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Dentals: What age did your rabbit start having trouble with their teeth?

cpayne

Warren Veteran
May seem an odd question but I'm looking at pet insurance. Doughnut is exempt from digestion trouble so want to be covered for teeth. Helpucover is £90 with £50 excess but no cover for dental for the first 2 years. Petplan is over £180 and petsathome £90 but you pay more excess and also 10% of the claim on top. Exotics direct is only 50% towards dental.

I saw my specialist today and he said her teeth are fine, obviously he can't predict what will happen in the next 2 years. She's 2 so wondering when I should expect problems since she's a mini lop and I know I will have problems!!
 
Woody was 4.5 years old and suddenly developed molar spurs which now need treatment every month. Before that he was 100% fine :cry::cry:
 
Chrissy got them late in her 3rd year, dentals are done once per 6 months . She is a Nethie, a bit picky with hay
 
Hmm Doughnut would be 4.5 when the dentals kick in as she's 3 in April. It's difficult to know what to do as the 10% on petsathome would still mean quite a lot of outlay if she needs different tests for things.
 
Mr Bennett was only 2 when he started to need dentals. Thankfully we got him insured with Pets at Home before they started. You only have to wait for the 10 day exclusion period as far as I know, for dental problems but only get £300 of dental cover a year. The excess is £75 plus 10 percent of the total vet bill, so we don't get much back.

I didn't know Exotic Direct was only 50 percent, as I changed Bandit from Pet Plan to Exotic Direct as the renewal was over £170.00. It becomes so expensive.
 
Mr Bennett was only 2 when he started to need dentals. Thankfully we got him insured with Pets at Home before they started. You only have to wait for the 10 day exclusion period as far as I know, for dental problems but only get £300 of dental cover a year. The excess is £75 plus 10 percent of the total vet bill, so we don't get much back.

I didn't know Exotic Direct was only 50 percent, as I changed Bandit from Pet Plan to Exotic Direct as the renewal was over £170.00. It becomes so expensive.

Yes I rang round and specifically wanted dental included and they only pay out 50%. Pity we can't see into the future!
 
Yes I rang round and specifically wanted dental included and they only pay out 50%. Pity we can't see into the future!

The excess with ED is £35, so if it costs about £120 for a dental, we would only get back £25 from ED and £33 from Pets at Home. :roll: Not much difference.

Doesn't really seem worth it for dentals but it is what else they may get. I have put in for thousands of pounds in the last two years for 2 of my rabbits and 1 chinchilla, thankfully got all of it back except £120 for Cutie-pie. She isn't covered for dental as it was a pre existing condition, only thing we are grateful for is that the emergency vets put nothing wrong with her teeth on their notes or we would have been over £1,200 out of pocket. Our usual vets said it was dental for the £120 and went ahead with burring her teeth, which the emergency vets failed to see, that was the only part we didn't get back.
 
So far I've not had any rabbit that's not needed dentals when young start needing them at an older age through congential issues. All of my older rabbits are lops.

Erin needed her first dental treatment at the age of about 5.5 but it wasn't congenital problems. She had a tooth root abscess which necessitated the removal of a tooth, she has since had one dental (molar spur) on the tooth that should be meeting the missing tooth. She may or may not need further dentals depending on whether she adapts the way she chews and the tooth wears down naturally.

I have insured my rabbits with a huge list of exclusions because there are so many things that may need attention and with the expertise available nowadays it's definitely worth the premium 'just in case'. I had Artie insured despite the fact that he would be excluded for gastro-intestinal and anything to do with bladder and kidneys. I always think of how much it would cost to have a broken leg pinned, so no matter how healthy the rabbit vet care through accidents can happen to any of them.

Another thing to consider re premiums/excesses etc is that they change so much. The excess of £75 sounds high for P@H but I had young rabbits insured with Pet Plan with £55 excess and that's now crept up to £90, so my excesses for 6 year old rabbits with PP are £90 and with P@H £75.

Personally I wouldn't get hung up on the possibility of dental work potentially being needed but just look at the whole range of possibilities of health complications with dental problems being just one of them.
 
The excess with ED is £35, so if it costs about £120 for a dental, we would only get back £25 from ED and £33 from Pets at Home. :roll: Not much difference.

Doesn't really seem worth it for dentals but it is what else they may get. I have put in for thousands of pounds in the last two years for 2 of my rabbits and 1 chinchilla, thankfully got all of it back except £120 for Cutie-pie. She isn't covered for dental as it was a pre existing condition, only thing we are grateful for is that the emergency vets put nothing wrong with her teeth on their notes or we would have been over £1,200 out of pocket. Our usual vets said it was dental for the £120 and went ahead with burring her teeth, which the emergency vets failed to see, that was the only part we didn't get back.

