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How far would you be prepared to travel with a poorly rabbit?

How far would you be prepared to travel with a poorly rabbit?

  • Not very far at all- Closer the better to reduce stress for my rabbit!

    Votes: 7 25.0%
  • 30 minutes- This is the minimum amount of time i have to go before i get to my nearest vets.

    Votes: 7 25.0%
  • 1 hour - This is what i usually travel

    Votes: 4 14.3%
  • 1.5 Hours- I'm prepared to travel further for a better vet

    Votes: 1 3.6%
  • 2 hours + I am prepared to travel even further

    Votes: 9 32.1%

  • Total voters
    28

Ambience

Warren Veteran
I currently really like my vets. I am moving though and it will take about an hour on the train if i wanted to take my rabbit to the vets.

I'd just like to know what everyone thinks about traveling with a sick bunny. I usually am grateful for the five minute journey to the vets from my house.

Does anyone else travel or are you prepared to travel for the right vet and if so how far? What is fair on the animal?

Thanks x

P.s please answer the poll as closely as you can to the above. If you are prepared to travel an hour or do actually travel one hour, please tick this.

N.B ..Please base your answer on what you would be prepared to travel - rather than what you actually travel- and comment on why?

Also if you could put what circumstances you would travel with your bunny- i.e if it was a neutering op-dentisty, etc- i.e under what conditions you would travel less far or happy to be travelling with a bunny in a particular condition.
 
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from a non-experienced point of view (please dont shoot me down, its just an opinion) i'd travel as far as i had to, if the bunny was up to it.

I'm fortunate, as you are to have (in my limited experience) what appears to be a very bunny-savvy vet, not 5 minutes walk/drive from my house, but i think i'd happily travel a couple of hours if not more if the bunny was well enough to travel.
 
my new vets will be a half hour drive away.. to get bunny savvy treatment i think it will be worth it. in saying that the move to Scotland or any travel at all was put on hold when pearl was poorly.... if they are really sick like pearl was i think i would find the money for house visits, her last checkup was at home she was too poorly to even do the 5 min trip and my vet agreed with me on this.. she was pts 4 days later :cry::cry::cry::cry:
 
my new vets will be a half hour drive away.. to get bunny savvy treatment i think it will be worth it. in saying that the move to Scotland or any travel at all was put on hold when pearl was poorly.... if they are really sick like pearl was i think i would find the money for house visits, her last checkup was at home she was too poorly to even do the 5 min trip and my vet agreed with me on this.. she was pts 4 days later :cry::cry::cry::cry:

I'd 2nd the home trip if the bun wasn't well enough to travel at all, i hadn't thought of that - thank you donna.

As Donna says, i'd find a way to have a house-visit if needs be also.
 
To be honest, it depends on the rabbit for me. For some of my happy travellers I would take them wherever the help was (an example being driving from Suffolk to Bristol, which was something I have considered with a rabbit before).

I struggle to drive Badger 15 mins to our regular vet because I get scared he will die on the way but I did take him 50mins to a specialist and I do believe that was worth it because he would have died by now had he not seen them.

But yeh, depends on the bunnies for me. For that reason I have not voted on your poll because there's no option that suits that.

ETA- I also think it depends on the illness and how it affects the rabbit too.
 
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Do you have a car? If not, I don't think you should rely on public transport to a vet so far away....not if it's your main vet anyway...what would happen in an emergency?

If you know whereabouts you are moving to, perhaps start making enquiries about local rabbit savvy vets now.
 
my new vets will be a half hour drive away.. to get bunny savvy treatment i think it will be worth it. in saying that the move to Scotland or any travel at all was put on hold when pearl was poorly.... if they are really sick like pearl was i think i would find the money for house visits, her last checkup was at home she was too poorly to even do the 5 min trip and my vet agreed with me on this.. she was pts 4 days later :cry::cry::cry::cry:

Really sorry to hear about pearl :( *hugs*,

I didn't even include home visit. Hope your new vets are good.I should have done a poll on what is the furthest people have travelled :) xx
 
I think it depends on the reason.
at the moement my vet is only 2 mins away,the main edinburgh vet :)roll: the word was censord out :lol: ) which has rabbit specialists are about half an hour away so i would take them there if i needed too.
I would travel more than 30 mins only it was to see a specialist or for a complicated emergancy.
For normal stuff (like vaccs, cuts, mites etc) i woudnt travel more than 30 mins, i have to do that quite often and wouldnt put teh buns inder more stress than i need to. Also if teh emergancy was a more simple one (i know all i needed was a steriod and antibiotic injection and painjillers) then i would just go to my nearer one.
 
from a non-experienced point of view (please dont shoot me down, its just an opinion) i'd travel as far as i had to, if the bunny was up to it.

