We just got back from taking all 4 of our cats to the vet. What a ride! Lucy (our female abyssinian cat ~7years) has bleeding gums on her back teeth and is sensitive when 2 are touched. It's going to cost about $450 (!!!!!) to get her teeth cleaned and fixed. The other 3 cats have gingevitus, but are not nearly as bad as Lucy. We have to get Lucy's teeth fixed as she obviously is hurting, but should be lay down the cash for the other 3? We just refinanced, but were hoping to use that money for home repairs to help increase the worth of our house. Anyone else ever been in this position? Any vet mama's that have opinions?

I'm not a vet, but my second cat lived to 18. I had to have her teeth cleaned every 5 years. I had never done this with my first cat, so it was surprising for me (that cat lived to 17 1/2). When I brought my second cat in for her check-up, the vet broke a piece of tartar off my cat's back tooth - I thought he broke her tooth off! - and it showed me that it was a necessary thing to have her teeth cleaned. I think I paid $85, but this was a few years ago.

bump!

We're taking our 5 year old cat in to have his teeth cleaned in August. It's going to be $150. This will be his first time. I think it's worth it, if it means he'll be healthier longer.

My beloved cats lived to 20 and 14. The 20 year old was a mixed breed stray I picked up as a kitten. I remember having his teeth cleaned maybe twice. I don't remember it being so expensive. The vet would chip tartar off his teeth as much as possible in between to help things out. Putting a cat through a teeth cleaning is not something you want to do real often.

The 14 year old was a Himalayan and the vet said she was more prone to bad teeth because of her breed. I think she had a teeth cleaning once or twice during her life.

Good luck with it.
Donna

YES!!!!! Cats and dogs need their teeth cleaned as much as we do. Not for "looks", but because bad teeth leads to heart problems and more...and who can eat with sore, infected teeth or gums??? Pets need their teeth cleaned about every 1-3 years depending on the pet and breed....Persian and small breed dogs are more prone to dental issues and sometimes need it done yearly or even more. It's a heath issue that not only affects the teeth themselves but heart problems and more. Keeping them cleaned keeps them pain free, and also prevents painful and costly abscesses of the teeth and gums. I have seen dogs and cats not get reg. dentals and have them come in and need 75% of their teeth removed....rotten, ooky teeth. Loose teeth cause pain to eat with, broken ones, chipped ones....again, not about looks at all, about the root being affected and the pet not being able to eat well. )o: It's sad. People are often not told about the importance, and we see the results. The pets who come in and we "chip" off a quick chunk of tartar from the back tooth only to find pus under it and loose infected teeth.....)o:

$100-200 is about average for a cleaning. $200 for large dogs, and less for smaller pets. And this doesn't usually include extractions and such. That takes more time and must be done by a vet, not the tech, in most states. Many require suturing, etc. Plus pets won't sit there and open their mouths for us to clean, scrape, polish, etc. We use full sedation/anesthesia.....which is about 50% of your cost.

IMO it's important, and at minimum people should have their pets teeth examined, along with their overall health, yearly to get a vets opinion on teeth cleaning and whether it's needed now or can wait.

I hate seeing pets come in who can't eat normally or who eat in pain because of bad teeth.....:wah: Sadly many owners just don't even think about their pets teeth.....I know I never did before working in the vet field! I remember hearing about pet dentals 10 years ago and thinking what?! Clean teeth being *needed*? Huh? I had no idea about the relation to heart and thyroid problems their teeth are, nor did I ever think about, duh, they get tartar too, sore teeth, infections......Their teeth are like ours. (o:

P.S If you have a vet who uses newer and safer anesthesia, pets can undergo teeth cleaning yearly with no adverse affects from the anesthesia. We, here, use human anesthesia and do dentals on elderly pets, sick pets, even pets with nasty heart murmurs and such. Using the right anesthesia is key to being able to do them often without risks associated with oldschool type anesthesia, like Halothane and ket/val combos.

lol. Funny to see this topic. My mom loves her cats to pieces(she's actually adopted some from me and my sis). Anyway, I used to do what Denise does now. Clean cats teeth. It was nasty,but so necessary. I actually am the "pet caretaker" for my mom until she completes her move and I had to tell her just the other day her cats teeth needed to be cleaned.
We have had different scenarios with all our animals. The tartar buildup is the indication that you need the teeth cleaned. We had a dog that didn't need to get her teeth cleaned until she was 14 and another dog that's teeth were so bad that he needed them cleaned every year. They were both on the same diet ~ so it wasn't the food.
Anyway, onto my point and quit rambling, dry food is better for the teeth than soft. Soft food builds up more quickly and the hard dry food is less likely to buildup on the teeth so quickly(it will over time, but not as fast as the hard food). There's my long and drawn out 2 cents for the evening.

I had my cats teeth cleaned last August. He had a really bad abcessed tooth and they had to clean it out and they cleaned all his teeth. He got so bad to the point where he would eat and then throw it up cuz he couldnt chew his food cuz of the abcessed tooth hurting. He had a lump in his throat too they thought was cancer and turned out not to be so for test and the cleaning it cost me around $350. The cleaning itself was about $175. He is an inside/outside cat and does his business outside and he hadn't used a litterbox since he was little and he actually knew what to do with it and oh man i tell you, it was horrible cuz he doesn't have good aim from his behind and the anesthesia made him have loose poo and it would get outside the box and he'd do this at 3am and his tooting was so loud it woke me up lol I felt so bad for him. He's almost 13. The vet told me to come back every 3-5 yrs for cleaning. i had to wait 2 weeks for him to get his shots after the cleaning too.

Good Luck with your kitty! :)

Vaccines can be given at the same time as a reg. dental cleaning....but if there is infection, it means a lowered immune system, and thus the need to wait on vaccinating. But in a routine dental, done for maintenance, you can do it at the same time as a yearly exam and vaccines. (o:

We had our cat's teeth cleaned a couple of years ago. The day after Christmas, we noticed one of her lower fangs was sticking out at an odd angle. It was loose and needed to be removed. They knocked her out and took care of her. I think it was less than $200 for the whole thing.

Here's the weird part: They wanted to do this protocol where she would take antibiotics for 2-3 days each month to keep her teeth clean (not really sure how that was supposed to work) and also have her come in yearly for cleaning. Well, she gets really bad diarrhea when she takes antibiotics, so we passed on that. It just didn't make any sense. Has anyone ever heard of this?

She needs to go in for a checkup pretty soon, so we'll have them look at her teeth again and see what they think. We love our kitty, and want her to be with us for a loooooooong time.:)

Jeanne, I have heard of that....it reduces bacteria, which reduces the risk of infection. It can be good for cats or dogs with a history of infected and diseased teeth. *But* I also hear downsides to it....as with any long term antibiotic use. I also heard it was iffy as to whether it worked or not, and that it was recommended only for pets who got yearly dentals and who STILL ended up with infected teeth....then you would want to consider this therapy. However there is a chlorhexiderm water additive that is proven effective against tartar for cats and against infected gingiva/red gums. You add a bit to the drinking water daily, and it really helped reduce the mouth bacteria, thus reducing the risk of infection and tartar sticking/build-up. I'd ask about this over antibiotic therapy for her. JMO. (o: