Dental surgery on diabetic cat?

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Nancy and Pasha

Nancy and Pasha

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Hi everyone! I haven't posted for a long time, but Pasha is doing great!

If you've had dental work on your diabetic cat, did it cost more because of the complication of diabetes? They just gave me a estimate (not broken down yet) of $1,380 to $1,480, depending on whether he ends up needing two or four extractions. That doesn't include pre-op bloodwork, which we already did.

This seems awfully high, considering it was $600 two years ago for a one-tooth extraction and cleaning. I understand it's more complicated because of his diabetes, but it still seems awfully high!

Our vet wanted to have an anesthesiologist present for this surgery. I am not sure yet how much this adds to the cost. (She told me a long time ago, when we discussed fixing up his teeth last year, but I forgot.)

I will ask them for more of a breakdown but am wondering about other people's experience with anesthesia for diabetics.

We have been instructed to take away his food 8 hours before, leave his water, and give him a half dose of insulin the morning of the surgery. They will check his blood sugar before and during surgery and add something to his IV if he gets too low.

Any thoughts or shared experiences welcome! The big day is Thursday (May 12).

Nancy
 
The cost is reasonable because you said an anesthesiologist would be present. That add a lot to the cost since this specialist is no cheap. Usually the tech who does most of the cleaning also monitors the anesthesia.
 
It really depends on where you are going and who's doing the dental. Maui has had two dentals in the past two years, with extractions.

She went to Red Bank where there is a dental specialist (studying to be board certified) and Maui is in remission so no insulin was needed. However, I made sure the dentist was aware of her situation and what happened after dental one, to make sure that she used other drugs that would be gentler and easier for Maui.

I don't recall the exact cost - but I paid around $1100-1600 for each of my three cats to get dentals and each needed specific precautions taken for each of their medical issues.

Ask for a breakdown of the estimate so you can better see what they are charging for. But there should not be an added cost for diabetes. Extra care and using alternative drugs/treatments possibly, but no significant added cost.
 
Bandit needed 4 extractions and his dental was $700. This was at my current vet...my old vet was estimating $1300 which I just couldn't afford. I made sure that both did the procedure the same, heart monitoring, etc.

Instructions sound the same, but they said not to give insulin at all the morning of the dental.
 
After some confusion and back-and-forth e-mails with the office, it looks like we will need $1000 to $1400, and we're going ahead with it. I may have been confused at the consult with the vet last month--I thought she said the anesthesiologist would need to be present but apparently she decided just having a consult with the anesthesiologist was sufficient. They will still monitor his BG during the procedure. If the anesthesiologist were present, that would be $225 per hour, which would add at least another $450 to $550, so we were up to almost $2000 there and my heart sank!! I want to do whatever is necessary for him to have a safe and comfortable procedure, but I just wasn't prepared for finding out only two days beforehand that it could be up to $2000.

Lesson learned: Ask for a full written estimate BEFORE you schedule the procedure, and make sure everything is included!! Our old vet always gave us a detailed written estimate, which was nice; here I've just been working off conversations with the vet, but clearly I should get the full estimate beforehand--to avoid the sticker shock and be able to plan better.

Anyway... he's going in tomorrow and probably won't miss those teeth when they're gone! :)

Thanks everyone!!
 
P.S. Hillary, I wanted to thank you for recommending the B-12 capsules to sprinkle on food (last year)--I did get those and put them in Pasha's food--I guess there's no way to know how big a role they played in his back-leg recovery, but they sure didn't hurt! (And I took them myself too. :)
 
Nancy, good news all around!

Glad the B12 helped him and you too.

Always good to get an estimate, especially when dealing with something so important and expensive. It's also a good way to see what they are or aren't planning to do/include and to ask questions. You are the one responsible and paying the bill, you need to understand what is going on.
 
i realize tht you had this done already, but I wanted to comment that Cedric had this done last week (cleaning, no extractions). He was staying at the vet's since the other 2 kennels he goes to won't do the injections (I went to Denver for my sister's graduation). My total bill was $541, but at leat $140 of that was boarding & the cost of them doing the injections. They did not give him his regular injections that day, since he had no food. They did give him a unit of insulin with some food at the end of the day when the anesthesia wore off. They checked his BG with their meter twice that day (they also charge for that). I'm in Orlando, FL, so the numbers might be a little lower b/c of that.
 
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