Going rate for feline dental?

I'm having a bit of sticker shock here... Meep is having some sinus
problems, and my vet is trying to talk me into getting a dental at the
same time they look at her sinuses, due to the concern about putting
older cats under anesthetic.

They want over $600 for a "level 3" dental - that's just the dental,
doesn't include the anesthetic or anything else - full cost would be
well over $1,200. The sinus flush and xray, together by themselves is
only about $200, but add on all the extra stuff, mostly related to
anesthesia, and just the flush is about $700.

Is this a reasonable cost for dental work plus a sinus xray and nasal
flush? Or even just for the xray and flush under anesthesia?

jmc

Suddenly, without warning, jmc exclaimed (5/9/2011 6:21 PM):
I'm having a bit of sticker shock here... Meep is having some sinus
problems, and my vet is trying to talk me into getting a dental at the
same time they look at her sinuses, due to the concern about putting
older cats under anesthetic.

They want over $600 for a "level 3" dental - that's just the dental,
doesn't include the anesthetic or anything else - full cost would be
well over $1,200. The sinus flush and xray, together by themselves is
only about $200, but add on all the extra stuff, mostly related to
anesthesia, and just the flush is about $700.

Is this a reasonable cost for dental work plus a sinus xray and nasal
flush? Or even just for the xray and flush under anesthesia?

jmc


Well, I called two local clinics to get estimates, without telling them
what my vet's estimate was. Both were less than half the cost I was
offered by my current vet. Even adding in a "we're tryin' to get your
business" fudge factor, that'd still be hundreds less.

And thus, the problem with choosing a vet with a clinic in an affluent
area. They're a great vet, I quite like them, and have known for some
time they're expensive. I just never realized just *how* expensive...
until recently when I realized the cost of a regular hours visit to my
vet is about the same as an after hours visit to the emergency clinic
down the road...

jmc

On Mon, 09 May 2011 18:21:11 -0400, jmc
wrote:

I'm having a bit of sticker shock here... Meep is having some sinus
problems, and my vet is trying to talk me into getting a dental at the
same time they look at her sinuses, due to the concern about putting
older cats under anesthetic.

They want over $600 for a "level 3" dental - that's just the dental,
doesn't include the anesthetic or anything else - full cost would be
well over $1,200. The sinus flush and xray, together by themselves is
only about $200, but add on all the extra stuff, mostly related to
anesthesia, and just the flush is about $700.

Is this a reasonable cost for dental work plus a sinus xray and nasal
flush? Or even just for the xray and flush under anesthesia?

jmc

THe last dental I had done cost $160, including the anesthesia. This was
for cleaning my cat's teeth, which had a lot of plaque build up.

I paid extra, to have the vet use isoflurane, rather than ketamine for
anesthesia.

I did pay an additional $90, a week earlier, for a full blood panel, to
be sure my elderly cat was healthy enough for anesthesia.

You are being grossly overcharged, from what I have experienced.

You need to find a new veterinarian.

If a dental cleaning is done during another procedure, it should cost
less, due to the shared expense for anesthesia.

Instead, your vet is charging TRIPLE what my vet recently charged me.

I know that my veterinarian is having a bit of a rough time, due to the
economic downturn. Some clients have left, and some others have had to
decline recommended services, due to lack of funds.

My bet would be that your vet is experiencing the same reduction in
fees, and is seeking to make up a huge portion of this loss, by grossly
overcharging YOU.

Ask your friends, coworkers, anybody else you can think of, for a
recommendation. Call around to a few vets, and ask what a dental
cleaning costs; get a total for all required services.

This will give you an idea of what other charges might be, for other
services.

By law, your current veterinarian MUST transfer your cat's records to
another veterinarian, though they are allowed to charge a fee for
copying the records. Most vets simply send the records by fax, which
takes only a few minutes.

I have never had a vet actually charge me those 'copying' fees,
however.

Good luck with your cat.

