Teeth Cleaning - Necessary?

[ShelbyMay]

I took one of my cats to the vet this morning for another re-check due to UTI. She is starting her 3rd course of antibiotics, and the doctor said this would be a good time to get her teeth cleaned (I guess because she'll be on the antibiotics anyway). He said that her teeth/gums are not in bad shape, but she does have some plague (or was it tartar?).

The estimate is a little less than $300 (including pre-op bloodwork, inhaled anesthesia, and the cleaning itself). This would be another unexpected expense, after recently spending about $500 on various antibiotics, vet fees, and cleaning products due to her UTI. I don't want to cheap out on my pet's care, but we're trying to save up for my maternity leave this summer, and every penny counts.

On top of the cost, there is the fact that one of my childhood pets was injured during a routine teeth cleaning and ended up having to undergo major surgery to repair a tear in her trachea (I guess they messed up the intubation). I had hoped to never put a pet through a cleaning again because of this risk.

Am I a bad pet mommy if I don't have the cleaning done? Is it something that can wait until next year?

[Scoutesina]

OK, I may get flamed for this, but I'm not a big believer in putting a cat through this. I never had my 17-year-old cat's cleaned, and she was fine (she didn't die of health problems, BTW, 2 dogs killed her). I have also heard of cats dying from mistakes with the anesthesia. I'm sure there are health benefits to doing this, but to me it just seems like a money-making thing vets have come up with in recent years. The last time I was at the vet's office, they mentioned cleaning our new cat's teeth but I plan to just shine on about it. So, if you do the same, I will certainly back you up! :)

[southerner]

Here's (http://www.constantchatter.com/showthread.php?t=4522&highlight=teeth) a thread I started about this very thing. I wish I had my cat's teeth cleaned. Now he has none b/c they all rotted away. The vet told us he must have been in alot of pain.

[keska]

Putting cats under anasthesia carries a risk, but whether it is worth it depends on the condition of your cat's teeth and your cat's age and health, IMO. My 10 year old cat recently had his teeth cleaned because he was being put under for a root canal anyway. I'm not sure at that age if I would have chosen to put him under just for teeth cleaning because it becomes riskier when your pet is older. It would have depended on how serious the problem was. With a younger cat, I'd probably do it. Lots of cats lose teeth because people don't take care of them. It's kind of a shame that people seem to think their pets may not experience the same problems or resulting pain that humans feel when their teeth go bad.

Did your vet suggest brushing your cat's teeth? They have special tooth brushes for cats that fit on the end of your finger. That's probably something you could do to help your kitty if you need to postpone a cleaning.

[Rico'sAlice]

Personally, I would change the diet and give the cat raw bones to chew on, but that may not be something that you are willing to get into.
I would switch to a grain free, raw diet. Sugars & simple carbohydrates are culprits in tarter, cavities, etc. and so not feeding those is a great step towards cleaner teeth. Including bones in the diet will help tremendously b/c of the scraping action. The cat would (most probably) need to start with ground up meat & bones. Then could gradually be given bigger chunks until they are willing to eat whole pieces (like chicken necks) But even the ground up stuff should have big enough pieces of bone that the cat would have to do some crunching.