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Rabbit Savvy Vet?

lilgems91

Mama Doe
Hi, just wondering what differs a standard vet to a 'rabbit savvy' vet, obviously apart from the obvious.

Do rabbut savvy vets normally only treat rabbits and not other animals?

Do they have to have specialised during training or done further training prior to qualifying?

Sorry if it seems a silly post, I am thinking of switching vets after xmas and when I ring them up, I want to ask whether they have any rabbit savvy vets there, but dont know how to as if that makes sense?

:)

I would appreciate any feedback people have x
 
Its usually a zoo qualification,,avian,reptile etc etc.They do see cats and dogs too!!!
 
I see, so when I ring the potential new vets, ask whether they have anyone who has a zoo qualification, or avian/reptile? What about an exotic animals qualification? :) x
 
The Specialist Badger saw was an Exotics Specialist and had done the additional two years training.

I wouldn't call my vet 'rabbit savvy', he hasn't done additional training, and neither has the lady we sometimes see, BUT, they are excellent with rabbits, willing to learn, work with me, research and they have never let my bunnies down.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that whilst having an Exotics qualification can be beneficial, the vet can be 'good enough' without that. It's a case of working it out.
 
I class my vet as *rabbit savvy* not because he has any special qualification, but simply because our surgery has ALOT (due to rescue work) of rabbits going through, and out of all the vets there he takes a lot of interest and special care in them.

He readily admits that when it comes to looking after a healthy rabbit at home, I probably know more, but he knows how the internal body works, and he spends all his spare time reading up on things he isn't sure about, he has even rung FHB for advice when treating my bunnies,

The other week he went out and bought a tooth extractor, a new tool for removing molars, just for my Fudge as he's been having dentals every 7 weeks, he's researched many different procedures that could help Fudge, and some of my bridge bunnies. He was willing to try conscious x-rays, and he knows all my rabbits by name, he listens to all my thoughts and worries, and always trys to find an answer.

That to me is a rabbit savvy vet, he doesn't just limit himself to the very basic rabbit treatment he learnt at uni. He doesn't put everything down to 'oh its a rabbit give it baytril' It seems to me he's coming round to rabbits (though if you ask him he'll insisit he's a dog person) it is a huge contrast to the old vet, who had all these small animal certificates, but really didn't get it at all!! (that's putting it nicely)

P.S. can you tell i have have a *vet crush* on him hehehe :oops: Not that I fancy him, just want him as my personal bunny vet hahaha
 
Thank you both for you replies.

They are very well known in my area, and claim to take referrals from all over the country.

Another thing that is appealing is that they have a 24 hour animal hospital in my town, whilst the vets I am with now I have to travel 20 miles if there is an emergency, which isnt at all ideal.

This is them:http://www.pearlvetgroup.co.uk/

I know you cant tell much from a website, but they look pretty good :)
 
I class my vet as *rabbit savvy* not because he has any special qualification, but simply because our surgery has ALOT (due to rescue work) of rabbits going through, and out of all the vets there he takes a lot of interest and special care in them.

He readily admits that when it comes to looking after a healthy rabbit at home, I probably know more, but he knows how the internal body works, and he spends all his spare time reading up on things he isn't sure about, he has even rung FHB for advice when treating my bunnies,

The other week he went out and bought a tooth extractor, a new tool for removing molars, just for my Fudge as he's been having dentals every 7 weeks, he's researched many different procedures that could help Fudge, and some of my bridge bunnies. He was willing to try conscious x-rays, and he knows all my rabbits by name, he listens to all my thoughts and worries, and always trys to find an answer.

That to me is a rabbit savvy vet, he doesn't just limit himself to the very basic rabbit treatment he learnt at uni. He doesn't put everything down to 'oh its a rabbit give it baytril' It seems to me he's coming round to rabbits (though if you ask him he'll insisit he's a dog person) it is a huge contrast to the old vet, who had all these small animal certificates, but really didn't get it at all!! (that's putting it nicely)

P.S. can you tell i have have a *vet crush* on him hehehe :oops: Not that I fancy him, just want him as my personal bunny vet hahaha

He sounds wonderful, you and fudge are very lucky, he sounds like he really cares too! :)

Good point about them seeing lots of rabbits, my current vets dont see many at all :(

Im just worried about moving them and then regretting it, if that makes sense?
 
I class my vet as *rabbit savvy* not because he has any special qualification, but simply because our surgery has ALOT (due to rescue work) of rabbits going through, and out of all the vets there he takes a lot of interest and special care in them.

He readily admits that when it comes to looking after a healthy rabbit at home, I probably know more, but he knows how the internal body works, and he spends all his spare time reading up on things he isn't sure about, he has even rung FHB for advice when treating my bunnies,

The other week he went out and bought a tooth extractor, a new tool for removing molars, just for my Fudge as he's been having dentals every 7 weeks, he's researched many different procedures that could help Fudge, and some of my bridge bunnies. He was willing to try conscious x-rays, and he knows all my rabbits by name, he listens to all my thoughts and worries, and always trys to find an answer.

