Certified Rabbit Expert

Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS. SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED. We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best.

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time.

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

What are we about? Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules.

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 14sd replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 4 months ago by jerseygirl.

Viewing 14 reply threads

Author

Messages
- 01/25/2009 at 11:31 PM
  Binkles
  Participant
  823 posts
  Perhaps this is just another one of my crazy, un-attainable ideas, but I feel like I need to publicize it anyway..
  
  One of our biggest problems as bunny owners is not only that truly rabbit-savy vets are sparse, but also that the emergancy vets we may take our bunnies to more often than not are DIS-savy; that is they are not simply UN-savy, but often blatantly wrong in the way which they approach things with bunnies, and resolved about it! They think they know what they’re doing, how to do something, what is a priority with a rabbit when they don’t.
  
  And we often times know it.
  
  It is to our (and to our bunnies’) detriment that we as knowlegable bunny owners are all too often dismissed by a misguided vet who is going in the wrong direction with a situation and thinks that we simply are mis-informed in our suggestions and/ or imput.
  
  It’s frustrating, nausiating, nerve-wracking, and often deadly. I’m not sure how everyone else feels, but to me it is the absolute most terrifying part of being a bunny owner.
  
  It would be ideal, of course, for all vets to have training in rabbit medicine as an integral part of their study like dogs and cats. However, unfortunately at this time it is not possible to expect the common practice vet to be widely educated in lagomorph care anywhere in the near conceivable future.
  
  My suggestion to help remedy this for the time being?
  
  Rabbit expertise certification tests.
  
  They would be funded, sponsored, and administered by a renowned group like the HRS. Available to vets and the public alike -to rabbit owners- the process would be much like the certification tests designed to certify Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator experts; you must show a proficiency above a certain VERY high percentage in adition to knowing all the basic (but often overlooked) core components of rabbit husbandry. On passing the test, you would receive a trackable card with your name on it identifying you as a ‘Certified Rabbit Expert’.
  
  There would also be levels of certified expertise, like classes on a driver’s liscense; most of us here are not nearly as educated as Dana Kremples, but most of us certainly are leaps and bounds above most common practice vets. (And even a lot of exotics vets in some areas.) People like Dana Kremples would, for example, score as being a Platinum level expert. You and I would be Bronze. Most vets would probably score below the cutoff number.
  
  It would be from this heirarchy which the emergancy/ local vets would be able to gage our knowlege level, and we through proxy would be able to gage theirs. Then taking our expertise level into consideration, the vet would then be able to determine whether or not to trust the knowlege and discernment we may offer them, guiding them in the correct direction and eliminating the threat of their closed ears to our pleas.
  
  At its most basic form, this would be a way to override the ideals of the over-zealous, overly-proud, mis-informed vets that we often encounter.
  
  (Pipe-dreaming, though it may be. )
- 01/26/2009 at 3:57 AM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  Wow! You’d certainly raise the bar if you could implement such a system. Your 1st hand experience with a non-savvy vet, I can certainly see why you feel strongly about this.
  
  The thing I’d fear with some sort of certification system is $$$! A badge or label often will drive up a price, so I’m thinking certified vets would feel justified in charging higher fees by holding these credentials. Then there’s the false certificates….like, how many products do you see now labelled as “certified organic” now that organic produce has risen in popularity? And how many versions of that badge or label you see on packaging…just companies jumping on the bandwagon to rake in some of the $’s! Frustrating!
  
  I’d be interested to know just how much rabbit health is taught in veterinary school. Wonder if in the case of a lot of vets, it is lapsed knowledge just through lack of practice (that is, not putting into practice this knowledge on a daily basis.)
  Lapsed knowledge or not, a lot of it would be out dated knowledge.
  
  I’m hoping as the popularity of rabbits as companion pets rises, and the need for rabbit vets rises, more will train specifically to cater to that need. Wish it didn’t happen in that order!
  
