Sansa has gingivitis :<

I just got home from seeing the vet with Sansa. She looked at Sansa's teeth and the worst of it is in the back teeth. She shone a UV light on them and a lot of pink showed up which indicated that she needs a dental scaling. Being 3 years old approximately is bloodwork really necessary? The whole quote including bloodwork is 540$ CAN. I can afford this but it sounds steep. The vet was really nice and understanding but she also explained to me that after the scaling we have to put Sansa on an oral diet which is basically these really large cornpuff looking kibbles that are a mix between soft and dry kibble. 

The other thing after the scaling is she said she has a "program" for me which is beneficial to teach Sansa how to accept getting an enzyme toothpaste in her mouth using positive reinforcement. So I like that even though I have been trying PR training with the enzyme toothpaste I already have.

Who else has had this kind of procedure with their cats? I don't like the idea of having to buy vet food for the rest of Sansa's life, right now they eat dry Merrick grain free kibbles and Natural Balance wet with a salmon oil supplement yet she still has a bit of dry skin. The vet said not to change her food yet because her scaling is in 2 weeks.. Anyway. 

Wow! When I read posts like this it makes me nervous.  

That does seem like a lot of money, I am wondering did the vet check her teeth because she is having a problem? Or was this part of a regular check up? I am interested to see what others will post.

I just had to comment on your avatar, what a great picture! 

Thanks. I brought her in with the intent of having her teeth looked at. I recognized the symptoms of gingivitis before and scheduled her in. I'm wondering if genetics has anything to do with this because Wally is probably closer to age 7 now and has immaculate oral health and teeth and they have both been eating the same stuff for 2 years. 

Thanks! I love when I can get a good picture of the two of them

I don't know about the blood work, unless the vet is running tests to see if Sansa tests positive for any of the virus which are linked to dental issues.   Worth asking the vet about this so you feel happy about what you are paying for.

As for the dental routine, I've been following that with Mouse since he was about 9 months old.  He is very healthy on Science Plan TD Dental which is large, crunchy kibble that he has to crunch before swallowing - the theory being that it helps scrape plaque from his teeth / stop it developing.  He loves the food and keeps well on it so I have no issues with keeping him on it (other than that he refuses all but occasional, tiny bits of anything else).  He has also had the enzyme toothpaste regime for the same length of time and also loves this.  He has a poultry flavour one which costs about £10 a tube but as you use so little of it it lasts about 6 or 7 months even if used twice daily.   Mostly I let him lick it off my finger with his tongue and then rub around his gums a little but when his mouth was very prone to redness and bleeding I did use a soft cat dental brush about once a week for a more thorough brushing.

 Between the food and the toothpaste it has managed his gum inflammation really well, and as he as got older and a little calmer the inflammation is not quite as bad as it was either so I have reduced the toothpaste routine to around once a day unless his gums are red again.   (If I stop the food OR the toothpaste I can immediately see his gums deteriorate so it is 100% worth the effort and cost). 

There are many threads here on site about cats who have similar routines for different causes of dental problems and gum inflammation but most of the cats I have read about have all been fine with the tooth paste and brushing as long as it was introduced gently, and no hard rubbing.    As for the food, I guess it will depend on how Sansa takes to this change and if the food suits her.   Mouse will eat it like he does his treats, chasing all over the place for his big chunks of biscuit, and his coat certainly hasn't suffered.   (He is very good at taking liquids and my only worry would be if you had a cat that didn't like to drink water).

I hope everything settles down for Sansa. 

Thanks so much for your detailed response MServant. I have to call to reschedule the bloodwork appointment anyway so I will ask again what it specifically covers (she did mention organ function so maybe it's the same thing as you mentioned). We have resigned ourselves to the fact that this will be a process, and an expensive one at that.. I hope the scraping goes well enough that she doesn't need to have it done again once we implement the changes to her lifestyle. So your cat Mousie is eating the same food my vet did a demo for today it seems, she demo'ed with a screwdriver and showed me how easy the plaque comes off it. I am reluctant to put Sansa on such an expensive diet though. The vet likes Greenies but said in order for it to have a real effect on her teeth it would have to be her main food! I will also buy CET toothpaste unless the vet suggests something else. 