That to me is a rabbit savvy vet, he doesn't just limit himself to the very basic rabbit treatment he learnt at uni. He doesn't put everything down to 'oh its a rabbit give it baytril' It seems to me he's coming round to rabbits (though if you ask him he'll insisit he's a dog person) it is a huge contrast to the old vet, who had all these small animal certificates, but really didn't get it at all!! (that's putting it nicely)

P.S. can you tell i have have a *vet crush* on him hehehe :oops: Not that I fancy him, just want him as my personal bunny vet hahaha

He sounds awesome, and it sounds like you and he have a similar working relationship as I do with mine. :thumb:
 
He sounds wonderful, you and fudge are very lucky, he sounds like he really cares too! :)

Good point about them seeing lots of rabbits, my current vets dont see many at all :(

Im just worried about moving them and then regretting it, if that makes sense?

You can always move back if you're disappointed. I went and scouted out the new vets and had a chat with them before moving (we moved in 2007) and it was the best thing I've ever done for my bunnies. Why not make an appointment to have a chat with a vet if you find a practice you want to try.
 
My vet is Ian Sayers,who opened and worked at the bunny referral centre in Bristol.He has a practice 25 miles from me...and Im the luckiest bunny mummy alive cos not only do I have a huge crush on him AND I met his doggy Megan today, but hes marvellous with my fids.,including my AG,Ruby.
 
He sounds wonderful, you and fudge are very lucky, he sounds like he really cares too! :)

Good point about them seeing lots of rabbits, my current vets dont see many at all :(

Im just worried about moving them and then regretting it, if that makes sense?

You can always go and *try* them out maybe book your bunnies in for a health check sort of a thing, see how they treat your bunny, ask them some questions and see how they respond... it doesn't mean you moved there, you just tested them out, if you don't like how they are, no harm done, you still have your original vets.
 
I tried another vet in my area, and had to sign up with them before I could be seen, so I did, and shock horror, they had to contact my other vets for all the notes and information.

unfortunately I did not like this vets, and decided to go back to the original, and they thought I had left to go to the other..VERY embarrising :-/

Where I live there is a shortage of vets :lol: typically!

What does anyone think to the website?

http://www.pearlvetgroup.co.uk/

:wave:
 
I wouldn't call my vet 'rabbit savvy', he hasn't done additional training, and neither has the lady we sometimes see, BUT, they are excellent with rabbits, willing to learn, work with me, research and they have never let my bunnies down.

This is my vet exactly. It doesn't matter to me whether he has an exotics certificate or not, to me his gentleness with my buns, willingness to listen to my own ideas and the fact he'll admit if he doesn't know the answer and then go and find one is what is important. He was more than happy to experiement with a nebuliser for Bluebell even though he'd not tried it before and help me complete a form so Richard Saunders could give us extra ideas for Bluebell's treatment. Its this productive attitude that means Bluebell is here today.
 
What does anyone think to the website?

http://www.pearlvetgroup.co.uk/

If I'm honest, there's nothing there that suggests to me that they are particularly rabbit savvy - the fees only lists vaccination prices for cats and dogs, for instance, no mention of rabbit vaccinations, which I might expect from a practice which is up to date and confident in dealing with rabbits. It does strike me as a practice with a huge amount of expertise in cats and dogs and in their advanced diagnosis and treatment, but based on their website alone, I would be less convinced about their bunny expertise. I had a foster bunny once who had an operation done in conjunction with a specialist ophthalmologist and someone studying for an ophthalmology certificate. They might have known the detailed technical stuff about eyes, but in my opinion they knew diddly squat about bunnies...

One of the difficulties that many of us have found is that it's fairly easy to find vets who are extremely competent with cats and dogs, but who never really learnt any more about rabbits/other small furries than the token time spent on it at vet school. To me a 'rabbit savvy' vet isn't necessarily one with an additional qualification in exotics, but is one who has taken the time to learn and to continue to learn and keep up to date with rabbit medicine and surgery. There are so many vets who are frightened to do anything other than give baytril, who don't know about EC or how to treat stasis, who don't recognise the role of pain in rabbit illness, who think that rabbit anaesthesia and especially rabbit spays are highly risky etc etc...a rabbit savvy vet would be confident in dealing with a range of these things.

But of course it's very hard to judge a vet practice just from a website, they might be very competent with bunnies and it just doesn't come across on their site. Somewhere on here, there are some questions to ask a new vet to try and find out how good they are with bunnies. Good indicators are things like whether they recommend spaying female rabbits, how many they do, what sort of success rate they have, what vaccinations they recommend and how often, whether they are confident going off-licence with drugs (including antibiotics) for bunnies etc. A confident vet will be happy to routinely spay female bunnies and will rarely have a problem, they will recommend myxo (2x annual) and VHD (1x annual) and will be happy to prescribe off-licence if the bunny's condition requires it.

Good luck xx
 
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