Truly, I know zero about horses, but I would imagine it would take quite a bit of anesthesia to knock out a horse and much less for a cat. Don’t horses have issues with coming out of that stuff or lying around too long? Maybe the bigger you are the harder it is because you had to be injected with so much stuff?
Anyway, I wouldn’t want a cat bite, so I’d make sure it wasn’t going to happen. 
That’s fine if the vet can do it just by scraping in the office. Your cat must have pretty good teeth and behaves well when having sharp instruments in her mouth.
Many cats have tartar and gum disease to the point where it’s not possible to do a scaling in the office. Also, they may need not just a cleaning but extractions. Hence the necessity for anesthesia.
Many vets will not do a cleaning under anesthesia on an older cat unless it’s REALLY REALLY bad and the cat needs extractions, precisely because of the risk of complications due to the anesthesia. I would also probably not risk anesthesia on a 15-year-old cat just to clean her teeth unless she were in pain. But anesthesia, and the use of it, on a healthy younger cat who needs the work done is not unduly dangerous, and it’s not a reason to view the vet with suspicion, nor to change vets.
We’re probably arguing both sides of the same coin. I’m arguing the minimum requirements and you are taking the worst case scenario.
I disagree that you should not challenge a vet’s opinion. That is the responsibility of a caretaker. I chose my vet by asking people who were in a better position to know how good they are. I question my vet the same as I would my family doctor. Asking why something is necessary, the consequences of the path chosen, and if there are alternatives.
Yeah, I agree if the cat is young and has never shown any signs of bad health, skip the ECG and blood work. The ECG will just tell you that the heart is or isn’t working normally, which most vets will tell you with a stethescope. Also, I have had two cats now that have had intermittent problems with irregular heartbeat and/or murmur and neither would show up on the ECG. I did it on each cat once and decided that it wasn’t anything to worry about if it wasn’t even there all the time. (besides, how much would open heart surgery on a cat cost?!) The bloodwork tests kidney and liver enzymes which is important for clearing the anastesia out of the animal’s system. I have never heard of a young cat having problems and older cats usually get the proceedure done anyway because the risk of systemic bacterial infection is too great. Also, kidney and liver malfunction are usually caught by the owner or vet and just confirmed or more well defined by blood work. By my math, which is admittedly bad, I get just under $340, almost twice what I think I paid, but better than $500. They will probably make you sign something that says your kittie may die and it isn’t their fault, but that can happen with all the testing in the world, too. I also did not have (waas not given the option of) the antibiotics. Depending on the oral health of the kittie, you may be able to skip that too, but if kittie’s mouth smells like there is something dead in her throat, the antibiotics are probably a good thing. That would get you below $300. If your kittie is half a sweet as mine, he is probably worth it. And if there isn’t much damage, preventative toothbrushing can help, my kittie doesn’t mind it too bad. See if the vet will give you a free sample kit toothbrush and enzyme gel, they usually get them for free from the manufacturers.
Now I’m confused. Given that I don’t have the time and energy to do the raw food thing right, what should my kitties eat? They won’t eat canned food, only dry, so I have been feeding them the ones with the highest protein concentration I can find. I keep offering canned food but they keep refusing. Also, if cats don’t chew their food, then what is the crunchcrunchcrunch I hear when they eat?
Finally, as a human doctor, I only charge $55 for an EKG (and probably collect $30 from insurance). How do I get into this lucrative vet business?
By the time you give a cat enoug ace to knock it out to the point I’d be willing to stick my fingers between its teeth even for the time it would take to install a mouth gag, you drop its blood pressure quite a bit, and ace lasts for a few hours. (It also tends to lower seizure threshold, but that’s usually not an issue.) It also doesn’t relax the cat enough to put in an endotracheal tube to protect the airway, and there’s a lot of fluid involved in doing a dental. I think there are also issues with ace putting a lot of strain on the livers and kidneys of older animals, even at low doses, but I’m not entirely sure about that.
As for the estimate, the injection, bloodwork and ECG seem to be pretty standard prices. The amoxi seems really freakin’ high, though, roughly twice what our clinic would charge. The rest of it, though, seems weird. For one thing, that’s a huge honkin’ fee for anesthesia. I’ve seen emergency abdominal surgeries with lower anesthesia fees. And if they’re charging the anesthesia seperately from the work of the dental, the dental fee is way high. I’ve also never heard of keeping a dental case overnight, either. And charging you to throw away their garbage afterward is just ridiculous. There’s only one clinic around here that does that, part of a national chain within certain pet stores, and I’ve frankly not been impressed with their standard of care, based on the patients they transfer to us.
Call other clinics and get price quotes, because you should be able to get everything done for much, much less than that. At my old clinic, our dental fee was $100, anesthesia and antibiotic injection included, with extractions charged by how much work they were. (If the tooth popped out while I was scaling them, or I could flip it out with the probe, we didn’t charge anything.) The bloodwork would vary according to the age of your animal, but generally between $35 and $70, and the antibiotics were usually $10-15.
I wasn’t saying that you shouldn’t challenge a vet’s opinion. The impression I got from your post was that you thought that the idea that a vet would EVER need anesthesia to clean a cat’s teeth was bizarre and unusual and possibly quacky, and if you heard your vet say it you would think it odd enough that you would possibly change vets over it. (I could well have not understood your intended meaning.) My point was that it is not unusual at all and shouldn’t be viewed with suspicion.
I think everyone who has any question whatsoever as to whether their pet is receiving the best-quality care and advice should seek second and third opinions. I love my vet but I have dealt with enough who knew less about certain feline conditions than I did that I’d never give them carte blanche.
But anesthesia for cleaning is not a strange recommendation . I doubt if most vets would suggest it for an elderly cat anyway, and if one did, I would certainly challenge him.
More diet discussion, but only because psychobunny asked:
I have always fed only dry food. I think that anyone who categorically dismisses all dried food is not considering all the facts. I have seen a plant where it is made, and the main meat ingredients are organ meats that don’t have a human market. These are really nutrient dense, so of course, there has to be some sort of filler or kittie will get fat eating hearts and livers and lungs. Are there bad dry foods out there? Yup, you bet! With pet food (at least dog and cat) you get what you pay for. I feed Iams. It costs more than most grocery store brands, but is a good, well-rounded food. I spend about $1-$1.5 a week feeding my kittie. I have heard lots of vets basically say that Purina cat chow is about as low as you should go price-wise. When you consider how long a bag of food lasts, unless you have a whole herd of kitties, then you aren’t going to break the bank with more pricey foods. If you want something even nicer than Iams, you can get better foods from the vet, and sometimes from the stores. Hill’s is good, Eukanuba, and ProPlan are all good. Another nice side effect of nicer food is less poop. Let’s face it, lower nutrient content=more food intake=more poop output. Nicer food also usually has less ash, which can prevent kidney and bladder stones.
And to further shake my head in disbelief of page one. …a story from my home:
Last night I am cooking. As usual, things get messy. While stirring pasta, I hear crunching. I immediately suspect kittie…“Kittie…what are you doing?” Kittie looks out from under the table sheepishly. “Kittie?” I go see what kittie is hiding. Kittie was laying on a half-eaten uncooked pasta. Hmm…hard crunchy pasta…and cats only eat meat? This is not the first time I have found Kittie eating uncooked pasta either. But to further add to the confusion…my kittie usually doesn’t chew her food. Chew toys, furniture, shoelaces, etc.? yes…kibble? not a chance!