I'm fortunate, as you are to have (in my limited experience) what appears to be a very bunny-savvy vet, not 5 minutes walk/drive from my house, but i think i'd happily travel a couple of hours if not more if the bunny was well enough to travel.

5 mins is a godsend. Where i'm moving i'm going to have vets 5 mins away but i've no idea what they are like. I was thinking about still doing my concious dentals for my bunny with mallocursion where i live now and taking him with me to stay at my sisters whilst i'm down there. He will get to enjoy her back garden full of dandelions bless him. He has his teeth done monthly and i don't want to stress him out with a new vet. It's abit of a trek, but i think he will be happier overall. Trying to weigh up if i ought best to just get him used to the new vet, but then i'll be moving again in 6 months, so he will be under a new vet.

I think i'd be happy to travel an hour on the train, not by car though as i get car sick, not sure if bunnys do :) xx

Glad you have a good vets in place :)
 
To be honest, it depends on the rabbit for me. For some of my happy travellers I would take them wherever the help was (an example being driving from Suffolk to Bristol, which was something I have considered with a rabbit before).

I struggle to drive Badger 15 mins to our regular vet because I get scared he will die on the way but I did take him 50mins to a specialist and I do believe that was worth it because he would have died by now had he not seen them.

But yeh, depends on the bunnies for me. For that reason I have not voted on your poll because there's no option that suits that.

ETA- I also think it depends on the illness and how it affects the rabbit too.

Definately- i think you are right. I think illness perhaps not so much travel, unless it's urgent- i.e to see a specialist and routine, it's worth the travel perhaps, if it's not stressing the bun. Do buns get stressed traveling on train- has anyone done this before? Hope badger is okay xx
 
I think it depends on the reason.
at the moement my vet is only 2 mins away,the main edinburgh vet :)roll: the word was censord out :lol: ) which has rabbit specialists are about half an hour away so i would take them there if i needed too.
I would travel more than 30 mins only it was to see a specialist or for a complicated emergancy.
For normal stuff (like vaccs, cuts, mites etc) i woudnt travel more than 30 mins, i have to do that quite often and wouldnt put teh buns inder more stress than i need to. Also if teh emergancy was a more simple one (i know all i needed was a steriod and antibiotic injection and painjillers) then i would just go to my nearer one.

Definately- difficult poll to answer really. Makes sense that you would travel further for a specialist as sometimes there are not any in the area. My sister is having to travel about an hour and half to get to a reptile specialist on wednesday, so i can totally understand that.

I was thinking i'd travel further for routine stuff, but then i think i'd probably travel further for something abit more complex like a neuter because i know my vets have already done 9 successfully this year. Saying that it wouldn't be fair on the bun to travel at the other end as after a neuter buns are particular stressed with travel i think.

It is difficult. Ideally it would be best to have a perfect vet on the doorstep or five mins away :) xx
 
Do you have a car? If not, I don't think you should rely on public transport to a vet so far away....not if it's your main vet anyway...what would happen in an emergency?

If you know whereabouts you are moving to, perhaps start making enquiries about local rabbit savvy vets now.

Yes i'm doing that at the moment. I'm calling round all the vets in the area and emailing :)

I suppose it makes a lot of difference if it's on public transport or in car.

I don't drive, my other half does if i need him to drive me anywhere. I wouldn't do the journey in car though, i'd go on train as it's quicker :) xx
 
I did vote 2 hours plus, for my gorgeous bunnies! There is no 'Too far 'for them:love:

Luckily though, my vet is only minutes away by car!:D
 
It 100% depends on the Rabbit IMO

For example would it be fair to take a Rabbit with a severe respiratory problem on a 2 hour car journey, especially if said Rabbit was a bad traveler.

I dont think it is a question of how far I would travel but how far is fair on the individual Rabbit.

IMO this is another issue that falls into the category of 'just because it can be done it does not mean that it is right to do it'.
 
I am very lucky to have an amazing vet 20 mins away, I think I would travel up to an hour to see him if I had to, any longer I think would stress the buns out too much!
 
My usual vets is 20minutes drive (ish), but i drove for over an hour to take Herbie to Royal D!ck Vet School for his broken foot.

I would drive however long it took as long as the bun was fit for the journey.
 
My good rabbit savvy vet is only 10 mins away, I'm very lucky. I have driven 30 mins approx though to an emergency vet before. I really think it depends on the nature of the illness and the bun. I'm really not sure what I'd do if we didnt have a rabbit savvy vet local to us :?
 
For regular vet visits, I've voted for half an hour. I think for circumstances where the situation meant all available local options had been exhausted and a specialist was needed (and gave the possibility of real hope of treatment), I'd go for about 2 hours.

It's not an easy one to quantify though, at all.
 
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