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Dental treatment not covered

bunny-mad

Mama Doe
Hi, thought I'd put this in the welfare section rather than rabbit care because I feel this is ultimately a welfare issue.

As some of you know, Humphrey & Tilly have had to have some expensive dental treatment of late, and this is now ongoing. In a bid to protect my finances from any further dental treatment fees and at the advice of my vet, I thought I should look into insurance for Oli and Sylvia (until now, all 4 rabbits have been self-insured).

I kind of thought this might be the case, but it turns out that dental treatment, esp preventative cutting, filing and trimming, is not actually covered for rabbits. One leading insurer's website states under the section 'What we don't cover': "The trimming of rabbits' teeth".

I can kind of understand why they don't cover this, because it costs a hell of a lot of money and it's a repeated process once you start having it done. But doesn't this pose a rather big question for rabbit welfare? Because if you can't afford the treatment (which is costly), then you would either have to wait until your rabbit stops eating and is in terrible pain, or have them put down as a preventative measure - both of which are not really very good options for an otherwise healthy animal.

Also, as dental treatment in rabbits becomes more commonplace and more advanced, and vets become more savvy to checking and treating molar problems (I'm saying this because my previous vet never checked Sylvia or Oli's back teeth), then it's going to become a big problem for owners on the financial side, and making the decision to have your bunny put to sleep rather than paying astronomical costs for dental treatment must be very stressful and distressing.

Or are there other options? What does everyone think? b-m
 
Good question. I think rabbit websites that give advice e.g. feed hay,vaccinate etc. should add this important point when mentioning insuring buns. Its so easy to read "you can get insurance for your rabbit" yet you have found the hard way, that it pays to read the small print.
 
this is why I have a fund rather than insurance....I pay minimum £25 into a bank account so that if anything happens there is some cash there.
 
i'm never sure why they won't pay. i've had 15 rabbits and only 1 with tooth problems (touch wood). i've recently had to pay about £150 for her dental work and that's on top of regular trimming. i decided not to insure her because i knew they wouldn't pay for the work. but now she's nearly five i thought i'd get her insured while i still can because as she gets older there may be other problems.

i don't know why they can't say they won't pay for trimming but will cover the cost of removal etc... it seems to be much more common now and bunnies recover well and then don't need the regular trimming.

although saying that i know they won't cover any pre existing condition and i guess most dental problems are genetic :?
 
I think most dental problems are actually related to a poor diet in early life, but there you go :roll: it works out the same in the end really. That would be, not good for the bunny.
 
Hamish needs regular dentals - saying that, he has had two this year which isn't bad really considering we thought he might need them every two months. Jason checked him last on 14/11 and said we will check him again in 6 weeks. My vets do it strictly for cost and make no/very little profit out of it - they do this because they know that if they didn't some folks would have the bun euthanased.

Charlie, my dear Bridge boy, had some tooth burring done around 3 years ago: Petplan paid out but said they wouldn't another time because strictly speaking it wasn't covered. When I told Jason he was rather cross and said that if it did need doing again he would speak to Petplan about it so it might be worth having a chat with your vet about the particular type of dental work you are having to have done. :wink:

Having said that, with 12 buns, my insurance would have been around £100 a month by now - I doubt they would have taken Robbie on board at 10 years old anyway - so I put away £80 each month instead for their care.
 
I don't have insurance for my animals - for the number I have it would cost me a lot! I am very conservative about my spending though, and will keep at least £500-1000 in my bank (and I know that my mum's bf would put anything higher on his credit card if an emergency cropped up)
I've been thinking of setting up another bank account just for a vet fund, and putting the majority of my wages into that until I have a few thousand pounds. Wouldn't be too hard as the only things I have to ensure I have money to pay for is rent and animal food, I'm not the sort to need new clothes every month (unless the rats have chewed through most of them :roll: ) or to need the latest music CDs and DVDs, etc.
I think that vet bills are a very important factor that should be considered before getting a pet. I don't think it's fair to leave euthanasia as the only option. Though I do understand that not all circumstances in life are predictable, I try my best to consider all aspects before taking on new pets (especially as I seem to be the sucker for ill pets that then require lots of vet care!)
 
Hi, the more I look into it, the more I am put off getting insurance for rabbits because it doesn't seem to cover anything that is likely to go wrong! At the moment I'm putting £120 each month into a vet account, but the dental work that Humphrey and Tilly require (incl vet trips etc) and Tilly's eye problem will eat up about two thirds of that over the year. That leaves me with a third for the other two, and Oli may need dental work also, which will leave me with... a big fat zero.

So, I will have to readjust some of my spending over the coming year in order to make sure I have enough money to cover any other illnesses. I looked into insurance with a leading provider, and for 2 rabbits only the premium for my area is £75/month - and they don't cover any dental work at all. This I find shocking. I would far rather pay that money into my own account and save up that way.

I will be very unlucky if I end up with 3 rabbits requiring dental work, but then I do have 3 dwarf lops... and so far 2 of them need work. What a shame that this lovely breed are so susceptible to dental problems.

b-m
 
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