You can't put a price on a cat

By Anonymous - 18/08/2022 20:00 - United States - Webster

Today, I was nervous about taking my cat to the vet for a UTI, because money’s a little tight. Turns out the antibiotics weren’t that expensive, but he wants at least $1,000 for dental surgery she apparently “needs.” FML
I agree, your life sucks 822
You deserved it 147
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Top comments

Ben Deigheau 8

It might be necessary, but there is probably help available. Are your cat’s gums red? Bad breath? It may be gingivitis or possibly stomatitis. While tooth extraction might seem like an extreme measure, it’s actually the first line of treatment rather than the last resort. My FIV cat had stomatitis and needed a full extraction. it’s a difficult operation, so it was expensive, but after about 10 days of recovery, he was back to his normal playful self, eating as always, even dry food.  in my area there is an organization called all about animals. I don’t know about your location, but you could ask the local Humane Society. I don’t know how bad your cat is, but with mine, three different vets told me the same thing. Gather as much information as you can. It can be an actual lifesaver in some situations. 

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notthatoldyet 15

He said she needed at least one extraction due to her tooth being rotten. She doesn’t have bad breath and had no trouble eating or anything like that. We’re going to get a second opinion before deciding to go ahead with the surgery though just to be sure. But if it’s necessary to prevent serious infection we’ll do it. Tbh something just seemed off about this vet in general, but we’ll see what the other place says.

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Comments

Ben Deigheau 8

It might be necessary, but there is probably help available. Are your cat’s gums red? Bad breath? It may be gingivitis or possibly stomatitis. While tooth extraction might seem like an extreme measure, it’s actually the first line of treatment rather than the last resort. My FIV cat had stomatitis and needed a full extraction. it’s a difficult operation, so it was expensive, but after about 10 days of recovery, he was back to his normal playful self, eating as always, even dry food.  in my area there is an organization called all about animals. I don’t know about your location, but you could ask the local Humane Society. I don’t know how bad your cat is, but with mine, three different vets told me the same thing. Gather as much information as you can. It can be an actual lifesaver in some situations. 

7 0
notthatoldyet 15

He said she needed at least one extraction due to her tooth being rotten. She doesn’t have bad breath and had no trouble eating or anything like that. We’re going to get a second opinion before deciding to go ahead with the surgery though just to be sure. But if it’s necessary to prevent serious infection we’ll do it. Tbh something just seemed off about this vet in general, but we’ll see what the other place says.

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Ben Deigheau 8

Yeah, that should be nowhere near $1000. If you feel like something’s off with the vet, it probably is. I took my cat to an actual animal dentist. It was $1400 but it was a seven hour operation. For just a tooth or two, I don’t see why it should be more than than 300. Anyway, with vets, you can usually trust Google reviews.  One thing I did learn is that cats teeth are tricky to operate on because they have extensive root systems, so a general practitioner might have a hard time. You definitely wanna go with experience. I had one general practitioner offer to do a full mouth extraction for $750 because she sets aside a month every year for dental surgery, but I missed out on it. Anyway, good luck and make sure to do your homework because a lot of vets are not proactive about educating people. I have learned a lot of lessons the hard way.

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RichardPencil 30

When your cat "needs" $1000 in dental surgery, you "need" to buy another cat.

3 15
Ben Deigheau 8

One does not “buy” a cat. Just stick with the cheesy jokes and occasional witticisms.

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Anderling 32

Something important to remember is that wildcats, which domestic cats descended from, are not apex predators. They are in the middle of the food chain. Meaning that if they appear weak, there is a good chance a wolf or an eagle looking for a quick meal is going to eat *them*. So prey animals (which includes wildcats) try their damnedest to not look weak. They will hide any and all pain to avoid getting targeted by a predator. And becoming domestic cats has not magically undone millions of years of evolution. Domestic cats will still hide pain until they can’t anymore. That’s why health checkups are important with cats. You seem to be somehow convinced that the vet is making problems up to get a quick buck. Unethical vets do exist, but the vast, VAST majority of them genuinely want to help your pets, and before today you evidently trusted this one with your beloved pet. Is it more likely that they’re lying or that your cat was actively hiding how bad its teeth hurt?

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Ben Deigheau 8

I think OP’s intuition is correct in this case. You have to be discerning in choosing vets. There are basically two types: doctor owned and corporate owned. Every time I go to a doctor owned practice, I get top notch care with reasonable prices. Corporate practices are ok sometimes too, but they typically employ younger doctors, and definitely do not shy away from selling extras. I don’t mean that they’re necessarily unethical, but the money is an important part of the equation there. As far as cats, yeah, everything you said is true, but that’s just all the more reason to be careful when choosing a vet. Cats are hard to diagnose and you want to go to a place where medicine comes before money. Google reviews are very helpful. The good vets will have almost no bad reviews ever, and if they get some, you can see how much merit they have based on the review and the response. Whenever I read reviews of a corporate vet, there are a lot of terrible reviews in there, things like “killed my cat“, “gave my dog the wrong medication”, “didn’t show up on time for surgery”. The worst are the locations where you have one doctor working multiple locations. Just stay away from them. So like I said when you’re talking to the vet, go prepared with your homework done, and ask a lot of questions. Have all your observations written down and organize the questions accordingly. Sometimes I even email them in advance. Be informed, your cat will thank you.

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