Cat possible rotten tooth vet quoting 700- what to do?

[Ilikeviognier]

Our cat is 14, so pretty old. She had her routine vaccine this week, at which the vets announced she has a possible Rotten tooth that needs looking at and will be causing discomfort.

The tooth apparently May Need removing. They “can’t say” exactly how much this will cost as it depends how long it takes to remove it.

they are also recommending 100 pound blood tests before they put her under because of her age.

i have had a worst case scenario quote for all this of £700 which the insurance people won’t cover if it’s wear and tear (likely).

this is clearly a huge amount of cash for a cats tooth - especially as the cat seems happy and is eating fine etc. On the other hand, I don’t want her to suffer- she is a much loved pet. The best case scenario quote seems to be around 300.

I could not do the blood tests - but I’m not clear if I’m then running risks I shouldn’t be taking, and I’d feel awful if she died or something during the opp because I’d not done the blood tests.

what do I do?

Personally at that age I would look at keeping on a low grade painkiller and just waiting until it causes a problem.
We put a cat through surgery on an infected tooth and he never really recovered. He was only 8-10ish. Prior to surgery he was a good weight, happy, hunting (stables cat) and had a great quality of life. Post surgery he lost weight quickly and generally became withdrawn. Vet couldn't really give a good explanation and he ended up being pts within a year.

Hmm that’s an interesting perspective - I hadn’t thought of that. They have to suggested painkillers at all to me!

Sorry I mean HAVENT

If it were my cat it would be having the bloods and then having the dental . This is the sort of thing that crops up with animals as they get old .

My puss was about ten when she had a canine tooth out, but she had a huge a cess visible on the gum. I had noticed no changes in eating or drinking, but she was sleeping more than usual which I had put down to her aging.

After the removal and a tooth clean and was like a kitten - playing, bouncing around the house etc. She was obv in way more pain than we'd realised.

My 30kg dog goes in for a clean and possible removal this week, it'll be interesting to see how she afterwards as she's been a bad tempred shit for a while.... It'll be about £350 for her GA, full clean and the day in the hospital plus £40 for each tooth removed and cost any antibiotics afterwards.

Anyway, my point is that it's probably worth doing. I paid for the blood tests and tests and an IV for my cat and she was so much happier afterwards. We do, however, have a small amount of savings for this kind of thing.

Could you get a quote from a different vet? My cat had most of her teeth out a few a years ago and it was about £300.
£700 seems excessive for one tooth.

Getting another quote seems a good idea. The 700 is for blood tests/drip/scale and polish/removal of the tooth etc. So it’s a “if they have to do everything” type quote. But yes it’s a lot!

@PinkFootstool how much was it for your cat- can you recall?

Tooth extraction is quite common on cats. Look around at costs and talk to your insurer too

Cats don't show pain

We had teeth out on an elderly stray we found. She didn't recover and died within a week. I do appreciate this is a bit worst case and she was also sick. The general anaesthetic didn't do her well.

It will probably fall,out on its own.

We've just had pretty much exactly this recently, although our girl is 11. We were told she needed a tooth out and blood test before the surgery plus x-ray on the day.
We were also told it would be around £700. That was a bit of a surprise!
We did pay for the blood test but fortunately, when they did the x-ray just before the surgery, they noticed that it didn't need extracting and it was in fact gingivitis, so 'only' cost us around £300/£400 I think.
So maybe get a second opinion?

Have you ever had toothache? Do you recall how painful it is? You cannot leave it.
At her age, long term pain relief will also be hard on her kidneys, and not a great option if there is a proper fix available (dental work).
Offering blood work first allows them to check kidney function before an anaesthetic. And inform a decision about the wisdom of GA and whether fluids are needed. I would always use fluids at that age.

You need to risk assess. Vets quoted enormous amount for our old dog to have a hysterectomy. She probably wouldn’t even have survived the GA. The way we looked at it was, would a 90 year old woman have a hysterectomy?

We had another 2 happy years from her.

However, we regularly go to the dentist and occasionally require treatment so no different for our pets. Although, I would say I’m amazed at how many teeth dogs and cats need taken out.

It sounds a lot for one tooth. My 12 year old dog had to have surgery last year for this and they removed around 12 teeth and we had the extra blood tests because of her age. We were quoted £950 at our local vets but they couldn't fit her in for surgery quickly so we went to another branch of the same vets chain in a neighboring town and the bill only came to £650 in the end. I suppose whether removing one tooth or 12 they still have to have the anaesthetic etc. Same dog recently had a cancerous tumour removed from her paw and it was £1200. We have no insurance !

Thanks for all the comments. Think a second opinion/quote sounds a good move. I’m not proposing leaving it - but 700 feels a very large amount to pay - especially given that the insurance will not cover it as it’s age related.

My 9 year old cat just had one of her back carnassial teeth out and I paid just under £700 which included the blood tests and x rays and painkillers. If it needs to come out then just get it done.

2 of our cats have needed teeth extracted. No horror story. it was straight forward as it is in most cases. We were given a maximum quote similar to yours both times and it came in a couple of hundred less both times.

Get a second quote if you feel it necessary. We didn’t as our vet is great and we have vets in our family who said it was a fair price. Get it done soon though, tooth ache is a bastard.

At 14yo I'd definitely be looking at painkiller as management option.
Cat teeth can be 'rotten' in many different ways, how is this one 'rotten' ?
We chose 'conservative' management (with usual vet's support & other vet's implacable opposition) with the type of rotten teeth my cats get: the teeth came out rapidly of their own accord & we saved the cats a lot of stress that multiple extraction would have caused.

My cat shows pain. He's a right whinger that one.

Our cat needed dental work. The vet asked if I wanted a blood test to check she was a suitable candidate for anaesthesia. But I saw little point in that - she needed the tooth fixed and there was no way to do that without knocking her out temporarily. She either had to go under or have a sore tooth. So he went ahead without the blood test, or it's cost. She had a filling and a scale and polish, and her teeth looked in better nick than mine when I collected her. She was aged about 10 at the time.

Thats quite excessive. Our oldest cat (10 years old) needed two seperate dental works, removing 3 teeth each time, and the cost was around £400.

If you are in the North West, try animal trust not-for-profits vets

https://www.animaltrust.org.uk/

There may be similar organisations in your area if you are too far away.

My Dog had her tooth out today. She's very shaky and whiny, but it's the last of the drugs working their way out her system. My cat didn't react like that!

Here's the bill.... £546 total with 10% off with her pet plan.

Unfortunately the tooth was much worse than we'd hoped and required a LOT of work to get it out hence the high price for a single tooth removal. I'm hoping she'll feel so much better tomorrow when the drugs wear off andsl she realises the painful tooth has gone.

Our 12 year old cat is going to have 3 teeth out in June and we've been quoted £540, although it could be more if he turns out to need more teeth out than that. Apparently we would have been able to get reimbursed by the insurance but they won't pay because we got behind on vet checkups post covid.

I didn't have bloods when my cat had a dental. I should have, as when she needed bloods a month or so later it was about 3 times the price!