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Another chronically ill bunny can't be insured.

thumps_

Wise Old Thumper
I'm pig sick, as if there weren't enough probs.
I was absolutely straight with pet plan about Benjie, but honestly didn't see the minute drop of eye discharge when he was examined by the vet.
He'd been seen by a different vet a week before he came to me & given a completely clean bill of health. True it took me 5 days to find his burst abscess & I didn't know what it was. So I had to take him to my vet. True he had some discharge from his eyes on arrival but enough buns get that from stress.

Just heard to day that they refused a claim for snuffles treatment. It's permanent.
So that potentially excludes pneumonia, any otitis media, any abscess anywhere, various dysbiosis/stasis issues (pain from snuffles or disruption by ABx treatment)

I feel as guilty as hell cos I can't manage vet bills on Thumper's scale, again. That was of the order of £300 a month for dentals & drugs. It was the same with Thumper. Tiny spurs & a runny caecal at initial exam - not covered for the only things he ever needed insurance cover for.

Feeling like a rabbit myself. It's a hostile human world of predators everywhere.
 
Thats a bit grim,Judy, but try and stay positive.
After all this stuff is sorted, he might not get such symptoms or even as extreme??

Cold comfort, perhaps, but keep prayin!!xxxx
 
Thanks Yvette, I need all the help I can get at the mo. I reckon I can manage the snuffles bit until we get to the stage of permanent ABx. It's the way this disease can break out anywhere, & they can refuse cover even if it isn't actually the pastuerellosis causing it. I reckon I'm only covered for bladder sludge & broken bones!

I think I'm gutted because I'd always ensured I could look after the vet side before I took on an animal. It's the second time in a row I've been assured that the vets had given a clean bill of health, only to find ......
I'm tying to comfort myself by thinking that at least I give 'em a decent life here.
Amy is going to write as a professional on my behalf. True I was worried out of my mind he had pastuerellosis but there was no actual evidence that he did until later. The insurers took my years subscription & then used the retrospectoscope.
 
Well, remembering Lilys case, and other snuffles bunnies, there are times one does need a bit more help, I mean, my BB is a snuffles bunny but in his whole life hes had 2 treatments of abx.Hes 3 and a bit now.Maybe in the future he may need more help.

Jenovas bun has breathing probs..cant remember if its snuffles, but there are times he needs that ventilation treatment in the box...(grrrr, my memory is awful)...

Just suck it and see,Judy.Perhaps save for a rainy day?? I dont know the answer, but lets remain optimistic.For your sake.xxxx
 
It sounds crappy but look at it this way, every year you are paying in about £10 a month for your bun. So that's £120 a year. plus for each condition there's an excess of £55 per year. So unless it becomes so chronic that you need abx etc regularly, you may well be better off with saving the cash every month. :thumb: Having said that, I've just had Widget to an exotic vet for her eye and the bill was £126. So I will be claiming for that, but from that I will still need to take off the excess so I'm nowhere close to breaking even on my policy at the moment.
 
This is why we cancelled the dogs policy and haven't bothered to take bunnies out. With the dog, there are so many exclusions I'm not sure anything would be covered, when they put the cost up from £70 to £90 we really didn't see the point. The only animal insurance left is my horses, which whilst it has no exclusions on it I will keep at £35 per month. We put £50 per month into the animal fund for dog/sheep/bunny bills. You may well find yourself better off!
 
Oh no!
I hope it can be revoked. That's awful. He was given a clean bill of health for the insurance and this was found later. Fight it if you can, if not at least get them to give you the subscription back. Play them at their own game. You paid it because he had a clean bill of health. If they say he didn't then you wouldn't have paid it.

Grim has snuffles. He uses the nebuliser as well as antibiotics. To be honest his snuffles aren't too expensive, but obviously cause other problems like eye infections. If you can't get the insurance for it fight for the money back. Save the money each month instead of giving it to the insurance people and take vet bills out of that.

It's Grim's dentals that break the bank for me. :(

I've never been able to get insurance for Grim. He came to me with runny eyes so I never bothered as I knew they would get out of everything, it was indicative of teeth issues and snuffles. :?
 
