Who has insurance for their rabbits?

After an almost £300 vet bill last night, I'm considering insurance for the first time. My rabbits are rarely unwell (touch wood), but wondering if it is worth getting them insured. I'd be interested to hear if anyone on here has their bunnies insured, and if you think it is worth the monthly cost (also, how much do you pay monthly for yours?)

Never had insurance for my rabbits. I think it depends to an extent on people's circumstances and whether they would be able to find large amounts to pay a hefty bill.

PetPlan and Agria seem to come up as the most recommended for bunnies. I've been with PetPlan, they paid out quickly every time. I claimed for behavioural and then they also paid out for a dental and Bigwigs' referral for lung tumour. However, before I'd had any claims and when she'd turned one it did go up quite a bit and again at the next renewal so I'd imagine it would've ended up quite expensive. They tend to introduce a 10 or 20% copayment when the rabbit is senior also. Sadly Bigwig died before she was 3, but I started off paying about £9 a month and ended on £16. I got a quote to insure a 3 year old bunny recently and both companies were about £20.

Jake isn't insured as he has too much pre existing, anything noted on your rabbits history won't be covered by insurance now. Jake had exclusions for teeth, respiratory and ears. He has a respiratory infection when we first got him and has since had one or two flare ups, had ear wax noted at a vaccine appt and has to have his ears cleaned at home every now and again and had a dental.

We are with pet plan. It sort of carried forward as our last 2 rabbits - Leo and flo both had cover via blue cross so we carried it on. Leo was exempt from claims as he was a lion head so is known to have dental issues (we found out the hard way in March when Leo had tooth spurs and a £400 bill. We are hoping that the insurance covers his treatment and hospital bills which were well over £3k. If they don’t, then I’m living in a tent minus a kidney.
We were told by someone that another way to do it is to stuff 30 or 40 quid a month in a jar or an account and just use that for any bills. Currently up til Monday, we paid circa £30 month for our two rabbits but this will now drop to about 20 quid a month.
Hope this helps.

We have petplan and has been great for the buns that haven't had any history of problems.

Blossom unfortunately was in stasis when she came into rescue and I've not managed to convince petplan that it's not due to a preexisting condition so she is not covered for that. They will review after a year of no illness so hopefully she will be covered next year.

And dentals aren't covered for any buns but they did cover Rodney's first one as he was ill with other things at the time. They put a note on the claim saying they would never pay for another.

Every so often I consider the savings in a jar but so far the 26 a month we pay has been worth it.

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I heard it for the first time and now I'm searching. But I see that pet insurance in Turkey does not cover rabbits.:|:|

Sophie is insured, but Casper isn't as Petplan said he goes to the vets too often and they wouldn't insure him. I pay yearly instead of monthly, since you get a tiny discount that way, and it's about £110 per year, converted from euros, but she has the cheapest plan and it helps that she's been insured since she was little, because when you insure them once they're older it'll cost more I believe. To be honest, when she was younger it was a bit of a waste, since she rarely had health problems, but now that she's older and sees the vet more often I've been glad for the insurance. To be honest, I think at this point, if they would insure Casper, I wouldn't do it, because it would be very expensive because of his age, and a lot would be excluded, so in that case it probably works out better to put aside some money each month, like Craig mentioned.

Omi said:

Never had insurance for my rabbits. I think it depends to an extent on people's circumstances and whether they would be able to find large amounts to pay a hefty bill.

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This, if an unexpected Vet Bill into 4 figures is not something you could cover then Insurance is a must. But do choose carefully, some Pet Insurance is now very expensive, especially after the first year even if no claims are made during that time. Insurance companies will also jump through hoops to find reasons to decline a claim. However boring it is and however much there is ALWAYS read the small print. Any pre existing conditions will be excluded. So if before taking out the Insurance the Rabbit had been treated by a Vet for a gut Stasis it is unlikely that any GI tract problems would be covered by any future Insurance Policy.