  Anyway Sarah – don’t discredit your ideas too quickly….I feel happier knowing people such as yourself are thinking of ways to better the system for rabbit care! The future in this area could look better if we campaign for changes such as the one you’re proposing.
- 01/26/2009 at 12:56 PM
  LittlePuffyTail
  Moderator
  18092 posts
  I agree with you, Binkles. Any vet can say “Yes I do Exotics or Rabbits” with absolutely no training or knowledge. Some vets are just money hungry and that makes it hard to know who to trust
  
  I’ll never forget the time I had a sick guinea pig and took him to a vet who “did exotics”. He had no idea what he was talking about and didn’t even know basic health info that I knew from reading a “Basic Guinea Pig Handbook”. He then told me he couldn’t do anything and charged me $60.00. Pretty easy money. Unfortunetly, I was in high school at the time and my Mom was with me, otherwise I would have been quite verbal with this particular vet. My guinea pig died about a month later because I couldn’t find the cause of his weight loss and illness
- 01/26/2009 at 7:30 PM
  KatnipCrzy
  Participant
  2981 posts
  In Michigan a Veterinarian is not required to take any additional education credits at all to renew their license. So they DO NOT HAVE TO LEARN ANYTHING NEW after vet school- and the State of Michigan will renew their license for the fee required. That is so wrong, and on so many levels. So you need to find a vet that cares enough and is interested enough to be a great vet and continue their education.
- 01/26/2009 at 7:38 PM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  So technically, they can just operate for years on what they learnt in school, despite that knowledge being reviewed or updated? That is wrong…
- 01/27/2009 at 12:17 AM
  MimzMum
  Participant
  8029 posts
  Considering what I just paid for Mimzy to be at the vet today for a few hours while they took xrays and such to check his breathing, (and I have to be happy with it, because they DID squeeze me in on a very busy day at the last minute) I could’ve put a down-payment on my own schooling to get certified. (Which I am thinking seriously of doing just to care for my own pets and anyone elses around here in the middle of Nowhere that needs it.)
- 01/27/2009 at 1:32 AM
  Crayon
  Participant
  238 posts
  I didn’t know that about Michigan vets. That is sucky. My vet that I have gone to for years for my cats say they treat rabbits though I have never taken my Bunny in yet. I am no bunny expert so I would not be able to tell if they knew what they were talking about or not anyways.
  
  I do not have cats anymore so my pets that may need vet care now are my bunny and my goldfish. It may seem stupid to some of you to take a goldfish to the vet but sometimes they need care too. If you think it is hard to get a good rabbit vet, just try asking around to see if someone will see your goldfish! I am on a goldfish forum and time and time again people are treated disrespectfully or laughed at by vets when they search for care. Luckily I have an aspiring aquatic vet in my area so if I ever need something I can go to her. Sorry if the goldfish thing was too off topic, I just thought I would throw that out there too. >)))>
- 01/27/2009 at 8:53 AM
  xParadise
  Participant
  182 posts
  I think I would take my goldfish to the vet if it was sick too! Haha. Not even a goldfish should have to suffer. Trust me, lots of people think it’s weird taking a rabbit to the vet. Especially my old-fashioned relatives who grew up on farms and just let rabbits, cats, etc. suffer from illness/injury or get eaten by coyotes- Now that I cannot justify.
  Pets are pets- we love them all just the same
- 01/27/2009 at 9:28 AM
  Sarita
  Participant
  18851 posts
  In Texas vet’s must have 17 hours of continuing ed – I’m not certain of the fee though to renew but at least they must have CE.
  
  I do know that certain schools have very good exotic pet programs as part of the curriculum – my vet went to Kansas State University and I believe they have a strong exotics curriculum. Many of the vets in Texas go to Texas A&M and their curriculum is very strong for the farming animals. I think that some schools have strong equine curriculum.
  
  Many of the vets that I have gone too are very interested in rabbit medicine because they see so many and take quite a bit of CE’s in rabbit medicine. I think that there are many vets out there as well who are interested in seeing animals other than cats and dogs and some who just cannot be bothered. I guess it takes more of an effort to know about animals other than dogs and cats.
- 01/27/2009 at 12:48 PM
  Binkles
  Participant
  823 posts
  Well perhaps there are some areas of the country that are saturated in vets who are at least interested in rabbit medicine, but there are also a LOT of dry spots -Florida being one of them. I’m sure also, if you live in a rural area pretty much anywhere in the country, you’re going to have to drive a good 2 or 3 hours to see the right vet.
  