Yeah I've got the nebuliser for him, & just use plain water at the mo. doing a lot of practical things, & we plod along with reasonable control, on Bisolvon, some herbal meds, dust control & diet.
I've an eye on the future because he hasn't even stopped growing yet, & we can't actually get rid of the infection. He sneezes a few times every day but there's very little white discharge it's mainly clear. Sometimes he sounds bubbly in his nose when he eats or grooms. I often wonder whether his sneezes are just him blowing his nose. It's just one sneeze at a time.

We've done really well to get through his 1st. big moult without a flare up too.
I also know that the chronic infection causes scarring to as time goes on it's much more difficult to treat, & often ends up with permanent ABx

I'm fed up because a large part of my rabbit care involves a lot of time & consideration to help them to stay as well as poss without meds. That's because I love 'em, & want to hold meds in reserve, but it's hugely to the insurers advantage too!
 
Awww thankyou everyone it takes me hours to post at the mo.
Jen, he was given to me with a clean bill of health. I was letting him settle in a bit but found this odd lump on his back thigh after 5 days. It was a burst abscess but had almost healed on it's own. I declared that, & the place on his hock, & they were fine -just gave me an exclusion on abscesses for 3 months.
So a complete life long exclusion on snuffles came as a shock.
I also find the current snuffles bit manageable. It's if he starts to need surgery for abscesses or alot of meds all the time.
Yeah I had a building society account for Thumper. It was funny when he had more in his account than I had in mine! :lol:

It helps to know other folks experiences. At least we don't have the USA human health insurance yet cos they're the same!

Yes, I shall be asking for my money back
 
Petplan did exactly the same with Nino, Judy. Excluded retrospectively after an exotics diagnosis that previously undiagnosed OA was the cause of his GI problems - they really are :censored: at Petplan as far as i'm concerned. I was so cross that I told them I would cancel the policy - but then had a change of heart as figured that if something acute happened like a broken leg which they could in no way link in I would be covered and that would certainly be a hefty bill which would far outweigh what you pay in each year. Cold comfort as Yvette says - but I totally understand the frustration. I am in a different position financially though so I am really sorry that they have done this to you and Benjie :cry::cry::cry: Fingers crossed he stays healthy from now on - he's in the best hands xx
 
Plain water or saline solution?

The saline solution is an excellent decongestant.

Home made saline Jen using non iodised salt, & being very clean indeed. I think you have to have a basic grasp of bacteriology & know what you're doing to do this. We don't want to blow a home made culture of bugs up their noses!
It's very good in some human situations, & we used to use home made for children a while back! :D
Bunnies HAVE to be nebulised to use this. We NEVER EVER put drops down a bunny's nose unless on vets instructions & with training to do so, cos if it's done badly even if just on 1 side it's like water boarding them. :shock::cry:

Thanks every one.
I lost the plot mentally yesterday. I was hit hard by the unwritten agenda of "private companies", 2 insurances, 1 contracted to the NHS, & my Water Authority in an hour. 4 "shocks" in an hour & I didn't know where to start.
 
This is fascinating. I've just phoned Pet Plan simply to ask what illnesses I can expect them to cover from now on. Spent 1/2 hour on the phone & they refused to tell me.:shock:

I tried to give some examples eg could I expect a claim for otitis media to be met in the future, & gave a helping hand that it could be said that it was a complication of snuffles? There was complete evasion, of a simple yes/no answer.

They wouldn't even tell me what illnesses would be covered (I could expect a claim to be met under the terms of our agreement) if I had a perfectly healthy bunny & I'd taken out the policy 1 month ago.

So basically they expect me to give them £117/year & to meet certain criteria, but they refuse to tell me what I can expect to get for that money.:shock::?
It doesn't surprise me that much - it's even worse with human medical insurance in the USA. Heaven help us here!
 
This is fascinating. I've just phoned Pet Plan simply to ask what illnesses I can expect them to cover from now on. Spent 1/2 hour on the phone & they refused to tell me.:shock:

I tried to give some examples eg could I expect a claim for otitis media to be met in the future, & gave a helping hand that it could be said that it was a complication of snuffles? There was complete evasion, of a simple yes/no answer.

They wouldn't even tell me what illnesses would be covered (I could expect a claim to be met under the terms of our agreement) if I had a perfectly healthy bunny & I'd taken out the policy 1 month ago.

