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Does your vet take rabbits seriously?

Goodness, what an ordeal for her! I'm very privileged and thankful that my own, excellent exotics vet is a 5 minute drive away.
 
In my experience my first vets deemed any rabbit over two as old, that for starters isn't great. I have had the 'we can do this and this treatment but it's veeery expensive' along with the often negative 'it probably won't work/ do much good' talks.

To cut a long story short I wish I knew then what I know now, I know now that with a couple of my buns I could have done more but at the time I've trusted the vet or felt silly questioning them. Something I'll never do again, now if I think of something after, I'll always ring them back up or bring it up and the next appointment.

I'm also currently looking for a new rabbit savvy vet/ practice as I don't feel confident in the practice they're registered to at the moment

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Our local vet practice is great with small pets. Very lucky. Only 5 mins walk away.
 
In my experience my first vets deemed any rabbit over two as old, that for starters isn't great. I have had the 'we can do this and this treatment but it's veeery expensive' along with the often negative 'it probably won't work/ do much good' talks.

To cut a long story short I wish I knew then what I know now, I know now that with a couple of my buns I could have done more but at the time I've trusted the vet or felt silly questioning them. Something I'll never do again, now if I think of something after, I'll always ring them back up or bring it up and the next appointment.

I'm also currently looking for a new rabbit savvy vet/ practice as I don't feel confident in the practice they're registered to at the moment

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Sometimes we learn the hard way, I know I have :(

It's easy to forget that we are paying them to do a job. It's a bit like doctors - we don't like to question their authority, but once you begin to be quietly assertive then it certainly gets easier :)

I find it a good idea to have contacts with more than one vet practice, as when you come up against a brick wall you've then got somewhere to turn :)
 
if by taking them seriously you mean - "oh hello my little snuggles! aren't you simply adorable. oh my come here and let me sneak you out the back and never return you" then yes :lol:

in all seriousness, I haven't thankfully had too many issues. the first time I went to P@H vets I had some issues, but after asking about the practice owner understood how important it was and directed me to the two most knowledgeable. admittedly, they weren't exotic vets nor had they done proper training, but both had owned rabbits and had read many many books on them. they knew what they were doing. I only moved practice because they left.

I can see where the issue is though, many people look at you like you're mad. multiple family members and neighbours think i'm nuts for what I do. the fact I spent almost a month nursing Luna back to health after her spay.. the months I spent exhausting myself day and night to keep Snoopy alive. I'd get asked "why bother? they're replaceable". comments that I'm stupid for what I do. despite not everything worked out in my favour for Snoopy - I'd still do it all over again if need be.

its different but - I was looked at like I was insane for what I did for my gerbil. a year of antibiotics and vet trips until she became too weak to go on. I took my hamsters to the vet and gave them medicine when they were unwell. the fact I spent money on them and PTS rather than "releasing them into the garden". I won't say what else I was suggested to do.

when I discovered Luna was blind...many asked me if I would get rid of her. the reason they said that sounded like they couldn't be bothered to deal with a sick animal.

people view animals that aren't dogs or cats replaceable because you can purchase another for £10, £20 at a pet store. they don't see how important and wonderful they are. its sad.
 
I'm so very limited where I live, I have only the one vet practice available, any further means a very long journey, therefore more stress all round. To be fair to them though, they have been very good, despite hardly ever seeing any bunnies until I moved into the area ! and they do appreciate the fact that I have some knowledge of buns myself (thanks to RU) so will always take me seriously if I am worried about something. A couple of newish vets have joined now, and they seem much more clued up on small furries
 
I was very impressed with my vets (both guys Sonic has seen). Unfortunately, my favourite has gone to open up his own practice elsewhere :( He adored Sonic, and gave me ultimate confidence in him when he went for his first dental. He handled Sonic so nicely, and spoke to him like I speak to him!

The last time Sonic had a dental, the vet nurse was making up all sorts of excuses... "oh his temperature was low so I've had to cuddle him all afternoon..." :lol: I told her to enjoy the cuddles whilst he was off his face, as they never normally happen!

When I took Jake the guinea pig, I was a little less impressed by the lady vet that saw him... she took no time to talk to him and didn't seem confident in handling him at all. I guess she didn't know how much of a soft lump he is, but I was very surprised.

