Exotic Vet Bills

[onlychildandhamster]

I was calling various exotic vets to find out the costs of a consultation for my hamster in order to find a suitable vet. What struck me was how consultations are charged per animal (with no discount for the second). With the exception of the hamster, most rodents/small furries are social animals so you need to keep 2 or more. When budgeting for vet bills, do you save up a fund per pet (assuming you aren't insured?) Is it common for both animals to get sick at the same time, effectively doubling vet bills?

Just interested to hear stories.

Heya

I’ve got 7 bunnies. Crazy I know. But I’ve also had hamsters before which were adorable. So, what I used to do was I used to do their teeth myself (I knew how to do it although I’d never ever do the rabbits teeth due to it needing to be done professionally) and as for exotic vets they aren’t cheap. So what I do is spend £100 at pets at home every month for 8 bunnies and then I put £200 aside every month for all of them but I find that if you do little things like their nails yourself. Constantly hoover up to prevent irritated eyes and let them run around etc then they are usually healthy. I put £25 aside per rabbit but the usual vet visit costs £60 and so as they don’t go too often then it all works out as you can have pet plan but for hamsters I wouldn’t suggest it as you’ll end up spending more in the long run. I would have gotten pet plan for my bunnies but when I realised just how little they covered and £13 for 8 bunnies would have eaten quite a lot of their budget money I just left it and self-insured. Xxx

I hope this helps x

@BrokenRoses thanks for this. I was looking at exoticdirect but it didn't seem like a good deal either. I am allocating money to a vet fund, most people seem to spend £500 or less for a hamster though I have heard crazy quotes of £1000 for an illness.

@onlychildandhamster

Hello

For a hamster as I had two beautiful sisters who I miss although they lived for two years. Mines never went to the vets apart from to have their teeth trimmed which is when I learnt how to do it myself and they cost £20 a hamster. As for their nails they were so tiny that I never cut them as they just didn’t seem to grow plus they’re nails help with grip. So, if I was you I probably wouldn’t invest in insuring and I’d self-insure when it comes to a hamster as mines only ever went to the vets once. It’s important to try and prevent illness which means hoovering daily to prevent inhaling of dust and so maybe wood shavings but never saw dust as it causes respiratory problems. Checking their eyes once a week for cloudiness and redness. Checking their ears and fur bear they’d ears for flaky dandruff looking mites. Doing them a fresh bottle of water early in the morning abd then at night time. Giving them hamster safe vegetables ie the cork of cauliflower and broccoli to strengthen their teeth. If you want to know how I did their teeth which took 5 mins (I did the bottom ones but never the top as they can’t seperate but the bottom ones can) what I did was I held them ie their back to my hand and opened their mouth wide. With their bottom teeth I waited until the mouth was wide that there was a gap and then you get normal rabbit nail clippers and clip a bit if one tooth abs work your way down but never go too far or you can make them heavily bleed (a tiny slight of bleeding is okay but once a tooth bleeds then leave it and move onto the second one) but never try to just cut both teeth together in one as it’ll be very painful and it can also shatter your hamsters teeth completely.

As for food buy them hay which helps to prevent teeth problems and give them quite a bit a day. Avoid selective stuff like muesli etc as they will pick out the sweet parts and leave the good stuff abd then Ofcourse rabbit nuggets are essential but dont be fooled. They hide them only to eat them later and so give enough but never too much as you’ll waste a lot.

Is your hamster in a cage I assume? If it is then please get those massive £40 ones. I got these two because a small cage will = a territorial and aggressive hamster. Mines were aggressive but after putting on leather gloves when handling them a lot 5 months later they were tame.

Make sure you have chew toys even colourful ones in there for them to keep their mind active. Syrian hamsters should never be together as they fight to the death.

One word of advice is that if you buy these cages make sure that they’d lil cage door us against the wall as they can bust the door open over time and as for the top as there’s a door there I used to put a plate with a small hand sized paint pit that was heavy enough to stop them from escaping and then just let them out abd play Ruth them on your bed.

