when you decide it's too much to pay for. Finances shouldn't have anything to do with it.