A rabbit insurance question

How come it's so much more expensive to insure the bunnies compared to the cats? It'll cost me nearly twice as much for the rabbits compared to the cats.

I guess it's because rabbit veterinary medicine tends to be more expensive due to specialised nature of the treatment. Most vets do not get taught a lot about rabbits and those who are specialised train for longer.

Also with rabbits it's easy to miss illnesses as they hide them so well, it's their nature to hide anything that might make them more susceptible to predators. So once they start showing obvious symptoms it can be harder and more expensive to treat.

I thought that might be why

It's also a business decision there tends not to be so many rabbits insured compared to cats so the premiums are higher to allow the company to put money in to the pot so to speak . Then that money goes to paying for the insurance claims

Our buns are cheaper than the cat. The cat is about £12 a month (direct line) and the rabbits are £6 and £7. It probably depends on age too, our cat is 7 so classed as senior. Ori is nearly 2 and Scarlet is just 4.

I am not convinced rabbit insurance is good value for money. We used to have it for our rabbits and it was £14 per month for two of them. That was £168 per year and they still had a £50 excess, so you would need to have vets bills of £134 a year, year on year for each bun to make it worth while. Obviously if you get extras like vaccinations and worming then it might be better.

We just save the money now and put it in a pot as a just in case fund. I just feel that rabbits are not like cats and dogs that go stray and risk traffic. Obviously this is only my opinion and I know that some others insurance will be a good thing.

RedFraggle said:

Our buns are cheaper than the cat. The cat is about £12 a month (direct line) and the rabbits are £6 and £7. It probably depends on age too, our cat is 7 so classed as senior. Ori is nearly 2 and Scarlet is just 4.

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Can I ask who you use for insurance for the buns please? I haven't found a quote for less than £12 for Poppy

We had PetPlan.

Yeah I find this annoying too. I couldnt believe the prices when I first got them. Im with petplan it was £8.90 for each of my 2 then this year it went up to £10.00 odd each, so now I pay over £20 a month and ive never had to use it...touchwood.

Believe me if you ever do have to claim it can be very very expensive. When I had Honey I had a bill for in excess of £320 as she had blocked tears ducts which had to be flushed through. They tried to do it with her awake while I was there but couldn't so she had to be put under GA then had an XRAY to check teeth etc. and with medication etc. this came to in excess of £320. I also had a bill for bloat £130 as I had to go to the emergency vets. I now have insurance for both my bunnies, unfortunately Honey is no longer with us. I have already had a claim for £150 for Cookie. It is obviously an individual decision but it does need some consideration.

I have to pay £75 excess plus 10% if I claim... quite a lot but the monthly payments are lower that way and I just hope not to claim too often!

I've only used it once but it's already made it worth what I have paid into it so far - I ended up paying £135... which means the bill would have been £600! Tango just stopped eating - had meds, xrays and 2 overnight stays, 3 days and 2 nights total at the vets.

ReeceT said:

I am not convinced rabbit insurance is good value for money. We used to have it for our rabbits and it was £14 per month for two of them. That was £168 per year and they still had a £50 excess, so you would need to have vets bills of £134 a year, year on year for each bun to make it worth while. Obviously if you get extras like vaccinations and worming then it might be better.

We just save the money now and put it in a pot as a just in case fund. I just feel that rabbits are not like cats and dogs that go stray and risk traffic. Obviously this is only my opinion and I know that some others insurance will be a good thing.

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I do that too, in my case because two of my three are uninsurable due to age and one who'd be excluded for any stomach issues. But bills can really, really mount up and quickly. Just a trip to the vets can cost £120 odd just to get through the door, let alone any treatment.

Oh it is most definitely worth it especially if you want to consider referral as an option Finley cost over £2000 most of which I got back and Danav i s well on her way to the same and honestly without insurance I couldn't afford the specialist treatment.

ReeceT said:

I am not convinced rabbit insurance is good value for money. We used to have it for our rabbits and it was £14 per month for two of them. That was £168 per year and they still had a £50 excess, so you would need to have vets bills of £134 a year, year on year for each bun to make it worth while. Obviously if you get extras like vaccinations and worming then it might be better.