Sorry do you mind me asking what you've paid out for. My concern is that digestion and dental is the main thing with mini lops, but maybe I'm wrong!
 
Bonnie was just over 7 years old and her dental issues came about due to old age as all of her siblings and parents have never had dental issues. To date she has been the only dental bun. She had to be pts in the end after 6 months of constant almost two weekly dentals. She wasn't insured though but my vet and I reckoned we would never have gotton any for her given her age anyway.
 
So far I've not had any rabbit that's not needed dentals when young start needing them at an older age through congential issues. All of my older rabbits are lops.

Erin needed her first dental treatment at the age of about 5.5 but it wasn't congenital problems. She had a tooth root abscess which necessitated the removal of a tooth, she has since had one dental (molar spur) on the tooth that should be meeting the missing tooth. She may or may not need further dentals depending on whether she adapts the way she chews and the tooth wears down naturally.

I have insured my rabbits with a huge list of exclusions because there are so many things that may need attention and with the expertise available nowadays it's definitely worth the premium 'just in case'. I had Artie insured despite the fact that he would be excluded for gastro-intestinal and anything to do with bladder and kidneys. I always think of how much it would cost to have a broken leg pinned, so no matter how healthy the rabbit vet care through accidents can happen to any of them.

Another thing to consider re premiums/excesses etc is that they change so much. The excess of £75 sounds high for P@H but I had young rabbits insured with Pet Plan with £55 excess and that's now crept up to £90, so my excesses for 6 year old rabbits with PP are £90 and with P@H £75.

Personally I wouldn't get hung up on the possibility of dental work potentially being needed but just look at the whole range of possibilities of health complications with dental problems being just one of them.

Thanks. I didn't think of accidents and she would be covered for bladder and kidneys. Think I will risk helpucover as it seems the cheapest. I just thought dental may be the next thing and having xrays and ga all adds up so I would be paying for that but now you've made me see the bigger picture:D
 
Bonnie was just over 7 years old and her dental issues came about due to old age as all of her siblings and parents have never had dental issues. To date she has been the only dental bun. She had to be pts in the end after 6 months of constant almost two weekly dentals. She wasn't insured though but my vet and I reckoned we would never have gotton any for her given her age anyway.

Ah poor Bonnie.
 
Thanks. I didn't think of accidents and she would be covered for bladder and kidneys. Think I will risk helpucover as it seems the cheapest. I just thought dental may be the next thing and having xrays and ga all adds up so I would be paying for that but now you've made me see the bigger picture:D

I had decided not to insure with 4 bunnies and then a year later took out insurance as reading various threads on here made me realise. Both Artie and Rudy wouldn't be covered for GI issues at that stage and Rudy had had one dental so wasn't covered for dental, eye or facial abscesses either - I thought same as you that GI and dental were the main issues to consider. Rudy has since had a liver torsion, which lucky only cost about £300 but could easily have cost over £1K. Artie's bladder treatment cost c£400 a year for 4 years, and his kidney stones issues cost £1.4k. The vast majority of my claims have been GI related but I think along the same lines as yourself that it's still worth paying for insurance for the other stuff, the PP renewal you got was a bit steep considering the main likely illness wouldn't be covered, so I'd resent paying all that as well.
 
I'm having an insurance dilemma atm.. after Freckles £703 vet bill for hospitalisation/drip etc I wanted to get them insured. Helpucover quoted me £18 per month! Exotics Direct was the same but P@H was £6 per month.

Can't afford £18 each with 7 to insure (the rest have a lot of ongoing conditions and most are treated at RSPCA so is cheap enough), but extremely keen to try P@H
 
My bridge bun was 6 when he first got molar spurs - he had conscious dentals about every 3 months. They stopped when he had to have his four front teeth removed (due to a lower tooth abscess) and the spurs didn't grow back after that. He lived to 11 years old!
 
It's mad how prices vary so much for everyone. I know everyone says Petplan is great but I'm not prepared to pay double.

I know Doughnut will probably always be on metaclop but I've decided to put a positive spin on it and think hopefully the metaclop will help her avoid GI issues, since this is what is given to get the gut going.:D I'm probably deluded but I'm happily deluded.

Thanks everyone for letting me know your experiences. I've decided to go with helpucover and risk her teeth being good until she's just over 4.5 years! I hope helpucover doesn't put their prices up next year or the year after so I have to move again.:shock:
 
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