The first post about Mackie’s ordeal was called Sick Little Kitty. This article is all about the tooth extraction.

Rarely do you find vets that primarily focus on cats. We have a wonderful cat only vet in Tulsa, Oklahoma called Feline Specialties. We could not find a cat only vet in the Normal, Illinois area. So, we went back to SmartVet which was where we first took Mackie and received the antibiotics.

All tooth extractions for cats are considered surgeries. The reason is cats do not like people messing with their mouth and can easily bite you. SmartVet only does surgery on Thursday. We had to wait a week before going in for the surgery. It turns out that SmartVet also doesn’t have a vet in house who can do surgery. So, a roaming vet comes to the facility.

We brought Mackie in to SmartVet around 7:30 am and did all the paperwork. At this point Mackie had a weeks worth of antibiotics, was eating and drinking, and the swelling had gone down. We left thinking the pickup time would be around 4 pm.

We received a call between 11 am and 12 pm to call back that the surgery was canceled due to Mackie’s heart rate and weird ECG readings. We talked to the vet who said Mackie should go to a Cardiologist before the next surgery. That the heart beats were not timing correctly and the heart rate slowed. Mackie was awake and doing well, and we should pick him up in an 1 1/2 hours.

When we came to pick him up, we met with the technicians who showed us the xrays and then said that most of his remaining teeth should be removed. That 1 canine was really bad. Once Mackies lower teeth were removed, Mackie might have some issue with eating and dropping food out of this mouth. Here’s the but!! They were not willing to remove the teeth unless Mackie went to a Cardiologist, and the cardiologist said it was safe.

Vets that specialize in cardiology are hard to find. Oklahoma does not have any feline cardiologists. The University of Wisconsin Madison has cardiologist and the next available appointment was mid December 2026. Finding someone to look at Mackie will not be an easy task.

Personally, I think SmartVet had another cat on the same day with major issues and a rough surgery. I don’t think they wanted to tackle all of Mackie’s issues and risks. This gave them an easy way to stop and tell us to see our regular vet and cardiologist.

We’ve been on the phone with our vet whose going to run some test on Mackie’s heart when we arrive back in Oklahoma in November. Our vet also approved more antibiotics for us to keep on hand in case the infection rears its ugly head again.

Since this ordeal, Mackie has been off the antibiotics. He’s eating and drinking. We are giving him probiotics to address the diarrhea (which has always been a challenge with Mackie).

Mackie has started playing more and harassing Cleo again.

Below picture was taken in the consultation room. The consultation room was where they provided us feedback on Mackie and where we picked up Mackie. Cleo came along so that she can smell the office and recognize Mackie. Otherwise Mackie would smell strange and Cleo would growl and hiss at him.

A week later on the table pestering Cleo.