Longest lived / healthiest breeds?

[northernglow]

 My pedigree Oriental boy has just had his first dental at 5 1/2 and needed two teeth out - 

It's also very dependant on diet.  My boy's sister has beautiful teeth, but she eats a raw chicken wing most days.  If only her brother would...  My female kitten is into wings as well.

Can you still show your OSH boy (if you were showing him before)? FIFé also has dental removals as disqualifying fault, not sure if it applies to neuters, but for intacts it does. 

Luna (intact BLH) tends to have her gums flare up when she's in heat, pregnant or has kittens. Last year she had antibiotics which cleared it up nicely, but I did make an adjustment to her diet and added some junk food in it. She only eats dry food (except when she has kittens, for some reason then she also accepts wet food), so I added RC:s oral hygiene-stuff to her regular healthier food and surprisingly it has worked for her so far which I honestly wasn't expecting.

 

[orientalslave]

He could be shown - I've seen GCCF reports with 'level gums'!  As it happens whilst he's a fantastic pet he's not show quality - wrong eye colour - and I don't think he'll enjoy a show enough to go as a pedigree pet,

 

[missymotus]

Can you still show your OSH boy (if you were showing him before)?

I have a toothless neuter girl, teeth removed at 18 months, she's coming up to 6 and still being shown. A cat with a sore mouth wouldn't make it through vetting (all cats are vet checked before being benched), but if they are well they can be shown.

 

[bastfriend]

Thanks you guys!  It's interesting to hear the experiences of those who have or deal with the breeds.   It sounds like there's no guarantees especially for dental!   I'm getting pet insurance next time for sure.

 

[orientalslave]

Pet insurance can be an expensive minefield if you are not careful.  There are all sorts of different policies with different conditions.  To be honest I think that there is a lot to be said for self-insurance - you set aside what a good pet insurance policy would cost every month.  My friend (I am in the UK) found that her cat's dental was only covered when he had extractions.  Just cleaning was deamed preventative so wasn't covered.

I am very lucky.  I go to a fairly large and busy vets with plenty of different fairly young vets who keep up-to-date, and they are very reasonably priced as well, plus I am financially very secure so I have never insured.

 

[missymotus]

My girls dental was just random and wouldn't have been covered by insurance anyway

Insurance often isn't worth the expense, self insurance as OS put it is usually a better way to go. For myself with breeding cats too, it's useless on breeding cats.

 

[northernglow]

I don't have insurances for my cats either. I do keep money aside in case of emergency and other stuff like that (only allowed to be used for cat related costs).