Bunnies are expensive

madcatwoman said:

We have 5 cats and then R'Stan the bun.
All insured. Stan is the only rabbit we have ever insured. Ozzie who we lost last year totted up over £500 before we lost him.
Our outlay monthly in petplan is £120 but we have used it nearly every year that we have had it. Cats have tipped £1000 more than once.

I like that I can say yes lets try that with a vet and hopefully give the pet the best chance. Yes we could have a good holiday each year instead but thats only 14 days. Pets are 365.

My vet unfortunately has a pay first claim after policy but with Stan I asked if there was any kind of plan and they were agreeable to doing direct claim. Think they need to be confident in the client first. They are a small practice.

I shudder to think how much I have spent over the years on cats and rabbits. It will be upteen thousands. But to me its worth it. Although Stan is last bunny standing and the cats wont be replaced until we are at the point of being without......unless something turns up at the door:lol:

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that's a good way of thinking of it!

I don't keep a note of expenses. My late rabbit, Spenser Milt, was once greeted at the vets with, 'oh here's Spenser with another of his little episodes'.

Spenser also had expensive tastes in food. Bertie is far less fussy but has managed a few 'episodes'.

Plumpkin cost over £2000 in vet bills in the one year that we had her. We couldn't get her insured as her issues were already present.

We don't earn a huge amount so it wasn't something taken lightly, but we don't have children either and I suppose you could say that the bunnies are our main 'hobby' - we don't spend a lot on fancy holidays or expensive clothes etc.

I'm grateful that my remaining 3 bunnies are in good health, so hay, vaccinations and litter are the bulk of what we spend on them.

We have just started to embark on a CT scan and laparoscopy every month, £1200 a time...! :shock: On top of everyone else’s bills, including £200 a month on dentals, then there is all meds on top...and that’s just two of eight bunnies!

I think my cat George topped £1500 in his final 7 months, between diagnostics to determine what was wrong with him, and then prescription food for his palliative care. I would have paid that 10 times over if it could have cured him.

Another cat, Oscar, also ran up big bills towards the end of his life.

My dog, Rogan, is 9 years old and has a heart murmur that he’s recently been put on medication for - £70/month for the rest of his life, which I hope will be long and healthy.

I’ve never insured any of my pets, for right or wrong, and instead have always been fortunate enough to have savings to rely on in emergencies. Now that I have a steady income, I’ll be purposely putting money aside for a specific ‘vet fund’.

Pets will always break your heart eventually, just sometimes it’s more expensive than others. I’ll never judge anyone who can’t or won’t spend that sort of money, but I hope that I’m always in a position to give all I can - provided it’s in the animal’s best interests, of course. For George, I could’ve spent thousands and made stressful weekly car journeys to give him radiation treatment, but at best it would’ve given a 10% chance for at most an extra 6 months with him, and that just wasn’t right - for me, or for him.