| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 434.1 | not a fun job! | CADSYS::RICHARDSON | | Mon Dec 29 1986 17:09 | 18 |
| The vet told me the same thing, so I started doing so. I must admit
that The Fickle's teeth were pretty yellow and her breath not so
pleasant; Nebula was not sobad but she is younger. I use teeny
baby toothbrushes like the vet suggested (they are very soft) and
just water. This actvity is less than popular with the kitties,
but I am much bigger than either of them so they don't have much
choice (and forgive me after an hour or so). What I do is stick
the first finger of the arm that the "victim" is tucked under into
her mouth between the front and back teeth so she can't bite me
or close her mouth, and then gently scrub the yellow gunk off the
teeth (usually only the back ones are gunky; the front teeth stay
pretty clean). The first time, JFCL had to have this done at the
vet's with a dental tool, and a lot of help from me; the alternative
was to have her stay overnight so she could be anesthetized for
the procedure, if I couldn't get her to co-operate (she eventually
did). Good luck; brushing their teeth isn't great fun!
/Charlotte
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| 434.2 | painful job | ARGUS::COOK | Dreadful Mourning | Tue Dec 30 1986 01:46 | 9 |
|
I just had Residual at the vets and the vet spotted a bit of plaque
which he attempted to get off but Residual was determined to de-skin
him so the vet told me I should brush his teeth. So I will.
BTW, I've never seen my cat possessed by the devil until he got
his anual rabies shot.
PC
|
| 434.3 | BUFFALO BREATH | VAXWRK::DUDLEY | | Tue Dec 30 1986 17:57 | 16 |
| We got Kiwi a little over 2 years ago when he was 6 months old.
He's had bad breath since the day we got him. Our vet recently
thought he would benefit from a thorough cleaning so we had that
done recently. And we were instructed to 'brush' his teeth re-
gularly from now on. Let's see...that's about 10-15 more years
of brushing ... Anyway, she gave us special (non-foaming) vet-
renarian toothpaste and said it would be okay to simple rub this
along his gum line with a q-tip. He HATES it! Takes two of us
to do it, locked in the bathroom.
My other two cats, both older than Kiwi, don't appear to have
any problem and fortunately she did not suggest that we start
brushing their teeth as well. It's good preventative maintenance
if you're up to the task.
Donna
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| 434.4 | Perhaps a little parsley... | PUZZLE::CORDESJA | | Tue Jan 06 1987 20:08 | 14 |
| My vet told me to use 3% hydrogen peroxide (I had asked about baking
soda but the vet said cats prefer the taste of peroxide) and a Q-tip
on Amelia's teeth. I've tried this. Its not a fun job. She doesn't
fight to bad but she's hard to hold on to. The taste seems to be
okay with her but her breath is still pretty bad so while it may
be helping clean her teeth its not doing much for the breath.
I was reading the Canine Notes File today (yes I'm a dog lover too)
and someone suggested putting a little parsley in the food to help
clear up a dog's bad breath. I'm going to give this a try this week
and see if it will help. I'll let you know.
Jan
|
| 434.5 | Lie back and open wide | IOSG::READ | | Tue Jan 13 1987 12:20 | 19 |
| My sister used to have a cat that had been very badly treated.
She had been kicked so often, she only had a few teeth left, even
though she was very yount. Because of the lack of teeth she was
unable to eat the crunchy things that clean teeth, so she had to
go to the vets every 6 weeks or so for a scrape and a polish!
I thought it was really funny to think of a cat lying in a dentists
reclining chair having its teeth polished. Still it did the trick
and kept Lady in good condition.
Unfortunately, while staying at my parents, Lady (who was very much
an indoor cat) ran out of the door and got knocked over. But at
least my sister knew she'd given her a happy time for a while to
help make up for all the bad times.
I hope you get your bad breath problem sorted out. Lady was unbearable
until she started her regular dental care.
Jess
|
| 434.6 | | PUZZLE::CORDESJA | | Wed Jan 14 1987 19:47 | 6 |
| Marilyn,
There is a "how to" article about brushing your cats teeth in the
January issue of Cats magazine. You should be able to buy this
magazine at your local pet store. If you want it and can't find
it, I can mail you a subscription form.
Jo
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| 434.7 | cat dentistry costs a FORTUNE! | CADSYS::RICHARDSON | | Wed Jun 21 1989 16:10 | 22 |
| Arghh!
I took my two cats (see much earlier reply) in to the vet for some
"dental work" yesterday. The vet had not told me to brush their teeth
lately, so I hadn't been doing so the past year or so, since they
really hate it (even worse than claw-trimming; it's right up there with
having a human make you swallow a pill in their book!). Well, both
kitties (who are now 11 years old) had to have some infected teeth
extracted. The bill came to $252!! Sheesh!! Not very long ago, they
were both in for their shots, and that costs $152! That's more than
the human members of the household have spent on doctor and dentist
bills since the beginning of the year, blows my food budget for the
month (money had to come from someplace; I just about fainted when the
vet's receptionist presented me with the BILL), and seems like a heck
of a lot of money to spend on two completely healthy looking and acting
"older" kitties. I mean, I was expecting/budgeting maybe a third of
that! It's not like one of them was injured in an accident or
something. Anyhow, it is back to tooth brushing for the pair of them -
I can't afford another vet bill of that size any time soon!