On Mon, 09 May 2011 18:21:11 -0400, jmc
wrote:

I'm having a bit of sticker shock here... Meep is having some sinus
problems, and my vet is trying to talk me into getting a dental at
the same time they look at her sinuses, due to the concern about
putting older cats under anesthetic.

They want over $600 for a "level 3" dental - that's just the dental,
doesn't include the anesthetic or anything else - full cost would be
well over $1,200. The sinus flush and xray, together by themselves
is only about $200, but add on all the extra stuff, mostly related to
anesthesia, and just the flush is about $700.

Is this a reasonable cost for dental work plus a sinus xray and nasal
flush? Or even just for the xray and flush under anesthesia?

jmc

THe last dental I had done cost $160, including the anesthesia. This
was for cleaning my cat's teeth, which had a lot of plaque build up.

I paid extra, to have the vet use isoflurane, rather than ketamine for
anesthesia.

I did pay an additional $90, a week earlier, for a full blood panel,
to be sure my elderly cat was healthy enough for anesthesia.

You are being grossly overcharged, from what I have experienced.

You need to find a new veterinarian.

If a dental cleaning is done during another procedure, it should cost
less, due to the shared expense for anesthesia.

Instead, your vet is charging TRIPLE what my vet recently charged me.

I know that my veterinarian is having a bit of a rough time, due to
the economic downturn. Some clients have left, and some others have
had to decline recommended services, due to lack of funds.

My bet would be that your vet is experiencing the same reduction in
fees, and is seeking to make up a huge portion of this loss, by
grossly overcharging YOU.

Ask your friends, coworkers, anybody else you can think of, for a
recommendation. Call around to a few vets, and ask what a dental
cleaning costs; get a total for all required services.

This will give you an idea of what other charges might be, for other
services.

By law, your current veterinarian MUST transfer your cat's records to
another veterinarian, though they are allowed to charge a fee for
copying the records. Most vets simply send the records by fax, which
takes only a few minutes.

I have never had a vet actually charge me those 'copying' fees,
however.

Good luck with your cat.

Sounds about the same as my dentist charges for me. So, its just a
racket......

On May 9, 4:47*pm, Gandalf ingold1234(at)yahoo(dot)com (Gandalf)
wrote:


Hi Gandalf

I posted today on rpca that I hadn't heard from you in ages- wondered
how you and Lorelei were getting on?

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

On 5/9/2011 6:21 PM, jmc wrote:
I'm having a bit of sticker shock here... Meep is having some sinus
problems, and my vet is trying to talk me into getting a dental at the
same time they look at her sinuses, due to the concern about putting
older cats under anesthetic.

They want over $600 for a "level 3" dental - that's just the dental,
doesn't include the anesthetic or anything else - full cost would be
well over $1,200. The sinus flush and xray, together by themselves is
only about $200, but add on all the extra stuff, mostly related to
anesthesia, and just the flush is about $700.

Is this a reasonable cost for dental work plus a sinus xray and nasal
flush? Or even just for the xray and flush under anesthesia?

Scarlett, my little one with chronic calicivirus, has had several
dentals and they run just over $200 in total. That includes extractions
if her gums are messed up from the calici. She's had gums grow almost
over a tooth on a couple of occasions. The only cure was extraction.

I have to agree that this estimate is WAY too expensive. The last
dental I had was a few years ago, but I paid around $240. This
included pre-op bloodwork and the entire procedure. I believe I paid
extra for some antibiotics following the procedure.

IMO, you need to find a different vet. Does Meep even need a dental or
the sinus flush? What will the flush accomplish? I think a second
opinion would be a good idea before putting her under for something
that may not be necessary.

Rene

On Tue, 10 May 2011 14:09:25 -0700 (PDT), Lesley Madigan
wrote:

On May 9, 4:47*pm, Gandalf ingold1234(at)yahoo(dot)com (Gandalf)
wrote:


Hi Gandalf

I posted today on rpca that I hadn't heard from you in ages- wondered
how you and Lorelei were getting on?

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

Did you get my E-mail?

