Insuring my rabbit?

Hi all,

I am looking into insuring my two mini lop boys, currently it seems I can't insure them as they are at 7 weeks and will need to be 8 weeks before I can insure them.

I am wondering if anyone knows of any good rabbit insurers? I have looked into a few and it seems its going to be around £20 a month for the two boys. Does this seem a lot? They are not neutered yet obviously and are not micro chipped.

I am also thinking about taking out a plan with the Vets4Pets place in my home town where you pay £99 for each rabbit and that covers lifetime vaccinations. What do you think? Any advice would be appreciated

Petplan, no questions asked.

Pet plan is one of the quotes I got. Only thing was I had people telling me that £20 a month was a lot for rabbits. I have no idea as I've not insured a bunny before.

Any opinion on the £99 lifetime fee for vaccinations?

Sarah1991 said:

Pet plan is one of the quotes I got. Only thing was I had people telling me that £20 a month was a lot for rabbits. I have no idea as I've not insured a bunny before.

Any opinion on the £99 lifetime fee for vaccinations?

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I paid £22/mo for my two, one of which had ongoing illnesses and they NEVER quabbled over my claims.

£99 for lifetime vaccinations is amazing, as its £20-40 per vaccination depending where you go, so for a bunny who lives to 12 years, that could be £240-480?

Yeah I guess you are right, it does seem good in the long run.

I told my partner about this and he seemed shocked at £99 per rabbit but when you add it up its very good. I will have to wait another couple of weeks until they can get their first vaccination wont I? (they are 7 weeks currently)

We don't have bags of cash but I can't see why covering them for their lifetimes isn't a good idea. I would be devastated should anything happen to them. And vet bills are so expensive

Sarah1991 said:

Yeah I guess you are right, it does seem good in the long run.

I told my partner about this and he seemed shocked at £99 per rabbit but when you add it up its very good. I will have to wait another couple of weeks until they can get their first vaccination wont I? (they are 7 weeks currently)

We don't have bags of cash but I can't see why covering them for their lifetimes isn't a good idea. I would be devastated should anything happen to them. And vet bills are so expensive

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Ginger, RIP, cost in excess of £4,000 in vets bills in 3 years. I paid ~£350 of that in excesses - I couldn't afford £4,000 - so its a no brainer to me!

£99/rabbit is just insane for vac's.

Does the £99.00 cover anything else apart from vaccs? Is it affiliated to a particular practice?

Another vote for petplan here, all my pets are insured with them and I've never had any problems with payouts :wave:

In regards to vaccinations they can have them from 5 weeks so I would take them ASAP :thumb:

The £99 fee for lifetime vaccinations does only cover vacs for life, nothing else. For rabbits this obviously means the boosters for myxomatosis and VHD.

It is provided by Vets4Pets, there is one in my hometown (Hartlepool) I'm pretty sure you pay for the initial vaccinations first but then you pay the £99 and get all the other vaccinations covered.

I suppose the only downside of this is that if (god forbid) anything happened to one of the rabbits after you have paid you get nothing back. But keeping them healthy and happy is more important than those worries.

I use exotic direct and I would recommend them

If you go for petplan via camp nibble they will get 10% of your premiums ongoing, and you can get the first 4 weeks free!!

http://campnibble.com/petplan.html

I just insured one of my buns for £6/month and the excess is lower than petplan and seemed to cover the same things (and exclude :roll: ) I think it was helpucover.co.uk

I use helpucover, they've paid out over £1000 for my Alfie with absolutely no hesitation, they're pleasant to deal with customer-service wise and if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't have Alfie anymore. One of my other bunnies is also with helpucover and I've never had to claim for her (hopefully I won't have to either, as she's being rehomed soon!), and my third is with Pets at Home because she was over 5 when we insured her. Again, we've had to claim at least £500 for her but they didn't ask any questions either

Only one of my rabbits is actually 'insurable' so I've decided to just set up a separate savings account instead specifically for the rabbits but I did look into it and for me they were all roughly the same price. Do read the terms and conditions though, I think some insisted that they had to go for regular check ups and if your vet charges quite a large consultation fee it might work out quite expensive, especially when they don't really need a vet to look at them and say 'yeah everything looks fine' when you could just check them regularly yourself, and you'll of course know your rabbit much better

It's definitely a good idea though, for about 7 years I never had a problem with my rabbits, but in the past year one had to have a complicated operation to remove cancerous ovaries and de-mangle her other organs, the same rabbit also decided she was going to start chewing her tail down to the bone and nearly needed a very expensive amputation, and another with an abscess who also needs a dental, as you can imagine none of those things cost less than the excess fee which is about £50/£55, and I'd of saved myself a lot of stress and heartbreak if I hadn't of had to worry about the money

Kavanne said:

I use exotic direct and I would recommend them

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I've been online for quotes this week
Exotic Direct only insure for 12 months. So in the event that 1 of the buns needed treatment I would expect a massive price hike to re-insure the following year.