My friend is just about to start her final year to become a vet... unlucky for me and the pets, she's wanting to specialise in agricultural animals. She'll be a fantastic vet anyway, but I wish she could look after my boys for me :love:
 
I’ve only really had to ‘test’ them when one was injured during bonding. 2 surgeries to close the wound didn’t work as the skin kept splitting. They wanted to try again a third time but when I took her in for her admission appointment I expressed my concern about a third anaesthetic in less than 2 weeks, the vet I saw that day agreed and we decided to give it a chance to heal itself which did work - during my many visits I didn’t always see vets that actually worked there, a few were locums. They all did take the rabbit seriously, although I had varying degrees of confidence in the vets we saw. None of them saw her as ‘just a rabbit’ though. I live fairly close to the **** vet School in Edinburgh so if I wasn’t happy with the diagnosis or treatment from my local vet I would go there for a second opinion. So many people do see rabbits as easily replaceable, my own Mum implied that it wasn’t worth a £1k vet bill to treat the injury!

ETA: Oh dear the forum doesn’t like the name of the vet school :lol:
 
I’m very fortunate that I was working in a vets when I got our first bun Truffle so I knew who I could trust as “Bunny experts” and now I have a local vet who’s also a friend and he’s the “bunny guy” at that vets so I trust him with Truffle and Luther.

In the days when I was much younger and had a bunny I can’t even remember going to the vets with her, I think they were still such an exotic pet they weren’t seen like cats and dogs.
It makes me so sad to read so many stories and see distressed owners in other countries too that have no rabbit savvy vets, or particularly competent vets at all. The owners want what’s best for their bunnies and look after them well but are failed by today’s medicine when things happen and vets are needed :-(

Personally I think vets should all be encouraged to go to more CPD conferences that are bunny or exotics based because rabbits are such common pets now and they are so complicated medically.


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Mine’s fantastic - he’s an RWAF recommeneded and qualified exotics vet who speaks at the RWAF conferences, has published rabbit articles and has rabbits of his own. He’s always knowledgable and up to date and always has time for my rabbits. Sometimes that does mean he runs a bit late - I don’t care about that, I know he gives all the animals his full attention. The out of hours vet we saw at the surgery last year for a not eating Trevor at the same surgery (it’s a vet hospital) was also brilliant. Would recommend them to anyone.
 
I’m very fortunate that I was working in a vets when I got our first bun Truffle so I knew who I could trust as “Bunny experts” and now I have a local vet who’s also a friend and he’s the “bunny guy” at that vets so I trust him with Truffle and Luther.

In the days when I was much younger and had a bunny I can’t even remember going to the vets with her, I think they were still such an exotic pet they weren’t seen like cats and dogs.
It makes me so sad to read so many stories and see distressed owners in other countries too that have no rabbit savvy vets, or particularly competent vets at all. The owners want what’s best for their bunnies and look after them well but are failed by today’s medicine when things happen and vets are needed :-(

Personally I think vets should all be encouraged to go to more CPD conferences that are bunny or exotics based because rabbits are such common pets now and they are so complicated medically.


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Good to see you again - I hope you're OK?

Yes I wish that more vets topped up their knowledge. There's so much to learn about rabbits and to be at a loss when owners turn up with them isn't acceptable these days.
 
I agree with that article. "Don't assume owners won't pay for treatment"

Everytime Toby has gone to vets it's out of hours charge, xray, glucose reading, fluids, meds, overnight stay. And I wouldn't it want it any other way.

Don't you agree RU as owners we want the best and all the options!

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I agree with that article. "Don't assume owners won't pay for treatment"

Everytime Toby has gone to vets it's out of hours charge, xray, glucose reading, fluids, meds, overnight stay. And I wouldn't it want it any other way.

Don't you agree RU as owners we want the best and all the options!

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Exactly this. I want to be told "we would like to do this test and this test to rule out or determine...." none of this silent, sucking of teeth, probably going to be a bit of effort faces!

P.s. I've found another vets so going to ring them today. I just want them to be bothered, it's really not too much to ask

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Yes.

In fact, at the practice I go to, 2 out of the 4 vets are exotics trained. The 3rd has a very sincere interest in them, and is going to do additional training. The 4th is the "cat friendly" specialist. Which means, for all my animals, I'm perfectly covered. And it is literally only 5 minutes or so away. When Arce went into stasis (before we lost her) Z and S fought tooth and nail to get her through it, and gifted us an additional 2 months with OH's Lady. When Selene came off significantly worse during big group bonding, D (the one with interest, wanting to do more training) treated her absolutely fantastically. When we last saw Z, I spotted Twigs Way's foraging/gardening books on the side, and that's what Z has been using for this week's RAW posts (alongside a couple of my photos ;)). I wish the layout of the waiting rooms was more exotics friendly (though Aurora tortoise doesn't give a monkeys to be fair, but the rabbits sadly really do), but space is extremely restricted there. They have "dog" and "cat" halves, so of course we usually use the cat side. However, the amount of dog owners who just sit wherever they want irritates the heck out of me, but you can't fix stupid. But really, I'll take that considering the quality of service the vets and their staff actually offer.

I wish everyone were so lucky to have such good rabbit vets on their doorstep.
 
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