/Charlotte - boy, am I broke!
|
| 434.8 | Yearly tooth cleaning is worth it | YOSMTE::CORDESBRO_JO | | Wed Jun 21 1989 16:30 | 24 |
| Charlotte,
I can relate to the money thing. Multiply that number by 20 cats
and you have a rough idea of what I spend at the vet.
But, rest assured that the $252 spent now will save you big bucks
in the future. Momma Kitty (RIP) needed dental surgery and my mom kept
putting it off. Well, even though she looked healthy on the outside,
she was a very sick kitty. Her teeth became infected which led
to an abcess in her nasal passages. Mom brought it to my attention
when Momma Kitty's face became swollen. Well, the emergency surgery
was very expensive, and then came weeks and weeks of medications
and re-checks. She did pull through it eventually though.
I think that as cats get older, and their health problems more
complicated, they are bound to cost you more at the vet's. Best
way to deal with it is to "amortize" the cost of the vet visits
over the life of the cat. This is how I deal with it. I spent
several hundred dollars on Jesse right near the end, but when I
break it down by his age, it was only $20 per year! What he gave
to me in love and devotion was definitely worth more than $20 per
year. That makes it easier to accept. ;^)
Jo
|
| 434.9 | | CRUISE::NDC | | Thu Jun 22 1989 09:09 | 24 |
| Well, I guess my vet isn't out of line then. When I brought
Tym and Dundee in last Saturday, the bill was $125. This was
for
1 stool sample
2 office visits (they used to only charge me for one)
2 exams
2 4-in-1 shots
2 Rabies shots
1 FLV booster
I wish someone would come up with affordable health insurance for
pets. There is some out there, but its not much use if your cat
is over 9 yrs old and lets face it, that's when you can start
worrying about vet bills.
Charlotte - i'm sure Jo is right and you'll end up saving money
in the long run. Besides that the cats will be happier and healthier.
Mao used to have a bad tartar problem until I fed her Hills CD.
Her mouth is MUCH improved. Of course, now there's all this anxiety
over Ethoxyquin which is in Hills so I'm not going to recommend
it to you. I'll just tell you what my experience was and leave
the decision of what to feed up to you.
Nancy dC
|
| 434.10 | $$$ | HDLITE::FEASE | Andrea Midtmoen Fease | Thu Jun 22 1989 09:59 | 30 |
| Hi,
Our bills were pretty high this week, as the boys had to go in for
their checkups/vacs and Bigfoot had to have dentistry too. They were:
$45 3 office visits
$48 3 FeLK vacs and 3 3-in-1 vacs
$75 3 FIP tests
??? 2 Kidney function tests
??? 2 stool samples
---
$240 Monday's checkup day
$25 Anesthesia
$50 Dental - tartar removal/cleaning
$ 5 Day care
$21 Antibiotic
??? Tax, misc., too lazy to do math ;-)
---
$105 Bigfoot's dentistry day yesterday
Plus we've spent over $300 on a $15 pheasant!
But I guess that's the price we pay for going to Tufts. We're
lucky; they're only 10 minutes away.
But I second that thought - we need animal insurance!!
- Andrea
|
| 434.11 | vet charges...also pet health insurance | GLINKA::GREENE | Cat Lady | Thu Jun 22 1989 11:32 | 13 |
| Thanks for posting the vet charges. I used to think I was
paying so much for care in the Big City (Boston).
But I guess it is the same elsewhere.
re: insurance for pets,
I had read there were a couple of companies offering it,
but I never bother to check out their prices/coverage
because I assumed they don't cover breeders. Has anyone
else ever gotten the specific information? Do those
companies still exist?
Pennie
|
| 434.12 | | HDLITE::FEASE | Andrea Midtmoen Fease | Thu Jun 22 1989 12:04 | 10 |
| Hi Pennie,
There was a pamphlet in Tufts' waiting room about pet insurance,
but it was only for pets up to around 7-8 years of age. Since Fluffy
is going to be 7, Loki, 8 and Bigfoot, 11+, it didn't work out for me.
I may still have the pamphlet at home; if so, I can post the address/
rates/etc.
- Andrea
|
| 434.13 | did you say the total was...? | DRFIX::IVES | I'm my own Persian | Thu Jun 22 1989 14:00 | 32 |
| I must have the right vet.
Three weeks ago I took Ming in to have her declawed (no comments
please) and we knew she had a tooth broken off behind one of
her fangs on the bottom. This was discovered when she had her
yearly check up in February. She had her teeth scaled at that
time but the vet said we could wait a while before extracting
the broken off tooth.
The day of the surgery the vets office called and told me they
had to do additonal dental work on her. Poor baby had 3 abscessed
molars.
Bill total was $126.00
declaw -72.00
_________
extracting 4
teeth
extra overnight
antibodics
Total of all the above $54.00
She is doing just wonderful, and peace reigns again in our household.
Even saw Mocha washing Mings face the other day, and she loved every
minute of it.
Barbara
|