I get the TD from Zooplus but if you're in the US / Canada I don't know if they operate there.  You can also get it from Amazon but it's a little more expensive from them - still cheeper than your vet supplies it I suspect.   I don't find it costs much different to a decent regular food, esp when you factor in that you have to be really strict about not giving treats and extras.  The rations for TD are strict too and you don't go through as much of it as you expect.   Mouse gets a small ration of freeze dried fish treats that he likes each day which is well under the % of diet that keeps the TD effective but still ups his protien intake.  

I'm not sure about Greenies, I'm sure I've read some concerns about them?  Maybe it was just their treets.

I see plaque build up on his teeth within a day if I don't use the paste  or give him a bit of regular food yet with the combination of regular toothpaste plus TD.   Mouse has avoided any dental treatments including cleaning, which for me more than compensates for the diet not being the cheepest on the market.   If I can manage to keep him surgery free despite his tendancy to get inflamed gums and plaque I will be very happy.  Will you vet give you a little sample of the toothpaste to try and see how Sansa takes to it?   I got a small, free sachet from my vet so I could check Mouse liked it, and it also let me see the results, before buying.

Personally, I would go with the bloodwork ANYTIME you need to put a cat under for anesthesia.  It just makes sense, because you never know.  Why take a chance? 

As to genetics playing a part in this, I definitely think that's true.  I have an almost 16 year old who only now is starting to get "mild tartar" and has never had any dental work in her life, I don't brush her teeth, never fed her food that cleans her teeth, etc.  But one of our other cats had to have 4 teeth pulled by age 7 due to dental issues, and then continued to need cleanings annually due to plaque build-up.  Just recently I started giving each of our cats a "treats" of a pea sized amount of C.E.T. toothpaste to lick off my finger everyday, since they seem to love it.  I figure just getting it in their mouths is better than nothing, since they then lick all around and (hopefully) spread it around in there .

I HAVE heard great things about that Hills T/D though (before today), so glad to hear more.

That sound good to me mrsgreenjeens!

I have had cats most of my life and most of them never had dental issues except my Murphy.  When he was almost 19 years old, the vet told us he had periodontal disease. Unfortunately, he also had full blown dementia by that time and so chose to put him down because he was so miserable (it was a very sad day for us).

I bought Greenies feline dental treats for Zeus: 


I am hoping we can avoid dental issues. I wonder if you or anyone else here feeds their cat these treats?

Thanks for all the responses! I don't think the bloodwork is necessarily a bad thing and will have it done because I don't know her medical background. It was just a shock for the quote is all! 

I feed greenies treats every few days but I'm not sure what kind they are. I am also researching the TD food but will also ask for a sample and a sample of the CET toothpaste. I hope this is something we can manage with daily preventative care like you do with Mouse. 

Is the Hills T/D expensive? and is the Science Diet dental food the same thing? My biggest concern with this food is that it contains corn gluten and other fillers and no real meat protein until later in the ingredient list. 

The bloodwork is up to you, 2 is still young, if she was older I would say absolutely.  It definitely is better to do it than not, and if you can afford it I would.  Also if there are extractions needed, then she will be under anesthesia longer.  It is up to you though! 

C.E.T. toothpaste is great.  I keep meaning to pick some up to use on Sawyer but haven't yet.  T/D food is great for tarter buildup, it definitely doesn't have the best ingredients though.  My plan when Sawyer is no longer a kitten, is to mainly feed wet food, and then give him a small handful of T/D a day to munch on.  I wouldn't feed T/D alone, but with wet food as well it is fine, in my opinion.  I don't believe the Science Diet oral is the same as T/D, I think the T/D is better.  Not sure how much they sell it for there, but here it is $19.99 for a 4 lb bag.  Seems expensive but if you only feed a small amount a day it will last awhile.  

