Vets & Pet Insurance

Just adopted 2 buns and was wondering where the best place to go was for Pet Insurance - they are both approx 1.5years old. Can anyone advise what the 'going rate' should be and can it be bought (sorry i'm a newb) annually or is monthly the only way to go? Also wanted to know if you get joint policies or if they need to be individual

Also regarding the vet, how often should i be going and is their any mandatory injections as such that i need to be requesting/getting done? My friend owned them before me, but doesnt have much info on matter and only really had them at the vet a few times (one of those was to have them snipped)

I'd like to take them soon, just for my own assurance, but is worth setting up the Pet insurance first so not to get stung by anything unexpected? My neighbours had rabbits and guinea pigs before (still has two gpigs) and said they both look in good health really - hoping some of you could shed a little light?

thanks in advance

i think you'll be looking at about £12 something if you go with Pets at Home. I've recently been looking into it.

that's the cheapest i found anyway.

I think P@H is around £7 per bunny, Petplan and Exotics Direct around £10. The second two will cover to a higher amount.

Sorry!! I didnt get back to anyone on here

But Thank You for the replies - If it covered general vet check up fees too, i wouldnt hesitate really...but opted not to go for the insurance in the end :roll: Bunz are part of the family now so if anything did go wrong, i'd happily pay the fees and the £25 a month is better off in the pot really. There in good keep to acording to the vet and i'll be keeping the visits up to ensure they stay this way. As they get older, i may have to have a re-think on this :thumb:

Just bear in mind the potential vets bills, I have shelled out £230 for gut stasis in one rabbit over the last 2 weeks, the illness came out of the blue

£230 is a faid wad, but guess i'd pay it no questions asked if need be

Do you mind me asking how old your bunz are and if you had other big bills over your ownership period?

Hope your bun gets well soon too!

Insurance covers up to £2,000 per rabbit per year and if you get a 'for life' policy they will pay that out every year, as long as you keep paying your premiums.

I would definitely recommend PetPlan but Pets at Home also do a for life policy (they also do an annual policy, but avoid that)

JMy bun Jessie has always been healthy but last week her husbun Domino bit her ear, cost £100. It’s gotten worse this week despite all the anitbiotics – I am expecting a bill of around £150 today, then I understand she might need to go back again a couple of times for cleaning the wound £60 a go.

I wish I had insurance, I really cant afford this but obviously I would never let her suffer. I am looking at insurance policies right now so will post my quote on here.

I think they are around 8-9 months now, that's the biggest bill I have had, I did have a smaller one after vaccinations as I think we had a slight reaction to it

Petplan quoted £23.97 for my two buns (both neutered/spayed approx 3 years old).

Pets at home £6.97 - Liftime cover - couldnt work out how to add a second rabbit - guess it would be the same again so £13.94 £10 cheaper a month - i cant seemed to figure out what the difference is between the two policies they look extremely similar.

jinsta said:

Sorry!! I didnt get back to anyone on here

But Thank You for the replies - If it covered general vet check up fees too, i wouldnt hesitate really...but opted not to go for the insurance in the end :roll: Bunz are part of the family now so if anything did go wrong, i'd happily pay the fees and the £25 a month is better off in the pot really. There in good keep to acording to the vet and i'll be keeping the visits up to ensure they stay this way. As they get older, i may have to have a re-think on this :thumb:

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Be wary of this thinking as it is what I did. I'm same as you in that I would (and have) found the money but in hindsight I wish I'd insured from the start.

Artie is my best example. He got to four years old and nothing much had ailed him. He then had bladder sludge so bad that it needed surgery - that cost £336, he's been on metacam and frusomide ever since, and has his bladder expressed every 5 weeks, meds and treatment adding up to £300 a year. Of course I'm happy to pay it but £120 a year insurance premiums would have been better! He then went on to develop kidney stones - operation 1 to remove stones - £844, second operation to remove kidney £600ish. In the 6 months since kidney operations 2 stasis episodes at £200 each. So, he's cost over £2k in vet bills in the last 12 months. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for him but I do wish I'd got insurance before he got his medical conditions.

o-Chloe-o said:

Petplan quoted £23.97 for my two buns (both neutered/spayed approx 3 years old).

Pets at home £6.97 - Liftime cover - couldnt work out how to add a second rabbit - guess it would be the same again so £13.94 £10 cheaper a month - i cant seemed to figure out what the difference is between the two policies they look extremely similar.

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The main difference between PetPlan and P@H from my point of view is that PP cover up to the value of £2,000, P@H only cover up to £1,500 (lifetime) and £1,000 for the annual insurance. The excess for life time policy for P@H is £75, it's less with PP but varies dependant on circumstances, usually £55, I think. What they cover and what they don't is broadly the same. I like both companies, I have 6 bunnies insured with PP and 3 with P@H.

One really good bonus with the P@H annual cover is that it's £1K per illness. Having claimed the full £1K for Artie's kidney stone problems I would still have been able to claim for a separate new condition. On the whole though, I'd go for lifetime cover as there's more chance of the same condition needing treatment in another policy year so definitely worth the extra £12 or so.

I too wish I'd insured from the start. So far I haven't had too many big bills so maybe it wouldn't have been worth it but we now have exclusions so it's even less worth it. It's more a safety net I think and I will probably soon insure Smudge as his only possible exclusion is stasis and that might have been long enough and small enough to not be an exclusion.

well Jessie just came home from the vets, and im another £180 down certainly gives you motivation to get the insurance. Going to go for pets at home lifetime i think. x

I can't find any insurance company that will insure rabbits over 5 yrs old for first time insurance.
Anyone help on this??

I think the Pets at Home insurance lets you insure bunnies over 5 years to start off with.

To add second bunnies, you just do a new policy, but there is a box to tick to say you already have a policy with them, and then you get a discount on the second policy.

Mavis is insured with PAH as are the cats, I think it was about £85 for the year for lifetime cover, which was only about £12 a year more than the 12-month cover so seemed worthwhile. Even a fairly simple set of diagnostics can set you back a few hundred pounds let alone a lifelong condition like snuffles...Santa must have cost me thousands in vet bills over the years, and all for a pesky nasal infection!