On May 9, 3:21*pm, jmc wrote:
I'm having a bit of sticker shock here... Meep is having some sinus
problems, and my vet is trying to talk me into getting a dental at the
same time they look at her sinuses, due to the concern about putting
older cats under anesthetic.

They want over $600 for a "level 3" dental - that's just the dental,
doesn't include the anesthetic or anything else - full cost would be
well over $1,200. *The sinus flush and xray, together by themselves is
only about $200, but add on all the extra stuff, mostly related to
anesthesia, and just the flush is about $700.

Is this a reasonable cost for dental work plus a sinus xray and nasal
flush? *Or even just for the xray and flush under anesthesia?

It will vary by the area. I know the vet closest to me is double what
a lot of other vets charge. I have had two dental surgeries done in
the past year (same cat). Both surgeries included the bloodwork,
anesthesia, pain medication, etc. The first surgery pulled two teeth
and had 3 xrays. It was $700. The second surgery had one tooth pulled
and 2 xrays. It was $a little over $600.

Overall, the first one seemed great, and the second one really
bothered me. After the first one, Quinn was immediately eating dry
food with enthusiasm,. and I had never seen her eat hard food. I had
her for about a year and a half before that. She was obviously
improved. That was May of last year. By August, I could see that the
problem was returning. We did several vet visits working on the
problem, and from talking to people at cat shows and searching online,
it was looking like maybe I should get all her teeth pulled. It was
looking like stomatitis, and the problem would just keep coming back.
I asked for an estimate to get all the teeth pulled, and I was told
about $1200.

I saved up, scheduled it, and found out after she was awake that they
only pulled one tooth and cleaned the rest. They claimed that they
never understand that was what I had asked for, and they didn't feel
it was a good idea. That may or may not be true, but clearly she was
not as good after the second surgery. She picked up dry food a couple
times and dropped them. She wanted to eat it but could not. And they
only did 2 xrays even though it takes 6 xrays to see all the teeth.
Most dentists agree that the problem starts under the gumlines, and
the only way to know is by xray. A cat with dental history should have
all teeth xrayed. I don't know if the vet was incompetent, or if they
figured that the next bad tooth would be new money, so better to not
find it right away. My old vet retired 2 years ago, so this was not my
long time trusted vet.

I ended up changing to a new vet, recommended by a friend who fosters
cats and goes to the vet a lot. The new vet is also reluctant to pull
all the teeth, but agrees that all teeth should be xrayed the next
time she is under anesthetic. And she will pull any tooth that hints
at looking bad. She also found right away (a week after the last
surgery) that Quinn's mouth was inflamed on the roof of her mouth and
at the back of her mouth. We have been using prednisolone to work on
the inflammation, and she is doing better, though she only eats dry
food randomly.

My sister took a cat in for dental surgery last month. I have yet to
see the itemized bill, but I think it was around $600 and her cat had
4 teeth pulled. He had an abcess, so his teeth were in bad condition.

I would ask around with your cat owning friends for recommendations
for a good vet. I am really happy with my new vet. She looked at more
than just Quinn's teeth, and she has also recommended some training
tips to help with some of her behavior at cat shows. She had reacted
in pain when it hurt, but then expected it to hurt, so continued to
react badly. I really liked that she was willing to try a mild anxiety
medication to see if that helped (it did, so it wasn't just a pain
issue at shows), and she gave training tips. And the last vet visit
was a total mystery. She reacted in pain at the show, sometimes to her
right ear, and sometimes to her back. At the vet's office the very
next day, she was happy and friendly, and showed no pain reaction at
all. She checked the ears very carefully, and she dug at the places
that showed reactions the day before. She couldn't find anything. She
said it could be an attitude thing, or it could be a rare nerve issue
causing random sensitivity. The test is an mri which is very
expensive, but the treatment is steroids, which we had just reduced
for the mouth issue. So, we increased the dosage again, and she told
me to start a journal of her medication dosage and her behavior at
shows. We could use that as a guide to see if the medication is truly
helping. And she has been doing better.

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