I would highly recommend Petplan - you can pay a bit more per month than some other companies but you get what you pay for! You will have lifetime cover so year after year they will continue to pay for an ongoing condition. Other companies only do a '12 month' policy and after the 12 months they will stop paying out for a particular condition. 'Maximum benefit' policies will provide you with a set amount of money per condition, but once that money has been used up on a particular condition (whether it takes a week, a year or 5 years) there will be no more money for that particular condition.

Secondly, Petplan will not increase your premium just because you make a claim. Your insurance will rise a very little each year with inflation but everyone's policy rises by the same amount, whether it not a claim had been made.

Thirdly, if you get your rabbits booked for vaccs ASAP and most vet practices offer 4 weeks free IMMEDIATE cover. Normally when you take out insurance you have a two week period where you cannot make a claim for illness (this protects the insurance companies against fraudulent claims), but Petplan offer an immediate cover note of 4 weeks providing your rabbit has had a vet health check and is 8 weeks to 1 year old. Of you walked out the vets and your rabbit was poorly that day, you would be covered. You can then contact Petplan to get a continuation of that cover, for life. You usually get another month free when you sign up for that too!

£99 vaccs for life is good providing you don't plan to move from the area. In 3 years you have more than got your money back (based on vaccs being around £35 each year per rabbit.

I would also recommend Petplan, the policy is very good as it is a Lifetime policy and not just a set amount per year or condition. No-one else seems to have mentioned it, but I believe PetPlan are the only insurer that fully cover treatment for dental and dental related illnesses. This is on the condition that your rabbit has had a dental examination within 12months of claiming, which can be done at their yearly health check. I ask my vets to note on their records that teeth have been checked.

I currently pay £21 for two bunnies - one Dwarf Lop and one Mini Lop and my sister pays £10 for her Dwarf Lop bunny.

The price of rabbit insurance does seem to be crazily expensive compared to other animals, especially cats. And pet insurance in general can seem like a waste of money (especially if you don't make a claim) but for the peace of mind, I think it is worth it. My personal point of view is unless you can afford to put a lump sum of money into a "Pet fund" and pay into it every month and replenish immediately upon use, then you should insurance. Although it is always a good idea to save some money each month for health checks, vaccinations (you appear to have that covered) and insurance excess.

Petplan every time! They've been fantastic.

Just please don't make our mistake and leave it until one of your buns is ill. We left it too late and so one of ours was not covered for digestive system disorders. This meant that when she spent a week and a half in the vets and subsequently needed to see a rabbit specialist and eventually had to be put to sleep as it was the kindest thing for her, we were left with a massive vets bill.

We didn't mind spending the money in the slightest, but we certainly couldn't have carried on for weeks and weeks at those prices.

MichelleBee said:

Petplan every time! They've been fantastic.

Just please don't make our mistake and leave it until one of your buns is ill. We left it too late and so one of ours was not covered for digestive system disorders. This meant that when she spent a week and a half in the vets and subsequently needed to see a rabbit specialist and eventually had to be put to sleep as it was the kindest thing for her, we were left with a massive vets bill.

We didn't mind spending the money in the slightest, but we certainly couldn't have carried on for weeks and weeks at those prices.

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No problems now, I have carried out the 4 weeks free insurance that Pet plan do and I am going to continue the policy after that period is over =)

I was concerned at first because it does say in the terms and conditions that your pet won't be covered if you do not keep up with injections, however, mine are currently too young to receive their injections (I think anyway) I'm going to give it one more week and then take them for their first vet visit and shot. This just means that my bunnies are covered for pretty much any accident and illness except those that occur through myxomatosis or VHD. But they only wont be covered for that for a week. Then they will be vaccinated and covered for that too once they receive their first shot.

It just means that they are of covered for treatment for a disease that could have been prevented by vaccination, but as myxi and vhd kill,it's not really an insurance issue. Also, they can see. From the records that you've had them vaccinated so don't worry about it
Glad you chose Petplan, they genuinely are the best and you get what you pay for!