But as for vet bills self-insure and out £25 aside each month if your really worried and you’ll be fine as hamsters cost £10 a month try o raise. So £35 a month but they rarely need to go to the vets unless they injure a limb which can set you back £150-250 if they need an X-ray at the most and in the winter put their cages very close to the radiators and put a light baby blanket over part of their cage as it’ll help to keep them warm. To prevent death abd the sniffles. Never mistake a hibernating one girl a dead one. If you want to know when a hamster is dead it will start to smell after a few days (strongly) abd it’ll get thin very fast but if it doesn’t smell abd us chubby or normal then it’s hibernating and if you touch them or move them they won’t flinch even if you bang as they are asleep abd not dead. xxx

www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/pets-at-home-wire-purple-hamster-home-extra-large

@onlychildandhamster

I’d say you’d want to look at insuring if you had Guinea pigs or rabbits as bugger small pets but it’s a gamble really. One if my girl bunnies who I’ve had for 4.5 years has cost me 3.5k in vet bills. As for the others that I’ve had for 2 years have cost me £500 each a year (some under £200) but that was more when I wasn’t experienced in bunnies as since I knew a lot more they rarely get ill but I’ve got the funds if they need to go but for seven bunnies unless you have £250-£300 spare a month then I wouldn’t recommend having so many. Five I adopted. One I rescued abd one I’ve had since I was 13.5 years old. So with hamsters I wouldn’t insure as your just giving money away tbh abd insurances cover very little when it comes to them. xxx

@BrokenRoses my syrian hamster is in a cage that measures 100 cm by 54 cm- the volta sold by scallywags pet shop; which is the minimum for a female syrian hamster. It is a male hamster and i think he likes the extra space. I was asking about additional pets as I would like a robo at some stage and wondered how big a commitment it is with regard to vet bills. I couldn't quite believe that they charged per pet with no discount for second pet as most rodents are sociable animals.

It seems to be that the main cost of multiple small pets are space/animal boarding for hols/vet bills. small animal boarding is an extra £5 per day, you can stack hamster cages, but the vet bills are a big deterrent.

@BrokenRoses and yes my hamster is alone, and so would any other hamsters I get. i don't understand small animal bonding processes- it seems really hard, so i got a hamster to avoid that. And if you get 2, thats the problem of what to do when one dies- its easier for you as you have so many but I wouldn't have the space or time xxx

Okay

Robovski hamsters are sweet and cute but can be vicious as hell. More prone to aggression. For me and many of my friends who have had them honestly we spent £15 a month on x2 hamsters £7.50 each and mines went to the vets once and my other friends hamsters never needed to go but I wouldn’t say it’s that huge of a financial commitment. That’s why I said £25 a month as that would be £275 a year for both of them so £137.50 per hamster and honestly unless your hamster gets a fractured bone which could set you back £150-£200 at the most then they don’t go to the vets. They don’t get spayed etc as they are too tiny to work on and so my advice would be to be careful of the running wheel ie get a large one and remove it at times as most hamsters are fine but some will break a limb getting caught between the wheel and the metal bars. Put it this way my friend at one stage (they were very well taken care of) had 14 hamsters and it cost her £80 for 14 and she only ever spent £500 in the 3 years that she had them. So, 14 hamsters and £500 (not pet year) for 14 of them is a good hint that they are kind of cheap as chips so long as you take preventative measures ie wood shavings, hoovering, cleaning the cage throughly once a week and removing their excrement every couple of days your fine. If you really want to be worried about vet bills then I wouldn’t consider guinea pigs or rabbits (especially rabbits) as they can cost you an arm and a leg believe me. My oldest rabbits 4.5 years old has cost me I believe 5k since I’ve had her and the others have cost me less than her but quite w bit still.

You have hamsters. Don’t insure you will waste your money honestly. If you are worried out £25 a month a way max and then spent £10-£15 a month (£15 is if you spoil them which I kinda did) to have x2 hamsters. So really £35 should do the trick for x2 hamsters x

@onlychildandhamster

It was £80 a month to raise them but £500 for the 3 years was the vet costs I meant which worked out £13 a month which is the literal cost of a pet insurance x

@BrokenRoses thanks so much for your insights! i do live in London and tbh the consultation fee -£40 for the vet is the same for guinea pigs, rabbits and hamsters, though i guess like you say the bigger animals incur more vet bills due to the possibility of more invasive procedures. But of course london vets probably do charge more than the rest of the country with a few exceptions.

I do spoil my hamster a lot so i spend way more than the amount you said, but it is early days so had to get supplies like playpen, paper bedding and lots of toys and was trying out different foods. Due to lockdown, i bulk bought stuff like chinchilla sand as I didn't want to go to the store too often. i expect costs to go down over the next few months as I have all my supplies. I don't use the cheapest stuff, but as you said, the upkeep of a hamster is not expensive so I don't feel the need to budget. However, i guess vet bills are an unknown which worries me a bit, not because I don't have the money but because I don't want to be tied to thousands of £££s in vet bills in the years to come. I know that all animals deserve medical care and I would not begrudge any animal I own medical treatment, but I would rather get a pet who is unlikely to run up thousands in vet bills if possible.

