$700 Vet bill :(

This is really bothering me and I knew I can turn to my BDW girls for help.

 

So, I take my 11.5 yo cat to the vet for his routine exam yesterday and she tells me he has some kind of a tooth decay thing going on and she needs to extract his canines and clean the rest. The estimated cost for all this: $500-$700! I understand that it needs to be done or it will start effecting his internal organs and all of that but, does that seem kind'a high to you?

The price includes:

Blood work

Cleaning

4 planned extractions

anasthesia

pain meds

 

Anyone have any experience with something like this?

I had the same thing done with my cat a few years ago (two extractions). It is expensive because they have to put them to sleep and all the blood work but I certainly don't remember paying that much.. probably closer to $300 to $400. I would get a 2nd opinion. You can probably just call another local vet to see what the going rate is over the phone.

I took my dog to the vet for a routine cleaning. Got a call only minutes into the procedure because the vet found several teeth that needed to be extracted. She's a pug and has a tiny mouth and way too many teeth and because of this they started decaying and breaking at a fast pace. She was only a few years old. Anyway, $1600 later she's all fixed. NO KIDDING!!! I couldn't believe it. I cried when he told me. And this was a small town vet and usually pretty low on prices.

My vet told me my dog would need his teeth cleaned in a year or so and that the estimated price was 250. which included all the prelab work, putting him under, and the cleaning.

 

700 for a cleaning and teeth pulled seems really high. however my coworker was refered to a doggie dentist (which i didn't know existed) and they wanted to put a retainer in her puppies mouth because her k9 teeth weren't growing in at the right angle. that was 900 dollars!!! she said no, and everything corrected itself. But 900 for a doggie retainer, are you serious?

Wow!!! That is A LOT. My vet said the price is so high because they are the K9s and those are really tough to get out. The said the root can be the same length or 1.5 times the size of the tooth. She mentioned that the range is so big because it depends on how easily they come out and if there are any more teeth that may need to go (included in the quote).

I am in a real bind because I really like the vet and so does my cat. He's had very bad reactions to other vets and really took a liking to this one. I also just sent an e-mail to a very animal knowledgeable friend to see what she thinks of the price. She currently has 2 dogs and 2 cats who all go to this vet and she's friends with the vet. I'll keep you posted on what she says and what else I find out.

Please, keep your feedback coming!

I think they honestly don't know until they get into the mouth and see what's there. The range I was given at first was around $150-$450 at the most. Oh my how wrong it was!

It all depends where you are located as well... what costs one place will cost more or less somewhere else. (due rental costs, wages, etc.). As well as the size and weight of the animal, how long they will be under, etc. Most quotes are usually on the high end as well.

 

I had surgery on my dog (med sized about 22lbs) that required removal of a small unattached lump on his snout... they quoted me almost $1000, but in the end it cost around $600. The huge cost was the anasthesia they figured about 30 minutes, but it took only 10 minutes and plus I opted out of the blood work since it was only recent that he had it done.

But yes, call and ask around too.

Does anyone here buy pet insurance?

Dental stuff is always expensive, but I would definitely get a second opinion.

 

I've considered pet insurance - especially for my new puppy who is a Newfoundland. But, we decided against it. For the Newf, it was going to be about $350/yr, which is way more than I spend on average in vet bills. Would it help for an emergency, or if the dog developed a long term illness - of course. My other dog had 1 expensive near miss with a bottle of Advil when she was a puppy. Even with that, I don't think the $350/yr would've payed off in the end.