We just save the money now and put it in a pot as a just in case fund. I just feel that rabbits are not like cats and dogs that go stray and risk traffic. Obviously this is only my opinion and I know that some others insurance will be a good thing.

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Believe me it is. Nothing can go wrong for years, then suddenly you can get hit with a huge huge bills. Like Elena said an emergency vet or vets can charge at least £120 to walk through the door. Our emergency vet is £130 plus for walking through the door. The price of insurance for nearly 2 bunnies.

I never had any of my animals insured for 14 years. Then last year paid out nearly £3,000.00 on vet bills We had no insurance. Then I got 4 of my 6 pets insured. (2 were too old). Just as well, two of my bunnies became unwell, nearly £500 for one and £1,500 for my other bunny and he was just over 2 years old at the time. I urge anyone that can afford to, to get insurance, so many times on this forum you see people that cannot afford their vet bills. What will you do if you bunny needs hundreds maybe a few thousand pounds for vet treatment ? Its only fair we can look after their needs.
Wouldn't be fair if you had to rehouse or pts because you cannot afford medical treatment.

I am only saying this, as I kicked myself for not having insurance in the first place. Now I feel it doesn't matter what it costs as they are covered.

It depends from case to case I suppose, and also the cost of your vets. My vet is open 7 days a week and charges no more for a Sunday emergency than a routine weekday appointment.

Had I insured Harry, even with him going to the vet fairly regularly with a chronic eye problem, it would have cost me £100s more over his lifetime to insure rather than paying as I went along.

But yes I can see it depends on the person's financial situation and also the bunny. My last two guinea pigs never had a day's illness in their lives, you could get the bunny equivalent of them, or you could get one who needs lots of treatment..

We had first hand experience with our last two buns earlier this year. They weren't insured and Vi ended up needing £600 of treatment just at a time when I had been made redundant and my car had broken down on me too. We couldn't afford the operation etc. that vi needed so ended up just making her comfortable and pain free as possible but we lost her in the end. I felt so guilty and felt as if we had failed her. So this time round we have insurance. Actually I set it up this morning through pet plan, I know they are not the cheepest but they cover for dentals as long as they are seen and checked by a vet once a year. To us it's just peace of mind as you never know what's round the corner.

Barn Yard Bunnies said:

Believe me it is. Nothing can go wrong for years, then suddenly you can get hit with a huge huge bills. Like Elena said an emergency vet or vets can charge at least £120 to walk through the door. Our emergency vet is £130 plus for walking through the door. The price of insurance for nearly 2 bunnies.

I never had any of my animals insured for 14 years. Then last year paid out nearly £3,000.00 on vet bills We had no insurance. Then I got 4 of my 6 pets insured. (2 were too old). Just as well, two of my bunnies became unwell, nearly £500 for one and £1,500 for my other bunny and he was just over 2 years old at the time. I urge anyone that can afford to, to get insurance, so many times on this forum you see people that cannot afford their vet bills. What will you do if you bunny needs hundreds maybe a few thousand pounds for vet treatment ? Its only fair we can look after their needs.
Wouldn't be fair if you had to rehouse or pts because you cannot afford medical treatment.

I am only saying this, as I kicked myself for not having insurance in the first place. Now I feel it doesn't matter what it costs as they are covered.

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Surely now though all of your insured animals have 'pre existing conditions' that the insurance will not pay for??? Would you just not end up in the same situation again.

I do agree it does depend on your financial situation. Don't get me wrong, if T & B needed treatment they would get it no matter what it cost.

Obviously on here you will hear about the horror stories of massive vet bills, but you are not likely to hear from people that have it and have never claimed. It would be an interesting poll.

ReeceT said:

Surely now though all of your insured animals have 'pre existing conditions' that the insurance will not pay for??? Would you just not end up in the same situation again.

I do agree it does depend on your financial situation. Don't get me wrong, if T & B needed treatment they would get it no matter what it cost.

Obviously on here you will hear about the horror stories of massive vet bills, but you are not likely to hear from people that have it and have never claimed. It would be an interesting poll.

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No, there are two main types of insurance: Annual where illnesses are only covered for that policy year and Life (or Premium as P@H seem to be calling it now) where as long as the pet didn't have the condition when you took the insurance out, as long as you keep up with the premiums then they will be covered for life.

