<p>I use a mobile vet for my cat and she is not very popular with this vet as she pees on the table every time she is examined: The first time the vet paid “Peaches” a visit, my cat peed on the table but, since her mobile van was parked on my driveway with a slight incline, it ran off the table and onto the floor of her van and into all the nooks and crannies. The vet and her assistant spent more time cleaning up their van than they did examining/treating my cat. I guess they don’t teach how to deal with mobile vans and sloped driveways in vet school…</p>
<p>Makes you wonder how our childhood pets lived to old age without these oh-so-expensive services. :)</p>
<p>My wife cleans our dogs teeth. She bought all the tools. The 3 of them love her so much they let her do anything to them. So do the neighbors dog. Now she is giving her cat intravenous fluids. That cat lets my wife do all kind of poking and prodding but they have a note in that cats file at the vet that she is vicious.</p>
<p>Bad dental health for animals can lead to many health problems just like it does with people. Vets who are very conscientious and do blood work tend to be more expensive. Their mortality rates are generally lower too. Years ago I worked as a vet tech and there were cut rate practices around where the vets didn’t even wear gloves! So, please don’t just go with the cheapest guy out there. Talk to some neighbors and see who they reccommend and find out what they charge and what the charges cover.</p>
<p>Where I live in California, there is a travelling service that is available once a month at my groomer’s shop. For $20.00 a month, the technician brushes and flosses and heaven-only-knows-what-else. I don’t know her secret but both of my dogs adore her and I have no worries about putting my beasties under anesthesia. Even though it is not a true"cleaning" like a dental hygienist gives a human, both dogs have clean white teeth and no doggy breath ever! It’s worth every penny to me since I’m too over-programmed to brush them myself on a regular basis and never got as good a result anyway.</p>
<p>Interestingly, an association of veterinarians is now pressuring the state legislature to prohibit the pet-teeth-cleaning-businesses and legislate that only vets may clean teeth, under anesthesia. (It’s enough to make me a Libertarian!)</p>
<p>Can’t you give your dog or cat a suitably calculated number of sleeping pills, and do all the cleaning yourself?</p>
<p>Teeth cleaning is important becasu of the rish of bacteria gettign into the pets bloodstream and casing infectins. This becomse a biger risk as the dog ages, but so does the risk fo usng the anesthesia, especially if the dog has an underlying heart condition (as our dog did). I forget what the cost was to have our dogs teeth cleaned and the problem ones extracted, but there were seveal different precedures for anesthesia (apologies I am forgetting-- it was a few years ago) and it too ka lot of the vets time to do it and stay with the dog and moniter him until he woke up (not jsut fob that chore off on a tech). It wasnt cheap, but I happily paid it. I also travelled 1.5 hrs each way to take him to the veterinary cardiologist and have annual ultrasounds of his heart.</p>
<p>I am now dreading the vet bill I am going to get for the teeth cleaning and floating (whatever that is) of my D’s horse.