$540 seems pretty steep. My cat had her teeth cleaning/scaling last year, including blood work and it was around $350. I would recommend blood work just in case kitty has an underlying issue. Better to be safe than sorry [emoji]128522[/emoji]

@OllieOxenfree    Mouse is a piglet and gets through 2 of the 5 kilo bags of  TD in just over 4 months, which for me costs about £11-50 per month.  I reckon if I was feeding higher end supermarket dry foods, and certainly wet foods it would cost me at least as much, and I would be tempted to give him treats of high protein things on top.  As it is he gets very limited treats of 100% freeze dried fish - because I like to up the protien when I can.

It is higher carb than I would like but I don't think Mouse is any more tubby than he would be with any other diet as he loves his food, and as he still keeps active and the food is easy to keep tabs on for daily rations, I am not worrying about that.  His main health concern would be his oral problems and that is under control with what we're doing.   If the toothpaste and diet didn't work then I would certainly look at following a different path.   As for general health, Mouse has kept his herpes virus pretty much in control and his fur is in excellent condition so the food seems to be giving him the nutrients he needs.   There are a few reviews about the TD food in the Reviews section here on TCS so it might be worth you reading those.

Thanks! I believe anything will cost more in Canada though.. Unfortunately there are no regulations on what a vet can charge for stuff. Tax alone is 70$ on my quote ...

So could the T/D food perhaps act as a daily treat rather than replace all her food? I will ask for a sample either way, 19.99 USD  equates to about 26 CAD so that's about 5$ more than I am spending for Merrick; a 4.4 lb bag of Merrick lasts my fatties about 3-4 weeks eating 1/4 cup per day. 

I don't know. I still have some questions for my vet about this change in food and I suspect she is being paid to sell her Hills food (the demo tipped me off).

Wow that is a lot of tax!!  I am from Canada too (live in the US though) and sometimes forget how much tax is there, at least where I am from it was a lot. 

I personally would use T/D as a treat rather than a whole diet, or just a small amount a day and something a higher quality or  wet food as the main diet.  I wish I remember what we sold T/D for at my old clinic in Canada.  I do imagine it is more than $20 but not sure how much, guess it depends what clinic you buy it from as they would all probably have different mark ups.  I have seen it make a difference when included in the diet though, may not be the best ingredients but it does help with tarter buildup if used regularly in my opinion.

We are in Toronto (and my vet is just east of Toronto) and we just paid $950 for a cleaning and to have a tooth pulled for the stray I took in. This was on Monday of this week.  That cost included the bloodwork.  The cost of the tooth extraction was $240 of that price (plus taxes) and then there was another $60 worth of medications.  So, unfortunately that quote seems right on target. Your profile doesn't say where in Canada you are.

I recommend the bloodwork,it isn't a huge amount of the overall cost.  They do the bloodwork to ensure that all organs are working properly - there are kidney and liver function tests.  Since almost all medications are processed through either the liver or the kidneys it is important to ensure that these organs are working or you could have a very sad end to the procedure.

My boy broke his tooth and we had the cleaning done because he was already out so we might as well.  One of my other boys does have a it of gingivitis and I expect he will be in for a cleaning in a year or so (he is only 2).  My vet said that some cats are just more prone to it

I refuse to put him on any of that prescription food though.

OllieOxenfree said:

 
Thanks for all the responses! I don't think the bloodwork is necessarily a bad thing and will have it done because I don't know her medical background. It was just a shock for the quote is all! 

I feed greenies treats every few days but I'm not sure what kind they are. I am also researching the TD food but will also ask for a sample and a sample of the CET toothpaste. I hope this is something we can manage with daily preventative care like you do with Mouse. 