I've always felt uneasy about insurance in the sense of what if they don't pay up? that said I rarely hear of people having a problem. The exclusions would have been prohibitive with Mousey who had EC when I adopted her. What I hadn't factored in to the cost of keeping bunnies is their needs when they are older (she has: daily metacam & joint support tablets, regular mite treatment & 'preventative' panacur) - I don't know whether insurance covers these things? Over the last 28 ish years I've had 9 bunnies (incl my current three). I'd say 2 of them I'd have been better to insure. Boo had an 'expensive' couple of years when she had a weird cyst causing all sorts of dental problems but its 15 months since her last. I do think the peace of mind would be nice but I'd have to get over my trust issues to obtain that. I don't know if any of your bunnies are 5+ years. I think that becomes an issue as most won't insure at 5+ but Agria do an age amnesty thing - every October I believe

joey&boo said:

I've always felt uneasy about insurance in the sense of what if they don't pay up? that said I rarely hear of people having a problem. The exclusions would have been prohibitive with Mousey who had EC when I adopted her. What I hadn't factored in to the cost of keeping bunnies is their needs when they are older (she has: daily metacam & joint support tablets, regular mite treatment & 'preventative' panacur) - I don't know whether insurance covers these things? Over the last 28 ish years I've had 9 bunnies (incl my current three). I'd say 2 of them I'd have been better to insure. Boo had an 'expensive' couple of years when she had a weird cyst causing all sorts of dental problems but its 15 months since her last. I do think the peace of mind would be nice but I'd have to get over my trust issues to obtain that. I don't know if any of your bunnies are 5+ years. I think that becomes an issue as most won't insure at 5+ but Agria do an age amnesty thing - every October I believe

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I think it depends on the insurance. For Sophie, the metacam is covered, but the joint support tablets aren't, and I think they'd cover the regular mite treatment. I think they wouldn't cover the panacur for Mousey, though, because she had EC when you adopted her, but if it was a new thing after she had been insured they would've.

a reader of books said:

I think it depends on the insurance. For Sophie, the metacam is covered, but the joint support tablets aren't, and I think they'd cover the regular mite treatment. I think they wouldn't cover the panacur for Mousey, though, because she had EC when you adopted her, but if it was a new thing after she had been insured they would've.

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That is useful to know - thanks

joey&boo said:

I've always felt uneasy about insurance in the sense of what if they don't pay up? that said I rarely hear of people having a problem. The exclusions would have been prohibitive with Mousey who had EC when I adopted her. What I hadn't factored in to the cost of keeping bunnies is their needs when they are older (she has: daily metacam & joint support tablets, regular mite treatment & 'preventative' panacur) - I don't know whether insurance covers these things? Over the last 28 ish years I've had 9 bunnies (incl my current three). I'd say 2 of them I'd have been better to insure. Boo had an 'expensive' couple of years when she had a weird cyst causing all sorts of dental problems but its 15 months since her last. I do think the peace of mind would be nice but I'd have to get over my trust issues to obtain that. I don't know if any of your bunnies are 5+ years. I think that becomes an issue as most won't insure at 5+ but Agria do an age amnesty thing - every October I believe

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Joint support would possibly/probably be covered if the vet prescribes it, I've never had a problem with claiming joint support in varying forms for my arthritic dogs. But they wouldn't cover it for prevention. They wouldn't cover mite treatment but would cover panacur, again if prescribed, but not if it as pre-existing.

I have mine insured, £11 a month each, with no pre-existing conditions. I just felt it was too much of a risk with giants, given the likelihood of joint issues in the future. It is fine to put a bit away, but be realisitic - £30 a month is only £360 a year, assuming you don't use any, and if you're looking at a stasis with a couple of days hospitalisation, or any kind of surgery, you'd be way over that in the space of a day. So if you opt for savings, also have a credit card or something in case you need it before you have enough in savings.

I think a lot depends on how many you have, when you get multiple animals it becomes less cost effective, and a better gamble to set aside that money instead. I also think - unsavoury though it is - it is worth thinking about what you are comfortable putting an animal through before you have to. Insurance can often mean more invasive treatment, more prolonged treatment, just because you can and it isn't always in the animal's best interests. Likewise if you wouldn't be willing to put a rabbit through surgery for the most likely things (broken legs, severe stasis perhaps) then insurance might be less appealing.

With my dogs I have always got much more back than I paid in. The bunnies so far are more in than out but I'm happy to keep it that way!!

Insuranceis always a gamble, some you win and some you lose, but if you opt against it make sure you are aware of the true costs, many people aren't sadly, and think about lifechanging decisions ahead of time. You can change your mind of course, but speaking from experience it does really help if you have considered things before you get to crunch time.

Really good advice from Dollyanna.