No cats in our house. Our dogs eat dry food and we have never had their teeth clean. 6 dogs in our adult lifetime and not once has any of our vets recommended teeth cleaning.</p>
<p>my vet charges around 180 dollars for teeth cleaning. two years ago we had an extraction and that tacked on about 75 bucks–antibiotics included. i hate to do it, too, but feel it good for the dog’s long term health. the major cost is the pain medication, i’m sure. i also have to have some sort of blood work done in advance of the anasthesia and that adds on to the cost, too.</p>
<p>When I was pregnant with my first child, older d many moons ago I decided to take cat to the vet for a check-up while I was 9 months pregnant. Vet thought everything was fine with the cat and suggested overnight procedure with anesthesia to clean teeth. That was all well and good except when we brought cat home, she apparently had bad reaction to anesthesia and was like on a bad LSD trip. She was seemingly hallucinating and stalking her shadow and highly agitated. Needless to say it was not a pleasant experience and frightening to think that I was about to bring home my baby to this scene. It took her about 2 days to recover and sleep it off and actually she was a very mellow cat and accepted baby d quite fine when she arrived the following week.</p>
<p>Mom60. I recommend having a seat and a glass of wine before you see that bill. Been there done that. But I still wake early on some Saturdays and miss taking my D to e barn. Priceless…</p>
<p>Our local groomer will clean our dog’s teeth as part of the full-service grooming. They have chicken-flavor toothpaste which she love s. From puppyhood we trained her to let us brush her teeth. However, she is a golden retriever, and they will let you do almost anything to them. I imagine a cat is a different story, and if general anesthesia is required, it will, of course, have to be done by a vet.</p>
<p>tango-
RTe tooth-brushing with chicken-flavored toothpaste (which our dog loved) is not the same (unfortunately) as the more extensive teeth cleaning under anesthesia</p>
<p>But if one brushes regularly, the cleaning under anesthesia will not be necessary as often… maybe not ever.</p>
<p>We have been married for 30 years, have had 6 dogs (once three at a time before the kids came) and 4 cats. </p>
<p>We paid for teeth cleaning once when a dog had to go under for another reason. We never had to have any teeth extracted, had no major dental problems. It was suggested at other times, and we declined. Our dogs died (we are down to one) with great teeth. They were fed dry food, given bones to chew on, and given treats that were good for their teeth. I do recall brushing teeth in the early years, maybe the first two dogs, before kids. </p>
<p>We added cats later, so we have not yet lost a cat. But two of our cats are elderly. We have not had any teeth cleanings, and have had no dental problems. As far as I know they all have great teeth. We feed then dry food, although D2 feeds the youngest two some wet food on occasion as a treat.</p>
<p>I would ask if there is an impending problem, or if this is truly just preventative. And ask what changes you can make yourself.</p>
<p>$450 is what I paid for the dog! Let him learn to floss.</p>
<p>Our vet gives a discount in doggy dental prevention month or whatever it is called. Now if we can have him hang on until February…</p>
<p>sunnyflorida - Like you we have an elderly (15 years old) cat that has never had her teeth cleaned and she appears to be fine. We also feed dry food.</p>
<p>Mom60 - I know about those bills for teeth floating for horses as I receive one regularly each year for D’s horse.</p>
<p>ebeeeee - 15 more months and D2 will be off to college and I will not be driving to the barn on Saturday mornings. I got teary just reading your post because I know just how priceless this time with her is!</p>
<p>Still haven’t got the teeth floating bill. One thing I have noticed is equine vets in my area are terrible about billing. Very slow compared to the regular vet who wants payment at time of service. The scary thing is D’s horse is lame and she is riding another horse. We are in for half the teeth bill of the 2nd horse. I have a feeling H is going to be one unhappy camper.
My D is unsure if she is going to be able to go away to college and leave her horse and barn.</p>
<p>mom60 - I have noticed the same thing about the equine vets in our area. We have owned horses for more than 10 years now and none of the equine vets bill in a timely manner, but when you do receive the bill it is usually large!</p>
<p>My D loves her horse more than anything in the world, but she knew when we bought him for her 2 1/2 years ago that he would be sold or leased out when she went to college. D is doing extremely well with her horse at the top shows here in the west, but her utimate goal has been focused on riding for a Division I equestrian team and we will not keep a horse at home for her while she is at school (too expensive!). Hopefully since D and the horse are doing so well she will be able to achieve her goal and get to ride for a school she loves.</p>
<p>The vet bill arrived today. It isn’t that bad. $346. I don’t know if it doesn’t seem that bad when I compare it to $450 for a cat.
Showmom858-Do you mind sharing what school she would like to ride for? My D decided she does not want to ride in college. Heck if she had her choice she would not go to college. She is our homebody and not overly fond of school. She would love to just stay at home and work at her barn and ride.Her dream life would be to have land and ride and raise horses. Not very realistic. Her trainer has told her she can have the exercise job plus give lessons to little girls if she stay local. We expect her to go to college. A compromise might be attending the local UC if she gets in or the CC. I really don’t want her to go to the CC. Or if she gets in and attends Cal Poly she could bring her horse with her since Cal Poly is so affordable and we have family with horse property in the area. Plus D’s horse tore a tendon this spring and she might not get him back showing till next spring. She is sad that she might not ever get to show him again. She is very attached to that horse.</p>