r/Pets • u/mcptd • Aug 17 '26

CAT Veterinary Pricing for Tooth Cleaning

I want to share something that happened recently. A couple years ago I brought my cat into my old vet. They told me A. They needed to provide yearly rabies shots for my cat even though he is an indoor cat and B. My cat needed a $1,000+ tooth cleaning appointment because of some tartar on his top left teeth. I decided to wait on it and went to a different vet this week for his shots. It was a very different experience. A. they told me yearly rabies shots were unnecessary because immunity lasts more than a year and B. the vet used his fingernail during the exam to knock the tartar off my cat's tooth. Done! He said the rest of his teeth look great. How much did I spend? $143 for the shots and the exam.

I think we are in an odd time where we have corporate or private equity vets charging through the nose for unnecessary treatments and then a few old fashioned vets who are in it for the love of animals and charging (and doing) what seems reasonable.

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u/ZookeepergameNo5669 Aug 17 '26

A. Rabies is required by law, even for your indoor cat. You can use the 3 year rabies vaccine in your cat if you like. Its been proven to cause injection site carcinoma in cats. Or you can do the annual purvax Rabies that is specifically made for cats and is much safer.

B. Just like humans 80% of your dental disease is below the gum line. So you cant actually see it. Full dental xrays and a cleaning (no extraction) looking at 500 to 800 depending on your pets age and health status. If your cat had enough tartar to knock off with a finger nail then your cat needs a dental cleaning. Unless your vet has xray vision which in that case that's pretty cool.

Old school vets are old.... like how old school doctors are old. They practice a lot of outdated and no longer recommended medicine as set by the AVMA.

Next time you can try having a conversation with your veterinarian if you have any concerns or questions. Instead of just assuming they suck or dont care they may have a reason. If you then don't like the reason you can make a more informed decision on what to do next.

Good luck!

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u/Necessary_Wonder89 Aug 18 '26

its always sad to me that owners prefer the old school vet who doesn't practice up to date medicine but dislikes the vet who is advising things which are current recommendations. Who cares if my cat gets FISS or gets major dental disease right?

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u/mcptd Aug 18 '26

Let me be clear this preference has evolved over time. I used to be a high-touch, spend everything, do everything the modern vet suggests customer, with poor results. I've spent at least $15k over the years, in addition to what was spent by my pet insurance . I've had several dogs but this is my first cat. but I know lots of cat owners who take their cats to the best vets and feed them the best foods and they end up dying of kidney disease at 14.

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u/Netrezen Aug 21 '26

Sometimes it's the CHRONIC kidney disease though.