... So my older rescue cat is ill. I rescued him 2 years ago and he is approximately 10 years old now.

He got into a scuffle with another cat a week or so ago (in our fenced backyard) and I noticed he hasn't been acting himself the last few days.

Last night I found him in a box and thinking how cute he was I petted him and he lifted his head and the worst smell hit me.

I thought it was an abscess or a bad tooth and took him to the clinic this morning.

Seems it's a bad tooth and had nothing to do with the other cat.

The first thing she offered was, of course, dental service at 1400 bucks! Really? Oh, she explained, other vets do cheaper dental work, but it's simply not as good as theirs. Oh yeah, and 500 bucks for all the tests that had to be done before the dental work.

Then she suggested IV fluid - 500 bucks for the hours he'd spend in the clinic. He is drinking on his own.

Finally, after going back and forth and wrangling on my part - I got her to prescribe antibiotics figuring we needed to knock down the infection anyway before major dental work.

I'm grateful there are pet docs when you need them, but it totally sucks that they offer the most expensive course of action first. It sucks that we have to make decisions about our pet's health based on a dollar sign, but that is the reality of life.

If I had asked no questions and had not wrangled with her, we'd be looking at basically a 2500.00 bill. As it worked out, it was 150.00 and he's home with antibiotics and pain meds and eating his softened food and drinking water.

Yes, I still need to find a dentist to extract a tooth, but damn!!

I remember vets 20+ years ago that actually cared about the pet's health and not the money, but I guess those days are gone :(

Rant off/