So basically they expect me to give them £117/year & to meet certain criteria, but they refuse to tell me what I can expect to get for that money.:shock::?
It doesn't surprise me that much - it's even worse with human medical insurance in the USA. Heaven help us here!

I have had the same sort of thing too. I called up PP on behalf of an adopter who is going to adopt a possible dental bun from me, just because she wanted to know more about how much, if anything, of his future dental treatment and related things might be covered. The lady I spoke to was very nice, but just couldn't give me a straight answer on anything. I wouldn't expect every PP employee who picks up the phone to have detailed knowledge of bunny medicine, but I would expect them to know the basics of what is covered by their plans. I wasn't asking anything hard, just what would be covered and what wouldn't, given that this bun had had a dental before. It was like she was reading from a script though, and the script was so vague that it was just completely unclear what was and wasn't covered :lol:
 
I have had the same sort of thing too. I called up PP on behalf of an adopter who is going to adopt a possible dental bun from me, just because she wanted to know more about how much, if anything, of his future dental treatment and related things might be covered. The lady I spoke to was very nice, but just couldn't give me a straight answer on anything. I wouldn't expect every PP employee who picks up the phone to have detailed knowledge of bunny medicine, but I would expect them to know the basics of what is covered by their plans. I wasn't asking anything hard, just what would be covered and what wouldn't, given that this bun had had a dental before. It was like she was reading from a script though, and the script was so vague that it was just completely unclear what was and wasn't covered :lol:

That's just what I encountered - like an automatic answering machine. He kept telling me he couldn't discuss claims over the phone. I kept repeating that I wasn't talking about the claim I just wanted clarification of what was & was not covered from now on. Then he starts that "we don't use the term cover" (although they do in their letters!) I'm saying "OK once I've paid the excess what vet costs are you prepared to meet, given the exclusion for snuffles & abscesses?" He evaded again. He wouldn't put me through to his manager either. He was actually a bit difficult to understand because he dropped his T's & S's possibly a repaired cleft palate - not the best telephone voice!. I'm definitely not afraid to make sure that I DO understand though!
I'm now wondering if there's a cheap & easy way to record a telephone conversation? Needs to be heard to be believed!
 
Can you write?? will they put stuff in writing instead of over the phone??
Bloody nora, you pay for a service here.
Can you not cancel and go elsewhere??????
 
Can you write?? will they put stuff in writing instead of over the phone??
Bloody nora, you pay for a service here.
Can you not cancel and go elsewhere??????

Yes I'll write when I've sorted out a few other things. I've learned the hard way to keep copies of letters & send them by recorded delivery. Another trick large private "service providers" have is saying they didn't recieve the letter!

I'm beginning to see a sort of "scam". Because it's the 1st. time I've been able to take out pet insurance I was a bit green! They did tell me that any illness in the 1st. 2 weeks after recieving the money wouldn't be covered but there is ambiguity. The vocal inflexion & emphasis made it sound as if only that single episode of illness wouldn't be covered, particularly when we'd plodded through his abscesses & probable cause, & I'd accepted the exclusion for 3 months.
I was genuinely shocked that any illness occurring in the 1st.2 weeks will never ever be covered.

I'm meeting potential ambiguity again. We all know what snuffles is don't we? - mucky snot, eye discharge, & sneezing. I realised that lots of diseases could be attributed to the snuffles infection like any abscess, otitis media, pneumonia - you name it if it's an infection -even GI stasis from stress.
I was trying to get them to come out into the open about it - even to say it "may cause a problem". But no they're hiding behind ambiguity again.

I didn't broach the topic but it occurs to me that Amy said that his teeth were a bit long but there weren't any spurs - so I might not even be covered for any dental problems in the far future.

(When I'm thinking more clearly. I'll look at the risks & the costs + what Benjie's chances are of surviving a broken bone considering the effects of stress on his immune system. He'd probably rapidly succumb to pasteurella pneumonia.)

Just now I'm incensed that it looks as if this firm are happy to mislead people at every turn, & repeatedly. Shall we say that if some hard evidence comes my way I'll "throw a bone to Watch Dog".
It's not fair on owners or animals we should at least know where we stand, & be given enough information to make rational decisions.

ETA I'd be happier if their letter said "Snuffles & any complication thereof".
 
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