Nasal, swollen and smelly

[buddhababy2019]

I wonder if anyone has any advice please?
My 15 year old male tabby has had really smelly breath for a while now - vet suggested it was a tooth but as it wasn't causing him any problems we opted against paying the £600 to have it removed.
Lately he's been sneezing a lot and very "breathy" and then today it looks like on side of his face is pretty swollen (still eating, purring happily etc so doesn't seem to be upset) I'd genuinely love to just whip him down to the vet but if it's dental it's not covered by insurance and we've just been told we have to move house out of the blue and due a baby she very soon so have bills literally coming out of our ears so unless it's an absolute necessity I can't do it. I know this will have people screaming in horror that I shouldn't have pets if I can't afford treatment but normally I could - I have insurance, pet health care plan for vaccinations etc so I feel terrible about it, it's just that everything that can go wrong is going wrong at the moment

I think I'd go back to the vet. It may be an abscess or something. I think some insurance will cover dental stuff if they have their teeth checked regularly.

£600 sounds very excessive for a dental. I think it's normally about £150

They said it was to remove the tooth so included anaesthetic etc. I did think it was very expensive which is why we didn't do it (seeing as it wasn't bothering him)

I think you should go back to vet. You need to find out what is causing this. Maybe see another vet?

Sounds like the infection around the tooth has broken through into the nasal cavity in abscess form.
Dentals done well involve dental x-rays and are time consuming. Not uncommon for a cat dental to take 1.5 hours involving and vet and a veterinary nurse involved for that whole time. In the past vets have discounted rentals due to the lack of value owners attach to them, however, we are moving towards correct pricing of them to truly reflect the time and skill involved.

I think £600 is steep for a dental. But it does sound like he needs to see a vet.
Maybe ring some other vets to check prices?

I think you should take him back to the vets too.
Most vets will let you pay the bill in instalments .