Hi all, just been to the vets tonight with our young cat and she has trouble with her teeth- we're starting with the antibiotics and then it looks like a blood test before further treatment (teeth cleaned/ pssobily removed under anasthetic). The dreaded kidney disease word(s) have been mentioned because she is only 3 yrs old, but fingers crossed it isn't that...in the meantime, I'm panicking about the final bill and did not have the sense to ask the vet how much all this is likely to cost. We have pet insurance (M&S) but a) I need to check if this will be covered and b) whether M&S will pay the vets direct or if we have to find the money. One way or another, we will have to find it. Appreciate not all cases are the same but it would be interesting to hear how much others have been charged for similar treatment. xxK

Hi there,

We have recently had both our 13 year old cats into the vets in last 6 weeks. THey both had to have a check up, then go back and be put under to have their teeth cleaned thoroughly, plus they had blood checks to see what was wrong (one had gingivitus and the other over active thyroid).

The bill for the teeth was circa £100 each. The blood tests were about £50 from memory.....

Hope your little one is OK... we have had to have ours in and out for last week for steroids etc, but that wasnt too bad - about £40 for 3 trips and injections...

Our oldest cat recently had two teeth out and a clean/polish. Cost us £154.00 but this included pre and post op check, pre-anaesthetic blood tests and the actual operation itself including antibiotics/pain relief.

Louise

thanks for the 'estimates' .We're keeping fingers crossed all is OK with the blood tests and she's booked in next week for the dental work - whatever it takes to make her better. Good thing we love them, isnt it?

On a brighter note, I've just been told she is going to feature in the Your Cat magazine 2007 calendar (free with the December issue of Your Cat - think it's out 15th Nov) - exciting stuff - if anyone happens to see it ,she is Ashia, the silver norwegian forest cat -dunno yet what month she will be, we#re just chuffed she has been chosen.

Ironically, the competition she was entered in was called 'fit and healthy'!

Hi would be interesting to know if you are covered with your insurance,
I had a bill for nearly £200, for my cats teeth, and Direct Line told me they dont cover for teeth,
Blooming marvellous would have been the first time in 17 years that I would have claimed for him,think I would have been better not insuring him but you just never know,

Hope your little one is ok and I will look out for her in the magazine,

Hi - a quick update: Ashia went in for her surgery in November and all went well (big sigh of relief- we were dreading it- our previous Norwegian Forest Cat had died under anasthetic- not the surgeries fault, I hasten to add, they are brilliant).

Quite a few of her teeth had already dislodged and she had several more extracted- leaving her with maybe 5-6 at the most including 2 lower canines which had to be filed down sp that she doesnt cut her top gum.

The reason for this massive loss of teeth is still unclear -she eats top quality food (dry and wet) has logic dental gel regularly and regular health checks. Anyway - result of surgery is: one much happier cat- getting on perfectly well without her gnashers and still managing to chomp on hard foods even though she has the option of soft stuff too. So much happier and fussy.

Final bill was around £250 and amazingly, M&S inslurance paid out (all except the £40 excess) -we didnt think they would but we had written assurance from the vet that it was not routine dental trouble, so PHEW!

We went to the Supreme Cat Show in Nov and got talking to a researcher who is looking into peridontal disease in cats - she was very interested in our case and with permission from our vet, she is coming over from Liverpool Uni in the next few weeks to take swabs from all our cats as part of her research -anything discovered from these will be shared with the vets, which is great.

Oh and she was a stunner in the January edition of Your Cats - both in the free calendar and a tiny picture of her on the readers cats page too. She is developing a fine Harrison Ford-type snear to compensate for the loss of her top fangs. xxKathryn