We have had 3 bunnies so far in the last 4 years. We had a really difficult time with our first bunny, who had multiple issues. We then had to put him down because of EC. He wasn't insured, and unfortunately cost us £2500 in the first 6 months, and that doesn't include the taxis and rail tickets. It was also awful losing him so quickly. Because of this experience I'd never be without insurance. Winnie is with 4Paws who I would highly recommend. Due to her eye issue they have always paid out really quickly, which is great as we've had to pay over £2000 in vet bills. They also pay for the ongoing medication for her eye, and the customer service is excellent.

Zigzag is with Agria- they were the only insurance company that did an age amnesty, and I got him covered when he was 7. I'm not entirely sure what they cover, but they haven't covered his metacam costs despite the fact that this wasn't a pre-existing condition. I have paid more in, than I've got out.

I think I pay 40 a month for both, not cheap, but we are always claiming

We are with agria and it’s 19 pounds a month. They have always covered everything including dentals and they pay out the most, I think it’s 2500 or more I can’t remember of the top of my head. Takes two minutes to sign up online.

Maple is with Petplan and dental trimming is not covered and she is 17 a month with a limit of 2000 xx


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I have all my pets insured as lessons have been learnt. A stasis episode is always around 400 pounds. Ct scan is 500 etc. Yes you can save and pay for yourself but in my experience why pay when someone else will. Unfortunately I am always claiming for something

InspectorMorse said:

This, if an unexpected Vet Bill into 4 figures is not something you could cover then Insurance is a must. But do choose carefully, some Pet Insurance is now very expensive, especially after the first year even if no claims are made during that time. Insurance companies will also jump through hoops to find reasons to decline a claim. However boring it is and however much there is ALWAYS read the small print. Any pre existing conditions will be excluded. So if before taking out the Insurance the Rabbit had been treated by a Vet for a gut Stasis it is unlikely that any GI tract problems would be covered by any future Insurance Policy.

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Yea I think this is what it comes down to.

I've never been sure whether to get insurance or not tbh, there'd be so many exclusions for my lot now though [emoji38][emoji38] it's probably best to get it when they're young if you're gunna, before they have any issues at all.

You could pay into your own emergency bunny fund, just an amount each month so you have your own saved money for emergencies.

I was also interested in older bunny ongoing care, so thanks for asking that J&B. I don't insure mine, but I do have an ISA set aside for any real emergenices that I won't let go below £5k. It's currently 'locked' into a 2.5% interest rate for another 2yrs, but I can access it if I need to. Realistically we can afford anything one-off up to about 3k, and that is the sort of thing you need to think about. None of my bunnies would have benefitted from insurance so far: Aboleth, the only one we've lost, had £60 per year spent on her vaccs and then £700 when she was really ill and died, so she 'cost' us less than £1k in vet stuff I would have made a saving if there was no excess and her premiums were about £10 per month, in that case (vaccs not being covered).

I have had insurance for about ten years and during that time it was invaluable. I did tot it up in the early days and I was definitely ahead with claims verses premiums.

I now have different circumstances ie more rabbits and financially more secure so the current plan is to let most policies expire on renewal. Eclipse has just challenged that theory by having 4 stasis episodes in about 6 weeks when never needing anything but vaccinations for the previous 5 years!! Working out all the aspects including not just premiums but excesses I've decided it's the way to go for me. Back in the day when Pets at Home did a years insurance for £76 pa then that was definitely the right thing to do but the balance has changed massively for me. I'm using OOH vets less because I just don't trust them enough and using OOH was when the bills got really big. I'm leaning towards the idea of insuring anybun for the first year though and see if they look like they will use it.

I have multiple pets and no insurance. I cover costs as needed and have been extremely fortunate with very few vet visits required over the years.

We didn’t insure our first rabbit and luckily never really needed to visit the vet with him. All our rabbits after that have been insured, I can’t remember what made me do it, but I’m glad I did. Like others say there are exclusions if they’ve been ill with a condition before taking out the policy although some conditions can be removed from the exclusions eg, our bridge bun Snowy had stasis before taking out the policy but if she hadn’t suffered again for a year (?) they were prepared to remove it.

We are with PetPlan and they cover for up to £2000 vet treatment per rabbit a year. It costs me £47 a month at the moment for our 3 rabbits and goes up slightly each year but for me that cost is well worth it. I’ve made A LOT of claims with them over the past 4 years and I’ve only had one bad experience in that time where they wouldn’t pay out. Every other time they’ve been amazing. Phillip’s heart/arthritis meds plus regular check ups soon start mounting up and that’s without any emergency treatment. His stasis treatment just this week has cost me £900 so far! I’m so thankful I’ll be able to claim that back.


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