I have pretty much the same experience as Barn Yard Bunnies in that I didn't have any major vet bills for years then I have in the last 3 years, thankfully most of the after insurance.

I had formed the same opinion that a lot of people have that the more rabbits you have the less it's worth insuring and the more it's worth putting money away.

I insured 4 bunnies and when I realised the premium would be £400 a year I decided I'd take my chances with the vet bills and cancelled the insurance. 2 had already had stasis and one had had a dental so there were exclusions on those policies. 6 months later Artie required bladder surgery, so including all the care (1 week admission) and x-rays etc it came to £336, which doesn't seem bad compared to a lot I've seen but I could have had insurance for about £100! He now is not insured for bladder problems and needs ongoing care costing approximately £400 a year, he's also had an OOH admission for a stasis episode which could ahve been attributed to bladder sludge (£200) which therefore would have been covered.

At this point I decided it was worth insuring the rabbits, all 4 of them. This is 3 years ago, I now have 10 rabbits ALL insured.

Last year for an insurance premium cost of about £70 I covered Artie, may not have seemed worth it to most as he was already excluded for all gastro-intestinal problems and bladder sludge issues. He developed kidney stones and required surgery: The first surgery was very intricate and including care cost £833.... only 4 weeks later he required surgery again for kidney removal - the cost of that one was about £600. Insurance cover was £1k wich was paid out in full. He had two stasis episodes that year costing £200 each + his ongoing treatment for bladder sludge c£400 for the year. So, that's just one rabbit costing about £2k in vets bills on one year.

The premium for my 10 rabbits is about £1200 a year *gulps*. The big vet bills so far this year:

Elijah - surgery for blockage, includes many x-rays, close monitoring for 24 hours prior to surgery and then again after, aftercare including being put on a drip etc. £875.
He's had other stasis episodes/gut problems this year totalling £400

Erin - also stasis/gut problems: total £600

Esme - also stasis/gut problems: total £700

So, the insurance is well worth it for me!

The "three E's" will be covered for their issues as long as I pay the premiums as they are covered for life, given their history there's not way I'm stopping the insurance!


Edit to add: My main vet isn't expensive so some of those bills could be a lot more if I had to use some of the specialist out of hours services that exist.

Barn Yard Bunnies said:

I never had any of my animals insured for 14 years. Then last year paid out nearly £3,000.00 on vet bills We had no insurance. Then I got 4 of my 6 pets insured. (2 were too old). Just as well, two of my bunnies became unwell, nearly £500 for one and £1,500 for my other bunny and he was just over 2 years old at the time. I urge anyone that can afford to, to get insurance, so many times on this forum you see people that cannot afford their vet bills. What will you do if you bunny needs hundreds maybe a few thousand pounds for vet treatment ? Its only fair we can look after their needs.
Wouldn't be fair if you had to rehouse or pts because you cannot afford medical treatment.

I am only saying this, as I kicked myself for not having insurance in the first place. Now I feel it doesn't matter what it costs as they are covered.

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Bunny Buddy, I think you have missed my point, BYB above said they had no insurance and then got it after the visits to the vets, these conditions are 'pre existing' and will not be covered, you on the other hand had no insurance then got some before your buns were ill.

As I said, you will always hear horror stories of expensive vet bills, and not from people that have not claimed throughout their rabbits life. Some people like the piece of mind. I was not advising people not to get insurance, just that my own opinion is it is not good value for money.

ReeceT said:

Surely now though all of your insured animals have 'pre existing conditions' that the insurance will not pay for??? Would you just not end up in the same situation again. I do agree it does depend on your financial situation. Don't get me wrong, if T & B needed treatment they would get it no matter what it cost.

Obviously on here you will hear about the horror stories of massive vet bills, but you are not likely to hear from people that have it and have never claimed. It would be an interesting poll.

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Pre-existing conditions means conditions that had occurred before the insurance was taken out, not conditions that occur once they are insured.

I worry that people without insurance and without a good vet cost 'next-egg' hesitate to take their rabbits to the vet at the first sign of illness because of the cost. We have seen that happen on here (particularly - but not always - because it means paying extra for out-of-hours appointment), often leading to the demise of the rabbit. We've also witnessed situations where people don't go ahead with recommended treatment because of the cost.