Rabbit Insurance - Do I need to insure my rabbit?

It is almost universally well known that you can insure a dog, cat or horse, and pet insurance for these animals is recommended by veterinary surgeons and other pet care professionals. But what about smaller pets, like rabbits? If you keep a pet rabbit either in a hutch outdoors or inside of your home, it may not even have occurred to you that you might be able to insure your rabbit too. People often mistakenly beleive that the main benefit of pet insurance is to cover the replacement cost of the pet in case of loss, theft or death. For the vast majority of people who keep a pet simply because they enjoy its company and have bonded with that specific animal, insurance of this type can appear to be of little genuine value to the committed pet owner, with financial remuneration for death or loss doing very little to ease their pain and grief. However, there is much more to pet insurance than simply refunding the monetary value of the pet if the worst should happen- pet insurance covers a whole range of other areas which you may not even have thought about, and which offer infinite value to the rabbit owner as a safety net when they might need it most. Not sure if you should get your rabbit insured or not? Read on to find out more!

What does rabbit insurance cover?

As with any insurance policy, the level of the coverage provided for your rabbit will vary from company to company. It’s important to compare policies from different insurers and see what type of coverage options are available, in order to be able to make an informed decision as to whether or not insuring your rabbit is a good idea, and who to insure them with.Generally, rabbit insurance policies will provide some level of coverage and financial assistance with some or all of the following:

• Veterinary fees for accidents or injuries
• Veterinary fees for illness and other health conditions
• Non-routine dental treatments which are caused by an injury or illness (but not regular, routine treatments such as having their teeth trimmed)
• Complementary therapies for your rabbit
• Refunding to you the purchase cost of your rabbit if they are lost, stolen or die of an injury or illness
• Legal advice in the event of any third party liability involving your rabbit
• Assistance with legal fees
• Funding for advertising and offering a reward if your rabbit is lost or stolen

How does rabbit insurance work?

Insurance policies for rabbits work in a similar manner to other forms of pet insurance.Once you have compared the policies offered by various different insurance companies who will offer coverage for rabbits, you will sign up for a policy and pay a fee either annually or monthly in order to provide ongoing coverage for your pet. Then, if your rabbit is unfortunate enough to have an accident or get sick, when you take your rabbit to the vet, your insurance policy will pay towards the cost of their treatment- how much, depends on your specific policy. Some policies will provide coverage up to just a few hundred pounds, other policies will offer a much higher level of coverage- and the cost of the policy will vary accordingly.

Why is rabbit insurance a good idea for the pet owner?

If you own a top quality show rabbit with a high financial value, understandably, insuring them seems eminently sensible. But what about the owners of the much-loved everyday pet rabbits which might not have a high monetary value? The best way in which any individual rabbit owner can answer that question, is by asking themselves this. “If my rabbit needed expensive or urgent veterinary treatment, would I be able to pay for it out of pocket myself, even if it ran into thousands of pounds?” Unless the answer to that question is a resounding “yes,” then taking out insurance for your pet rabbit is the only sensible solution. Rabbit insurance policies go from just a few pounds per month, and can make urgent and expensive veterinary treatments possible for the owners of rabbits who otherwise may not be able to afford it.As any rabbit owner or veterinary surgeon will tell you, rabbits are delicate animals. They are not particularly hardy compared to pets like cats and dogs, and are potentially susceptible to a range of different transmissible illnesses (such as myxomatosis, although rabbit vaccinations have gone a long way towards limiting the spread and voracity of this disease and other such nasties) as well as being prone to occasional problems with their teeth and mouths, among various other things.It is a simple fact that most rabbit owners will need to pay for veterinary treatment for their pet at some stage during their lives. Being able to get your pet the veterinary treatment that it needs when it needs it is part of responsible pet ownership, and something which every pet owner must be sure that they can commit to doing if needed. Insuring your rabbit can help to make that possible, and is something which every rabbit owner should seriously consider.