  But anyway, Expertise Certification would **NOT** be a substitute for actually seeking out a good bunny-savvy vet and traveling the distance to see them. That is an absolute must for bunny owners, certification or not. I suppose that kind of a mindset like that could cause a problem in owners who get cocky and think they can simply diagnose and treat a rabbit themselves through proxy of a local non-expert/ lower grade vet. But again, it would NOT be intended for that use, and I think that if something like it were ever to be implemented, that would be one of the disclaimers GREATLY stressed.
  
  The use of Certifications would come into play mainly only in an emergency situation -when you cannot get to your bunny vet for whatever reason and you are stuck with the non-savvy emergency vet who needs to listen to you. (After hours, holidays, emergencies that must be delt with ASAP, etc.)
  
  As for the concern about vets who would jack up their prices on obtaining certification, it’s a valid point. However, I think -from what I’ve seen anyway- exotics vets typically tend to be a lot more empathetic than the regular money-hungry vets. Granted, some of these exotics vets can be money-hungry too, but the very fact that they are exotics vets in the first place usually suggests that they are in it for more than just the money. I’ve never met an exotics vet that cares more about money than they do the animal. Ever.
  
  So yes, giving such a license to vets might prove to be a ground for jacking up prices, but in most cases I doubt it would really affect their prices all that much. Especially once such a licensing system became common-place and ALL rabbit-savvy exotics vets had them. They wouldn’t have anything they could hold over one another’s heads, so why charge more?
  
  …
  
  ..but besides that, personally, even if they were to jack up prices, I would welcomingly dish out a few extra bucks for a service that I could rest assured in.
  
  (IF price were to become an issue, that could also be one purpose the level/ class system would serve -eliminating the threat of high prices for a lower-quality service. Vets like Dana Kremples would set the bar for what would be considered an acceptable price for the highest cost range and all other lower-ranking vets would have to follow suit.)
  
  Somebody also raised concern about forgery and false certification. The official test would be issued by ONE group only, like the HRS. It could be sponsored by a bunch of different organizations, but the actual certification process would be done through one specified group and you would receive your certification card from them directly through the mail. That’s one reason why the card you would receive would be trackable like a library card -scan it and your name is pulled up as being legitly certified in the database. It’s like a drivers license -VERY difficult to successfully forge.
- 01/27/2009 at 12:54 PM
  Sarita
  Participant
  18851 posts
  Dana Krempels is NOT a rabbit vet by the way and she doesn’t claim to be one – she is just a very knowledgeable rabbit advocate and HRS chapter manager.
- 01/27/2009 at 10:56 PM
  Binkles
  Participant
  823 posts
  Oh wow, really? That’s a surprise. =x She puts most vets to shame.
- 01/28/2009 at 7:56 AM
  Beka27
  Participant
  16016 posts
  my best friend is a vet tech, she went thru an 18-month associate’s program for her certification. not sure how it was for Katnip, but i believe all my friend had in the way of exotics education was 1-2 chapters per animal, something that was easily covered in one day of lecture. so now, a couple years after her certification, she is working in a top emergency clinic in the area, she has a specialty in surgery… and knows very little about rabbits and other exotics. they deal strictly with dogs and cats. i wonder if like with her, the exotic part of vet school is just a teeny tiny fraction of the whole, and it’s something they learn just to get to the next step, but don’t really retain much, unless they know they will be going into that field. even now, my friend, who is extremely interested in vet care will call or text me random questions about rabbits, things that she should know, but she either never learned, or they breezed over it so quickly…
- 01/28/2009 at 11:25 AM
  Binkles
  Participant
  823 posts
  That’s my thought, Beka. I’m pretty sure cat/ dog vet majors have to study exotics as much as art majors have to study quantum physics…
- 02/05/2009 at 11:06 PM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  I actually stumbled across this article today regarding Exotic Companion Mammal Specialty for vets.
  
  http://www.smallanimalchannel.com/critter-news/industry/exotic-companion-mammal-specialty.aspx
Author

Messages