$1725 for a dental! - what do you pay?

I took my oldest kitty Cleo in tonight for a dental consult. Her breath has become funky smelling so decided she needed a dental (she's about 15 yrs old; last dental 2 yrs ago). My head is still spinning, literally, from the estimate I got. $1725 CDN (I live here in Alberta, Canada). This would include 3 molar extractions. This is the most I have ever paid for a dental in my life. I thought previous bills of $1100 (including extractions) was a lot.

The Vet Tech who has always done the dentals (she has years of experience, so much so that she has actually taught at one of the Vet Schools (university) in Canada, to vet students, on doing dentals. She is amazing. But there's a new Vet in my clinic who specializes in animal dentistry so he will be doing the extractions. Now he insists that for the 3 teeth that appear to have resorptive lesions, that she should have xrays of each during the dental. This will cost me $200. The Tech, who I trust with my life, saw the look of horror on my face when I was given the $1700+ estimate and she told me that if it was her cat, given how obvious it is that these 3 teeth need to be extracted, that i forego the xrays as there's no question the teeth have to come out. The Vet is very nice and told me that he would do whatever I told him; either do xrays or not.

I am beside myself at what they charge here. it makes me angry, too. I figure there are so many people in this economy who couldn't afford this, and would put off the dental for the reason, which means the cat/cat's health suffers. My God, they charged me $76 for a lousy shot of Convenia. The mark up on everything is astronomic. Even the very basic preanesthetic panel was $165. this was optional. How many people would opt to not have this, just to cut costs?

Not many months ago I had major dental surgery; the extraction of a cracked molar by a dental surgery, under general anesthetic. He accidentally perforated my maxillary sinus and had to do extra to repair that. The total charge was $1200. I had to pay out of pocket because my benefits at the time didn't cover dental surgery. They charge over $1700 for a dental, scaling, polishing and 3 extractions which all should take about 30-45 minutes?

I have another cat who is due for her dental but I'll have to wait a long time to be able to afford it now.

I am just appalled and in shock.

For my last dental, on my old gal Tigger, I took her to a clinic that has more affordable prices. You get what you pay for. I had nothing but problems and had to take her back twice, plus to my own regular vet once. By the time I was done, it ended up costing as much as my regular Vet.

The problem with clinics around here that do things more cheaply, is they don't even properly monitor the cat while under. My clinic is the only one that even monitors blood pressure while under. The rest just use a heartrate monitor which is ludicrous to me; if a cat goes flat and blood pressure drops, by the time the monitor goes off to denote high heart rate, blood pressure is already way too low.

Im sure there's some rural vet clinics around that might charge less but I worry that I'll get what I pay for. Around here, it's most often Vet Techs that do the dental itself, which has always been ludicrous to me.......I'm talking extractions. I've met my fair share of dim techs over the past 10 yrs and I shudder at the thought. At least at my own clinic, she has 10 yrs experience and even Vets refer people to her. It's foreign to me, for anyone other than a Dentist (or in this case, a Vet!) to be doing something as invasive as an extraction. Some even do this while managing the anesthetic, all at the same time. That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

Here where I live, decent clinics just charge these prices and there doesn't seem to be getting around it. I think it's atrocious and it burns my arse that they are so expensive that many people just can't afford it and it is their pet who will suffer the consequences.

For Cleo, I will definitely not have the xrays done, not at these prices. My God.

I didn't mean to offend anyone with the 'dim-witted vet tech' comment. I definitely not that not all are dim, I've just had some bad experiences over the years:

-finding out that the tech was using the totally wrong sized blood pressure cuff on my CRF cat, for months (and he also had a very rare condition of adrenal glands that caused his blood pressure to be super higher, higher than just with CRF) until one day she brought the portable monitor into the exam room. The cuff size was wayyyyyyyyyyyy too large (wide) for the diameter of a cat's leg. With my cat, she had specially compounded liquid Amlodipine that I gave to her based on her weekly blood pressure readings........so for months I'd been incorrectly dosing based on incorrect BP readings. I had to show her, as it is with humans, how you determine the correct cuff size based on diameter.

-had one tech take one of my cat's temp w/ a tympanic thermometer; temp was 40.2. She didn't even question it. It wasn't until the end of the appointment where I saw the cat's vitals written in the chart and I questioned it........this is darn high. She didn't seem to have a clue. I had to request that she redo it, then take it rectally.

