• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Are your buns insured?

Kirotea

Mama Doe
Just wondered whether all your buns are insured? And whether you have had to use it?

As a child we had a rabbit who I now realise we didn't look after very well (out of ignorance). He had rabbit muesli, iceberg lettuce,carrots and hay was just for bedding. But he lived to 9 years old and we never once took him to the vet! I've only just got rabbits again (2 sisters who are indoor bunnies I've had for a week) and this time I've done my research!

I guess I'm just surprised looking at the forum how many rabbits do have problems. Are there rabbits who don't get ill? I'll probably get insurance anyway for peace of mind.
 
Yes both mine are insured :wave: I've never had to claim for either of them but they are both reasonably young so I'm keeping the insurance as I'm sure one day I'll need it! Mumu was also insured but the issues he had weren't covered as he came to me with them, so it reinforces my decision to keep the others insured as I know the second I cancelled the policy something would happen!

I know some people opt to have a savings fund instead of insurance but it depends on your personal circumstances, personally I have 10 animals and I could never pay enough in to cover them all!!
 
My bunnies are not insured simply because we only have one option for rabbit insurance in Ireland which makes it over priced and the excess is ridiculously high.

Instead I put €40 into a vet fund account every month so there is always enough money for their vet care and my vet is very reasonable with pricing as I have been going to him for 6 years and recommended him to a lot of people :)



Sent from my GT-I9001 using Tapatalk 2
 
Of my most recent buns:

Heather was insured for the past few years and they paid out around £1500 in that time mainly for an eye condition (age related) and referral to an eye specialist. She didn't have surgery, that was literally all just consultations, diagnostics (no GA) and medicines. So for 3 years @ approx £85 a year, that's pretty good value!

Mavis was also insured. I had her about 4 years and the only claim I made in all that time was the day she died - I had rushed her to the vets in the morning and she had intensive nursing for a few hours but passed away. That was about £70 I got back, against £85 a year insurance.

My remaining bun, Bertram, has been insured for the whole 1.5 years I have had him. I have not claimed on his policy, so again that's £85 -ish per year.

Dudley was not insured. He had been healthy all his life, but in his last 18 months or so I must have spent around £1000 on him for various issues such as eye ulcers (caused by hay seed in eye, took ages to heal) and recurring snuffles.

Santa wasn't insured either. She was a chronic snuffler and dental bun, I reckon I spent about £5k or more in vets bills over her lifetime.

I've just got my newest bun Beatrice insured, it was £85.60 annual payment for lifetime cover.

So while there are obviously things we can all do to help keep our buns healthy and minimise the risks, there is also a certain amount of chance involved with each bun. I guess ultimately I find £100 a year is good value to provide me with peace of mind and confidence to say to my vet 'can you do me a referral/how about an x-ray' etc, given that I know how costly even fairly simple diagnostics and long term meds can be.
 
Last edited:
Yes - definetly have rabbit insurance, which has covered us for 2 buns with stasis costing about £1,000 in total for their treatment. We also paid out about £1,000 for Luna - we had only just insured her so she wasn't covered. You just never know what will go wrong or when, and at least I can say yes to the vets without worrying about being able to afford the treatment.
 
Yes, all 5 :wave: i couldn't afford them otherwise. In the last three years I've spent over £3000 at the vets :shock:
 
I was the same as you, I had two rabbits when I was little and they were neglected now I look back on it and I compare them to what Poppy has/gets and they both lived to about 10 and we never had them at the vets. Despite this I have chosen to insure Poppy mainly because of what I have read on here and I never want to think 'I cant take her to the vets, I can afford it'.
 
I was having a conversation with my vet today about insurance for my two bunnies trying to get recommendations on the best company to use for rabbits or ones that cover the most or don't wriggle on claims.

She suggested pet plan, any other suggestions ?
 
Truffle and Fudge (Netherlands Dwarfs)have always been insured. We've claimed a fair bit for Truffle - there's always something wrong with her - stasis, EC, eye infection....although tbh I would guess the total we've claimed is probably still less than we've paid in premiums over the years - I should work it out.
We've only claimed once for Fudge for a dental so it definitely hasn't paid off for her.

Mango wasn't insured - she cost us over £300 the day she died. I'd have paid 10 times that to save her though :(

Just yesterday I took out a policy for Kyla. I've decided to insure her mostly because she is a lionhead and I just have a gut feeling about her that it will pay off.

Tully is not and will not be insured. He is a big goofy crossbreed - I have no concerns about him whatsoever health-wise.

