A dog's late-night visit to WSU Vet Teaching Hospital with an unusual and life-threatening heart condition turns into 5 more years of learning opportunities for the hospital and many more of boops and snugs for a relieved and grateful dog-mom.
Nigel was found abandoned and wandering around a popular hiking trail in Missoula. My mom brought him home and he immediately took to me, so I decided to adopt him. It was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. For more than a decade, Nigel was my favorite companion. He charmed everyone with his sweet, goofy, and loving demeanor. He was scared of his own shadow and was the definition of a lap dog, despite his 85 lb size. He was the type of dog that had people saying “if you die, I want Nigel” after knowing him for about 30 minutes.
When Nigel was about 8, he unexpectedly suffered from a severe heart event. He was behaving oddly and I took him into Washington State University Teaching Hospital at 10 p.m. because I just knew something was really wrong. It turned out I was right – his heart rate was extremely elevated and unstable. In the subsequent days his body would not respond to medication and other attempts to intervene, and his organs were starting to decline. In a last-ditch effort, he was placed under anesthesia to try to electro convert his heart using a defibrillator, and it worked! After spending a couple more days in ICU recovering, Nigel was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) and had a heart monitor surgically implanted. This monitor was connected to his heart and allowed vets to scan the device to see heart activity.
Nigel remained on medication for the remainder of his life, but he lived another 5 happy and relatively healthy years. He would visit the vets at WSU every 6 months for checkups. They would scan his monitor and look for heart irregularities while feeding him at least 3 lbs of treats. He loved to visit everyone and was beloved by the cardiologists at the hospital. He became famous for the unknown cause of his issue and his body’s refusal to cooperate with almost every known form of intervention, as well as his borderline miraculous recovery. Incoming vet students would always greet us with “I’ve heard so much about Nigel!” He was a star patient and exceedingly tolerant, which allowed many students to use him for various heart scans and education opportunities whenever he was on site.
In September of 2018, Nigel passed away. He was estimated to be 13 years old, which is a great age for any large dog and an exceptional age for a dog that tried to kick the bucket 5 years prior. We were inundated with flowers and cards from multiple vets, friends, family, etc. He was everyone’s favorite dog and touched so many people’s lives, and he helped educate numerous vet students. He was a one of a kind guy and I feel so lucky that I was able to call him mine.