-i've had them weigh my cat, only to find the weight was grossly higher or lower than the previous time my cat was in and weighed. It shouldn't just be me, the owner, who compares the new weight to the last one done. They have the chart right there, with the vitals sheet that shows the date last weight / heart rate / temp / resps were done. In this case, the scale was way out to lunch and had to be recalibrated. I wonder how many other owners' pets had false weights.t

-I almost got into an argument once when I had asked the Tech giving my cat's vaccinations to NOT give them (particularly Rabies, and it was not Purevax) in the scruff. She disputed VAS totally, told me that the scruff area was the only place to give vaccinations, etc. She was adamant. I got into discussion with one once who assured me that Metacam liquid was perfectly safe for a senior cat who had CRF, after all, she gave it to her OWN senior cat.

-when I had my diabetic cat, and my CRF cat, I found out quickly that there was no point in talking to them about these conditions because when I would start rattling things off, they'd just look at me blankly. When I'd tell them what my diabetic cat's blood glucose had been running (I did home testing faithfully), they truly had no idea whether the numbers I was giving were good or not, no clue.

In all honesty, I've found owners on cat forums such as these to have way more knowledge about feline disease processes, anatomy/physiology, medications, lab tests. I dunno?

-I've always considered Vet Techs to be like an animal "RN". I know with us human RNs, we know more than just basic skills. We have extensive training with respect to body systems, anatomy/physiology, pharmacology, lab tests (what each test is for, normal ranges, what decreases and increases can indicate, etc). As an RN and cat owner of many years, I have always been sadly perplexed by the lack of knowledge the Techs around here (Canada) have. Don't ever ask them a question about pet meds, usual side effects, lab results, diseases processes, etc. When I have, they just look at me strangely, they have no clue what I'm talking about. I encountered one once who didn't even really know what a urine culture/sensitivity was; what it was done for, etc. Perhaps the training here in this part of Canada is to blame, I suspect it must be.

So based on the above, it scared the crap out of me to envision a tech doing something as invasive as dental extractions WHILE monitoring the Iso and vitals at the same time. Also, if you want to use the analogy of a human dentist and a vet (the doctor), it seemed scary to me that the vet tech (akin to a human RN) would be doing extractions/monitoring and managing general anesthetic; you certainly wouldn't find a dental assistant (human) doing this; it would only be the dentist who did the extraction and if a general was used, an anesthesiologist or anesthesia tech. Back in my earlier years of having cats, it was only my old Vet who did the extractions so I didn't know that things had changed.

It sounds like the Vet Techs in the U.S. are much more highly trained and knowledgable. here it seems they know how to do basic procedures; take a temp, draw blood, do a weight...........but when it comes down to animal health, understanding common feline conditions (CRF, diabetes, hyperthyroiidism, fatty liver), being able to talk about lab results, medications, etc........they just don't have that training or education.

If I can't trust a tech to question my cat's very high temp, recheck it........or notice a very huge change in my cat's weight over a period of 6 months, or know the correct size bp cuff to use on their dynamap, yes - it does scare me that this same person is extracting my cat's teeth while monitoring him/her under anesthetic, all at the same time.

Well despite me having decided I would opt out of having (4) dental xrays done (which would have put cost at $1725 CDN), the dental was done Thursday. The Vet did the extractions. Turns out he ended up doing 6 extractions instead of 4 (but apparently only charged me for 4). He ended up doing 5 xrays but at no cost to me, claiming he just ethically couldn't extract teeth without seeing below the gumline; plus he wanted to show me the xrays afterward to "show me" the things he saw that he wouldn't have been able to see without them, to show me how important xrays are (of course I know they are but unfortunately I'm not a millionaire and $1700 for a dental is more than most would dream of paying).

So, despite not charging me for the 2 additional extractions or the xrays, it still came to $1579.00 including tax. (CDN).

Cleo did really well, particularly for an old girl. By that evening she was eating canned food. Has been eating normally ever since. He told me to feed her only dry for 2 weeks but it's not possible or practical to take away all the dry food that's out (I have 4 other cats, 2 who eat mostly dry). She's been eating dry without any problems.

My other older girl Spookie needs a dental but I will have to save up for it. He made it very clear that when I do her, he'll almost refuse to do it unless I agree to 5 dental xrays (that should cover the whole mouth). So I guess I gotta save up a freaking $2000 for a cat's dental. That is absolutely extortion, if you ask me.

Here is a breakdown of the charges for Cleo, for her dental:

-preanesthetic bloodwork: $161.00
-predental Convenia injection: $76.66
-predental consult: $76.00
-charting, ultrasound scale, prophy Med Inj: $485.00
-anesthetic (Iso): $244.00
-extraction: $364.00
-dental local block: $49.00
-gum sutures: $37.50

As a "courtesy", they didn't charge me for the IV/fluids