So I'm hedging my bets a bit I suppose. They will all get the same treatment, insured or not though. Sod's law Tully caches his leg on something and costs us thousands.....
 
Ruby is but Teddy is 5 so it costs a fortune, I will just risk paying. Ruby being a hare I worry about her injuring herself being so delicate.
 
I have Bobbie covered with pet plan, I haven't taken cover for Fluffy yet, I will do that tomorrow, its essential as the cost of vet care can be massive

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
 
Yes insured with pet plan here :wave:

None of my current 4 have really cost me anything yet and I have never claimed. But my childhood rabbits who were not insured must have easily cost my parents well over a thousand or so between them.

Nibbles was very stasis prone and although he was an indoor bun and although we got very good at treating him at home if caught early enough there was more than one early morning dash to the vet with a freezing cold (how he managed it in a centrally heated room I don't know) and unresponsive bunny :(. Obviously on those days he was admitted, sometimes for a few days, he needed a couple of dentals as well. He also developed kidney problems at the end and there were X-rays and lots of vet visits and meds and bladder expressing. It was kidney problems that took him in the end.

Jem came to us as a very podgy rescue. An un-savvy vet treated her for 'eye infections' for months before we changed vets and found out it was teeth problems. Dentals didn't work and in the end we had her incisors removed, fixed the problem :thumb: but she still needed the occasional tear duct flush as they had been damaged by tooth roots. She lost weight so slowly that by the time the vet was happy to spay it was too late and we were left battling uterine cancer, obviously she had the emergency spay but it didn't end well :cry:

So yeah, rabbits can be expensive. My guys are with pet plan and it costs a fortune :shock: but considerably less than if something ever happened and I needed more money than I could get. I never want to have to choose pts because of money.
 
Mine aren't insured.
Insurance is only a business because most people won't have to claim. I risk not having any because I have a large amount in savings that I'd happily spend on the buns, if I didn't have that safety net I would be far more likely to have insurance.
Also, I don't think my rabbits would cope with a long term condition where they had to be fussed over, so any expensive problems would be likely to be one off, rather than long term :(

So far in vet's bills
Eli cost me £30 the day after I got him, which wouldn't have been covered by insurance and would have been less than the excess
I've spent about £25 on lola for a stasis incident which would have been less than the excess.
I haven't spent a penny on Rambo

Insurance to date would have cost me about £1000.

ETA:I don't want to give the wrong message with this post. Insurance is a great idea that will give you peace of mind which is priceless, even if you never have to claim.
 
Last edited:
All mine are insured with PetPlan.

Honey's latest not eating episode has cost £580 so far (including overnight emergency vet).

Her blockage cost about £650 for intensive treatment.

And Mr Bubble's choking episode cost about £650 (emergency vet, intensive treatment, x-rays, medicines, follow ups, etc).

I have no back up money, other than an amount I keep aside for paying the excess and taxis, etc, so desperately need the insurance. Unfortunately, I often find that 2 or 3 of my animals get ill at the same time, so it would cripple me.
 
Because my buns are still quite young I think maybe it's best to insure them now because I don't know if they will be sickly buns or not! Then maybe review it in a year if they've been fine.

I must say getting a quote is quite confusing! I think it's coming up at about £20 a month for the 2. I wasn't sure what breed to puttthem down as! They don't seem to take any account of the fact that they are indoor buns and have had their injections which I think they would with say a cat.

My 18 year old cat's (she now lives with my mum) insurance is £20 a month too.
 
No, I did look into it after we found out Baby had cancer (we're hoping the vet managed to remove it all) but you always have to pay the first 40/50/60 (can't remember exactly which) pounds and I don't think they would insure her if they found out she's had cancer anyway so I didn't bother
 
Ours are insured and 3 out of 4 we haven't made a claim, but HelpuCover paid out for Nettle's eye ulcer, caused we think by something as silly as a piece of hay. That was almost £500 before the excess.
 
N&T are insured, I've had them insured for 3 years and they're 5 years old now. Luckily they needed nothing doing in those first 2 years apart from neuter/vaccinations, but the risk I took scares me!

In the 3 years I've had them insured I've paid out about £450 for their insurance, and about £200 for excesses, but claimed back over £3000 I've had 4 bouts of stasis between them which cost £400+ each time, plus Nena had 6+ months of ongoing abcess treatment which cost £1400.

This is with petplan. They have the most comprehensive coverage, and I'd definitely recommend them.
 
Back
Top