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Thoughts on insurance

N

New rabbit owner

Young Bun
Hi,

We get our baby rabbits a week tomorrow and I’m thinking of putting them on vets 4 pets complete care package, where you pay £7 a month per rabbit and get all their routine things cover/ at a reduced rate. I all ready have this for my cat and it works really well. What I was wondering is should I take insurance out for them as well, we never have done for the cat, but she has never really needed the vet.

Any advice

Thanks
 
Hi and a warm welcome to the forum :wave: There are a lot of people here who are experienced in looking after rabbits and please feel free to ask any questions you have.

As far as insurance goes, this is very much a personal decision which needs to be taken according to one's circumstances. My vets also have the sort of scheme you have described, but I haven't insured my rabbits. Lots of people on the forum do insure their rabbits and are happy with that decision. What I would say is that rabbits can become unwell and sometimes their treatment can be costly. On the other hand, some rabbits are fortunate enough to not require expensive vetinary treatment. I think with all insurance you need to decide whether you would feel more secure knowing that all or some of the cost of treatment would be reimbursed.

I wish you loads of happiness with your new rabbits. They are amazing creatures:love:
 
I wouldn’t be without my insurance. I dread to think how much my bunnies would have cost me in the past few years that I have claimed on insurance. It would run into the multiple thousands, I would say 5k minimum. Most of that on just two rabbits
 
I highly recommend insurance.
Insurance is there for all the things you can't plan for. In terms of cats it's for things like Road Traffic Accidents, cystitis, cat fight injuries.
For rabbits it's for things like dental problems (check the small print - Petplan Cover dental treatment), broken bones from accidents, gut stasis (where bun stops eating).

I've seen it all too often where people have been unable to afford life saving treatment for their pets because they've not had insurance so our only choice was to carry out euthanasia.

The "package" you're signed up for is a really good way to make routine, planned thing easier to afford.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
Hello, it's very much a personal choice and whether if something unexpected happened you'd have access to finances to cover vet bills.

I have insurance and I'm so glad that I have. My 2 year old rabbit recently became ill and to help him he was referred to a specialist. The work that they did cost £800/ Fortunately this was covered by the insurance, I would have struggled to find that amount without warning.

Having insurance gives you options, I hope never to be a position where I'm limited in what I can do to help my rabbit because I can't afford it, the insurance helps with this.
 
New rabbit owner said:
Thanks for the replies.

Defiantly think I’m go to get insurance on top of the vets scheme.
Click to expand...

Great shout! :thumb:

my two first bunnies didn't have insurance, and although the circumstances we're rare, we ended up paying out over £5k in less than a year!

Thankfully my two little monsters now and fully insured and all future buns will also be! :)
 
Having just looked at the schemes, the vac4life scheme may work out as better value at £99 for life (vs £7 a month = £84 a year every year), although it only covers myxo / RHD1 and not the RHD1&2 vaccination - so you would have to pay separately for that (but it is the cheaper of the two). The rabbit care package covers flystrike treatment and vaccination. You really shouldn't need routine flystrike treatment. There are all sorts of side effects - and it should be totally unnecessary with a decent diet (lots of hay / grass) and standard hygiene.

If you can afford it, I would suggest the vac4life and Petplan insurance. You then only need to cover the annual RHD1&2 vaccination and the insurance excess should you need to claim (barring any exclusions). Having 20% off treatment on the complete care package is essentially cancelled out by the insurance.

Don't forget you still have to neuter and probably microchip as additional one-off costs - and they are not covered by insurance anyway.
 
New rabbit owner said:
Hi,

We get our baby rabbits a week tomorrow and I’m thinking of putting them on vets 4 pets complete care package, where you pay £7 a month per rabbit and get all their routine things cover/ at a reduced rate. I all ready have this for my cat and it works really well. What I was wondering is should I take insurance out for them as well, we never have done for the cat, but she has never really needed the vet.

Any advice

Thanks
Click to expand...


Hi there and welcome to the Forum :wave:

As others have said, it's a personal decision based on your own circumstances and how you view these things. There are loads of insurance companies out there, so shop around and do read the small print. Some things can be misleading :)

Good luck x
 
Shimmer said:
If you can afford it, I would suggest the vac4life and Petplan insurance. You then only need to cover the annual RHD1&2 vaccination and the insurance excess should you need to claim (barring any exclusions). Having 20% off treatment on the complete care package is essentially cancelled out by the insurance.

Don't forget you still have to neuter and probably microchip as additional one-off costs - and they are not covered by insurance anyway.
Click to expand...

This is what I went for - vac4life and insurance. I felt vac4life was better value but you would have to bear in mind that you will need to pay for the first vaccination if your rabbits are not already vaccinated so it could be expensive initially but worth it over the years. My bunnies all came vaccinated, microchipped and neutered which meant I just needed to pay the cost of vac4life.

I have paid insurance for 2 rabbits for over 2 years now, and my third rabbit for over a year, without having to claim. Slightly annoying when you add up how much I’ve paid in premiums but it would be more annoying to have a big vet bill with no insurance to cover it I think.
 
We've got Petplan insurance for all 12 of ours, which does add up, but I can't take the risk of a big bill for treatment. I didn't shop around, so I can't really comment on which policies are the best value x
 
Wow yes that must be expensive for 12, makes mine seem cheap in comparison! Likewise I’ve only ever used petplan, haven’t actually shopped around as petplan seems to be the most recommended.
 
Casco said:
Wow yes that must be expensive for 12, makes mine seem cheap in comparison! Likewise I’ve only ever used petplan, haven’t actually shopped around as petplan seems to be the most recommended.
Click to expand...


Yes I think PetPlan is very good :thumb:

However, depending on your area, the prices vary drastically. PetPlan don't seem to realise that people travel many miles to see a good vet, so assuming one particular postcode will be 'expensive' on vet's bills and another not is rather a delusion :lol:
 
TheThreeB's said:
We've got Petplan insurance for all 12 of ours, which does add up, but I can't take the risk of a big bill for treatment. I didn't shop around, so I can't really comment on which policies are the best value x
Click to expand...

Do PP not do a discount for a multi-pet Policy ?
 
MightyMax said:
Yes I think PetPlan is very good :thumb:

However, depending on your area, the prices vary drastically. PetPlan don't seem to realise that people travel many miles to see a good vet, so assuming one particular postcode will be 'expensive' on vet's bills and another not is rather a delusion :lol:
Click to expand...

I can defo vouch for this, I did a quote for my parents address back in Wales and it was just under £35 difference to what I pay down in Berkshire!
 
Jack's-Jane said:
Do PP not do a discount for a multi-pet Policy ?
Click to expand...
I got a discount when I added Phoebe to the existing policy.

I always recommend PP though as I've worked with them as both a Veterinary practice and a policy holder. I see why they cost what they cost.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
daphnephoebe said:
I got a discount when I added Phoebe to the existing policy.

I always recommend PP though as I've worked with them as both a Veterinary practice and a policy holder. I see why they cost what they cost.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


It's worth asking whether an Insurance Company do a multi-pet discount for sure. But look at the prices first :thumb: Some bump up their prices and so don't come out any cheaper when you take the discount off.
 
Petplan do offer multi pet discount however when I got my third rabbit it was actually more expensive to add her to the existing policy than to start a new one just for her, which confused me!
 
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