Well, Boris certainly started out life as a cutie.
Sounds pretty steep. Our totals are a bit under $100 for a normal annual visit/vaccinations and in the mid $200-range when we got the “senior blood panel” for our cat (which we did twice and then skipped this year, because it’s freakin’ expensive and the cat is perfectly healthy).
I don’t remember how much it was for the dental cleaning a few years back, but it definitely wasn’t anywhere near $450. I think you’re being fleeced.
In any community it is typical for there to be doctors/dentists/veterinarians/podiatrists etc that are cheapest, middle of the road, and most expensive. Quality of service and price are not always linearly related. My advice would be to find service that fits your budget and your needs.
That’s pretty damn steep, at least for around here. An uncomplicated dental at either vet in our county will run you around $250-$300. That price includes everything except extractions. There are a few that get up in the $450-$500 range, but those are animals you can smell across the room beforehand and you could rename Gumby afterward. And for reference, the practice I’m working for is AAHA certified so it’s not like we’re cutting any corners here. Everyone gets blood work appropriate for their age and health issues, pre-op sedation, IV catheter and fluids, films, constant tech monitoring, a pain injection afterward, and a sealant applied.
They’re right about not being able to tell about the extractions. Unless there’s an obvious abscess or the tooth is lolling around in the gums, you can’t tell for sure whether or not any given tooth will need to be extracted on physical exam. You can take an educated guess that there’ll probably be none, a few, or a lot of extractions based on the severity of the dental disease, but it’s only a guess.
As for finding another vet to do the dental, I’ve never seen any vet that insisted on re-running current blood work, but there’s no avoiding another basic exam charge. At least, not with any vet I would trust to put my elderly cat under anesthesia. You do NOT want to go with anyone who will put an animal under without having listened to the heart and lungs first, not for a young healthy animal with no history of anesthetic complications, and most certainly not for an older animal who tried to die the last time he was anesthetized. But it should just be a basic physical exam, no additional testing.
The problem with getting another opinion is you end up paying even more. We shelled out $500.00 for dental work on an 8 year old cat. Her breath before the work would have knocked you over. However 8 is already a senior cat. After her breath was sweet and we lucked out and she lived to be 21 years old. We loved every minute with our sweet girl. Still miss her even though there have been 2 well loved kitties since.
If the hairball factories’ teeth are not that bad, you might wait until February- that is Pet Dental Month and I’d be willing to bet that most of the vets in your area will be running a special on teeth cleaning. The only drawback is that they may make you repeat a blood panel but if there are no changes in their day-to-day health, I’d ask for the basic “pre-op” panel which is usually less than $100 each (and closer to $60 in most practices).
Don’t feel bad about getting the $500 knocked off. They should have had you sign a written estimate and you were quoted otherwise so that was the right thing to do to take off the disputed amount. Ranges in dental estimates are pretty common- they are worried they’ll get in there and see a nasty or fractured tooth that is a bitch to get out. But there’s no reason you can’t agree to the more conservative amount and tell them that you want a call from the tech during the procedure if something major is discovered- then you can make a decision instead of giving them carte blanche.
I only recently left the vet industry after managing hospitals for almost twenty years. Dentistry (and, imho, paying for those fancy digital dental x-ray machines) has really become a huge deal - good in some ways because we all do better with healthy teeth and the availability of x-rays has made it much safer for vets to dig out extractions and make sure they got it all- but the ability to do more costs a lot more than people were used to.
I’m in the DC area, too (upper MoCo) and I think you’re being overcharged. I thought MY vet was expensive until I saw your prices. My cat is 8 and just had her annual exam. The bill was $55 for the exam itself, $30 for 3-year distemper booster, and $20 for rabies shot, so $105 total. She had a tooth extracted last year plus a cleaning done, and the total bill for that (pre-op exam and bloodwork, anesthesia, extraction procedure, teeth cleaning, antibiotics, painkillers) was about $550. Which is still pretty expensive, but I like my vet.
Over $600 for a physical? Good grief.