Thanks so much for your insights.

@BrokenRoses Exotic direct is £15 per month for 1 hamster! I can't imagine what the premiums would be like for 13! So yes your friend did well by self insuring.

@onlychildandhamster

Don’t use chinchilla sand for the hamster. Your hamster will end up with respiratory problems and then end up at the vets. When I had my first rabbit Mercedes (you can laugh😂😭) she was often at the vets for respiratory problems due to inhaling sand. If I’m being honest. You have a hamster hun. It’s like owning a mouse you don’t have to worry. Hamsters live for 2/3 years and you definitely would never run up more than £500 in the extreme case per hamster in veterinary costs during his/ her whole life time. I’ve owned hamsters. My friends have had them. One currently has 7 and so I know. You would need to worry if you had guinea pigs or rabbits. Where I am the consultation fee is I believe £35 but we live in a nice area so the vets will cost more and they are exotic and specialised to. Personally if you do want to insure then go no more than £15 a month but just know that you could save that money and you’d be okay as you’ll find that your hamster will very rarely if at all go to the vets due to how unlikely they are to become ill and when it comes to trying to get things make sure that you know exactly what the insurance covers as they cover very little for hamster, guinea pigs and rabbits which is why a lot of people don’t insure them at all as you end up giving the insurance companies money instead of benefiting at all. I do hope to have hamsters again in the future. I’d love to have 8 lol but not whilst I’ve got 7 bunnies. Too much work and more money lol. x

@onlychildandhamster You do what your comfortable with but for the very few hamsters that have been to the vets the most expensive lil one who went twice in one year and once the next year only cost her own £400 in total and she lived for 4 years idk how but she did lol. So £400 divided by 48 = £8.33 per month.

Now if you had a rabbit I’d tell you to insure them if you had very little money or just enough as rabbits are best in pairs like a beautified male and a spayed female but I kid you not when Mercedes had a major operation it cost me £700 and then she had to have w blood test which was £160 and then her medicine (life long but lasts x2 months) which was £164) that was the craziest she ever cost me and I know that for a lotta people that just wouldn’t be an option but she and another one were born with health problems and as for the rest they’ve only ever been for their jabs, to be spayed, neutured and the odd case of mites ever so rarely. So, it does depend on breeds as well but with a hamster you could have 8 and you wouldn’t lose sleep over it. I’m surprised that they charge you a consultation fee for a hamster though as my previous vets who weren’t good anyway tbh didn’t charge for hamsters or mice but they charged for everything else x

IMO you get what you pay for. More money unfortunately better health care whereas poorer people with pets may have to pick between necessities for their pets x

@BrokenRoses i think its not just about the size. one would expect rabbits and guinea pigs to have higher vet costs than hamsters, as we would assume bigger animal = higher costs, but i was surprised to hear that rats have very high vet fees despite being smaller. rule of thumb is to allocate £150 per rat. This might not seem like much but then when you consider they suggest keeping 3 rats or more (in case 1 dies) and to continue adding new rats to your group to replenish numbers as older rats die, you could be looking at quite a hefty sum in a 3 year period. Apparently rats are prone to tumours and respiratory infections.

My local exotic vets consult fee is less than half that. That seems extortionate! He has misaligned teeth which need trimming, first time vet charged £20 as full consult and explained the surgical removal option. Second time she charged £10 to give them a quick clip and taught us to clip ourselves.
If we choose to remove them it’ll cost about £100. I would keep calling round vets, and be aware if it’s a quick consult they may take pity and charge less

@ FelicityBeedle my local vet is across the road. So I wouldn't need to pay Uber which would work out to around £5 each way. And honestly the ones around the area also range from £35 onwards. It is London after all. And also north London. I am sure vets in South London might be cheaper but after seeing an invoice for a vet in Bromley I am not sure plus the hassle and cost of going down south isn't worth ut

Remember you're not paying the vet per size of animal, you're paying for the vets time. So whether it's a hamster or a great Dane, it's the same amount of time to look at a sore eye/leg for both.

@Paisleycountry1985 Yep, but larger animals like dogs and cats live longer and would incur higher vet bills. They can spend years in ill health. More can be done for them.

Often the price of a consultation for exotics exceeds that of a dog/cat!

Not at my vets it's actually a little bit cheaper for small furries - guinea pigs/hamsters/rats. Exotics are snakes/iguanas and are special so need a more experienced vet.