Most expensive vet bill?

[YandereCapybara]

Since I’m starting to separate my finances from my parents’ finances, I realize that caring for my bun will be more difficult.
I’ve got the general cost of the food and litter, but I’d like to know how much money I should put aside for vet visits.
In your experiences, what is the general cost of a vet visit, and what was your most expensive visit?
Thanks guys!

[Mikey]

Most expensive was around 2,000$. Normal visits are around 250$. We sometimes get blood tests done for one of our rabbits during normal visits (mild organ imbalances, stomach problems, bladder problems), and those visits cost about 350$.

[Bam]

If your buns are healthy now, I’d recommend you to get pet insurance. It helps a lot. If I hadn’t had pet insurance last summer I’d have had to pay around 900 USD when my bun had a bad cold. (He needed bloodwork done, that’s expensive). From what I’ve read here on the forums there are even some rabbit insurances that covers dental issues. It’s not available where I am, so dental problems will still be very expensive. Many buns develop dental issues, so it’s a major problem and no wonder most insurance policies don’t cover teeth.

A bun can cost just about anything these days because rabbit vet care has gotten so much better. More procedures are available.

[Sirius&Luna]

I’m in the UK, so not sure how helpful this is. A vet consult is £38, so that’s always the base. Then meds for an eye infection were another £17. A recent bout of stasis with an overnight stay was £250 in total. One of my bunnies had a two night stay with round the clock care and an op to try and clear his gut, which failed and he was put to sleep, which cost £1400 in total.

I have insurance though, so I paid £50 for each of those visits, and the insurance paid the rest (apart from the eye meds I didn’t bother claiming for). Especially in the case of the £1400 bill, I would have hated to have not tried everything the vet recommended to save him because of cost, but because we had insurance I knew I could afford to try everything. I pay £10 a month per bunny.

[LBJ10]

It really depends where you are too. Prices vary widely.

[YandereCapybara]

I live in Canada, and I highly doubt I can get pet insurance for at least another five years (Parents don’t want to pay for it, and I’m not allowed to touch my bank account until I’m in university and out of the house) so I just need to start putting some money aside right now.
How much would you guys recommend? (I’d like to save enough to cover the most expensive procedure just in case)

[Sirius&Luna]

Well it’s hard to say, as as you can see vet bills can very easily rack up. I would want to have £2000 saved to cover any pet emergencies, as when Sirius was ill, I saw how quickly the bill went up. If you have more than one, they might need treatment at the same time, for example if it was something infectious, or they got into a sudden fight.

Sorry if i’m being stupid here, but why will they allow you to put money aside, but not buy pet insurance? In my opinion, it would be much safer to spend the money you would put aside every month on insurance. I spend £30 a month on insurance for my 3 bunnies, and if I only saved that amount (I would struggle to save more), then I wouldn’t be able to pay their large bills when they happen.

[Bam]

Yandere, I didn’t know you were in Canada. As far as I know it still isn’t possible to insure rabbits in Canada. Much to the regret of several of our members.

[Deleted User]

Myrtles spay cost £530

[Deleted User]

My boys were $350 each for their neuters, and the most expensive vet bill was when Bombur stayed overnight for Enterotoxemia. That visit was $3,000, which we are still paying off.

[Wick & Fable]

Most expensive for me was a molar grinding lumped into buying a bigger medication bottle refill. That came to $375. Wick’s neuter was $268.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Muchelle]

I usually get check up visits (+ nail clipping if necessary) for free. Regular expenses are 50€ per vaccine.
As for illness treatments, we paid 150€ for the molar grinding, 300€ for molar extraction (boarding included, medicines not included).

Last year K had to have 3 emergency surgeries + 1 week of boarding + meds and it topped up to around 1500€, but that was exceptionally bad

So… I’d say that a cash stash of 1500 dollars should be okay to cover for apocalyptic vet scenarios?

[Sirius&Luna]

How on earth did Myrtle’s spay cost £530 Emma? That’s crazy. Luna’s was £110 with an overnight stay.

[sarahthegemini]

Goodness me, that’s an expensive spay Emma! Mine cost just over £100!

Biggest vet bill thus far *touch wood* has been around £400 for a stasis emergency.

[Deleted User]

Posted By Sirius&Luna on 3/05/2018 7:42 AM

How on earth did Myrtle’s spay cost £530 Emma? That’s crazy. Luna’s was £110 with an overnight stay.

Yeah she had to stay in 2 nights and had round the clock care to syringe feed her every 2 hours. Plus the after care meds. Then there is location which is in Surrey which bumps the price up 

[YandereCapybara]

That’s the thing: they don’t
They typically don’t approve of me spending more than $500 on my pets, so anything expensive comes to me calling my brother for help and an excuse to get my parents out of the house for a couple of hours, which is obviously not a good long term solution, as eventually, he will need the money to start up his own family.
I make a bit of money tutoring younger students, which I can set aside to buy “very cool teenager stuff that my parents don’t know how to purchase”, but as I make a very small sum of money from it, it would take me at least two months to save up for more expensive surgery procedures, which is why I want to start saving money earlier.

Buying insurance, as bam said, is not possible, and there would be no way for me to do that very discreetly (Also, I don’t believe minors may purchase insurances over here)

[Sirius&Luna]

In that case, I guess just put aside what you can! It’s good that your brother can help if there’s an emergency too.

You sound very responsible!

[HarryMila]

Only in the last 6 weeks we have paid $6,000 CAD for Mila being admitted to the hospital twice. It is a big financial burden but could not sit there and watch her die.

we have another rabbit Harry, he has an ulcer in his eye and dr just told us they will need to remove the eye. We have spent over 1,500 on him on the last 6 months and surgery will cost 3,000.

 

that’s almost 10,000 CAD in 6 months. I’m not including expenses prior to that but Mila is on medication for life and has been admitted to the hospital before. They are adorable but I wish someone would have shared these numbers with me. I’m not even adding the emotional toll it gets on me every time they get sick.

[pinkiemarie]

In the US I’ve seen a steep increase in prices over the last year. 2 years ago we had stasis including an overnight visit for just over $100. This September we had stasis at the same vet for about $300.  My friend’s rabbit recently had bad diarrhea and the vet thought he wasn’t going to make it. He pulled through and with all the meds, 2 nights in the hospital, x-rays, blood tests, etc it was about $700 I believe.

 

So I suggest calling around to vets that you know are experienced with rabbits and ask them for an average price for things like a stay with stasis or dental work. If there’s only one in your area then you’re at their mercy but you can at least have an idea ahead of time how much they charge.

 

Also keeping things like critical care and baby simethicone on hand can cut back on vet bills by sometimes allowing you to head off a tummy ache before it becomes an emergency.

[DanaNM]

Since this is a very old thread, I will go ahead and lock this so things dont get confusing. But @HarryMila , if you have any questions feel free to start a new thread.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

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