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I would do the bloodwork as well since I'm such a worrywart!  My cat that was 8 years old at the time had to get a dental last year.  The quote was around $700 but it ended up being around $300 because a tooth that they were expecting to extract had already been reabsorbed.  As for diet, I would personally just put her on canned and brush her teeth daily with the CET.  

As I understand it the effectiveness of the prescription diets is it has to make up quite a high % or it isn't effective, but surely even using it as treets is going to be better than nothing, and they are great for throwing and cat chasing after them.    Another diet alternative a lot of members here have opted for is raw, so you might want to take a look in the Raw and Home Cooked Forum in Nutrition because a lot of people whose cats have gingivitis / stomatitis and other dental issues post there.    http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-home-cooked-cat-food

If you buy from Amazon US are the taxes still added on?   I would expect them to at least be cheeper than buying from a vet surgery.    Once you select the enzyme paste you want to go for that should be available from Amazon as well, plus other pet suppliers.

Thanks! More responses and experiences are awesome. I love feedback  

We are doing the bloodwork, I have made that argument to myself and to my partner that opting out and then finding out she dies on the table means we considered her life worth the 122$ the bloodwork alone costs and I am not able to do that ethically. Sansy is so young and brings so much joy to our house that I am not upset about footing the bill on something which will improve her quality of life. 

Oh my goodness AprilC that's a lot of money! In the GTA I would expect an increase in the cost of living but that's so much more! I love Toronto though- need to make another trip out! I am from St. John's in NL and the vet situation there is pretty bad, not enough vets spread throughout the city to equal a significant competition rate. I had only found a good enough vet not long before we moved out of there, I went from vet to vet for a while trying to find one I liked.. Anyway, now I live in Dartmouth, NS. When I did a search on vets (even ones who do not do declawing procedures at their clinics) I found A LOT and I got to pick and choose. This is where Yelp and other opinion sites mattered because I went for Reddit and other reviews on the clinic I chose to bring Sansa to. 

Ruaryx, I'm glad your quote ended up saving you hundreds of $!! Our quote will only go up though because while the vet doesn't think a tooth needs to be extracted there's a possibility while under the anesthetic they notice a wiggly one. I hope not though :/ 

Thank Mservant, the only thing about raw/hc is that I really don't think Sanse will eat it. She has such a disinterest in the kitchen and anything other than what comes out of her Wellness tins that I would be afraid of contamination or waste. I have it in the back of my mind to look for chicken necks for the both of my cats but they are so unique in their food preferences I have never met cats like them. They don't like people food at all. We can leave cupcakes out, cheese, raw meat (my partner thaws frozen fresh meat in water before we cook) and he can even leave a raw chicken breast out on the counter and they wouldn't even turn their nose to the sky to sniff it. They simply don't care. I tried chicken hearts with Oliver when we first got him and they ended up going bad (I will never forget the smell). So I guess I will try to find some fresh necks for cheap to try it out. 

And if they did surprise me and want to eat raw chicken necks, is that something they can eat in the kitchen kind of fast like a dish of food? Or is it like a bone that dogs get and it takes a while to eat (= tracked around the house)?

OllieOxenfree said:

 
Oh my goodness AprilC that's a lot of money! In the GTA I would expect an increase in the cost of living but that's so much more! I love Toronto though- need to make another trip out! I am from St. John's in NL and the vet situation there is pretty bad, not enough vets spread throughout the city to equal a significant competition rate. I had only found a good enough vet not long before we moved out of there, I went from vet to vet for a while trying to find one I liked.. Anyway, now I live in Dartmouth, NS. When I did a search on vets (even ones who do not do declawing procedures at their clinics) I found A LOT and I got to pick and choose. This is where Yelp and other opinion sites mattered because I went for Reddit and other reviews on the clinic I chose to bring Sansa to. 

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Yes it is a lot of money, and he isn't even my cat :S My husband wasn't happy.  It was a pretty standard rate around here.  My vet isn't the cheapest in the area but I trust them absolutely.  I have long stories - my trust is absolute and unwavering. 

A vet you can trust is worth everything.