Here's Nigel, the world's most expensive mutt

[jwasbury]

I know there are a lot of dog people on this forum.

Had a close call with my buddy this week. My wife and I returned home late Saturday night after a weeks vacation over Thanksgiving. First thing Sunday I picked our dogs up from the kennel, and everyone one was happy, tails wagging and lots of kisses. About midday, Nigel started acting strange and was whining a small amount. I thought perhaps he needed to go out, so we went for a walk. He made the smallest poop I've ever seen, and he dry heaved 2 times on the walk, and I thought perhaps he had some stomach upset or maybe picked up a bug at the kennel. He was a bit slow on the walk too. He rested quietly for most of the day, and we kept an eye on him but figured his behavior was consistent with stomach upset. When dinner rolled around and he didn't eat, this was the first strong signal of a serious problem. This dog hasn't missed a meal in 7 years. At that point he was lethargic and didn't even want to get up, so I knew something was up. Took him to the 24 emergency clinic and he was diagnosed with Gastric Volvulus (commonly known as bloat) and almost immediately went into surgery. For those who are unfamiliar this condition is deadly if not treated promptly.

Surgery went smooth and Nigel is back home now resting and seems to be recovering well. Give your fur kids a hug...they don't live long enough as it is, and something like this can easily lead to premature departure of your best friend.

At the clinic, maybe 10 hours post-op


Happy days at the dog park

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Thanks for being such an observant and caring owner! He has a beautiful coat, what kind of rott mix is he?

[jwasbury]

According the the DNA test we did, one parent was purebred Rottie and the other parent was 50% American staffordshire terrier, 25% boxer, 25% Airedale.


Typical scene...Nigel keeping the sofa from floating away

[9dreizig]

Glad to hear it worked out ok Jacob!!! Good looking mutt!

[doug_porsche]

wooof, woof, woof, wooof, woooff'

That is dog for "Get well Nigel!"

and yes, I did give my dog an ear scratch.

[crustychief]

Good catch! I am sure Nigel will repay you with love.

[pc100porsche]

Great Sofa Shot .. that deserves to be on a calendar !
Glad the pooch is feeling better

[sc_rufctr]

Fantastic outcome!

My neighbour lost a Grate Dane to Gastric Volvulus about 12 months ago (confirmed by the vet). He died in his sleep.
I had to help him load the dogs body into the back of his station wagon when it happened! Not a nice experience. His two boys were devastated.

[Baz]

Good job Jacob!

Thanks for sharing - always good to learn about potential health issues for our fur kids.

Did you ever find out what conditions may have led to the bloat?

And you are right - hug 'em every day!

[ckelly78z]

Almost lost my dog, a 65 lb Australian Sheppard Ausie named Buddy awhile back. I have an old boat out in the back field that needs to go to the junkers, that was filled with old glass windows laid across the seats. He chased a rabbit and jumped into the middle of all that glass and came out bloody. He had to have surgury to close the wounds and did just fine with that. What almost killed him was the infections from having open wounds that he wasn't allowed to lick. He just kept licking and chewing at them, but finally started to heal.

I'm so glad you caught the problem with your dog, it's so easy to dismiss serious problems.

[GH85Carrera]

Just one surgery? Heck your dog is just an piker on the list of most expensive dogs. Our vet put his kids through a few years of college form one of our dachshunds.

She ate part of the rug and had to have stomach surgery to unblock that obstruction. She cut her foot real bad on a sharp piece of metal edging. Fortunately we were home and in the back yard when that happened. Of course it was a Sunday morning. Animal hospital visit and stitches. I ground off the sharp spot and I would never have found it if I had not seen her get injured.

She had a second stomach blockage because of scar tissue so another surgery. Then she had two back surgeries. She lived to be 13 years old and was a great and smart little dog. No doubt she cost us the cost of a new car over the years. No hesitation about spending the money.

[tadd]

Good to hear your four legged child made it! I lost my first girl (standard poodle) to bloat. Still miss my baby girl. Its not hard to get attached to your pooches .

[86 ssinit]

Good job!!your right there only here a short time do all you can for them. He is a great looking dog!!!!

[jhynesrockmtn]

Glad he is well. I had a lab who ended up in the ER twice with bloat. He avoided surgery both times thankfully. The first time he vomited after some prompting. I offered to clean up when I saw the damage. They laughed and said not to worry. The second time the vet removed 12 pounds of Christmas paper wrapping from his belly without surgery. We jokingly referred to Kona as our free dog as he was a rescue.......

[recycled sixtie]

Originally Posted by jhynesrockmtn

Glad he is well. I had a lab who ended up in the ER twice with bloat. He avoided surgery both times thankfully. The first time he vomited after some prompting. I offered to clean up when I saw the damage. They laughed and said not to worry. The second time the vet removed 12 pounds of Christmas paper wrapping from his belly without surgery. We jokingly referred to Kona as our free dog as he was a rescue.......

Nigel is some good looking dog. I am happy he is getting better. This post reminds me of my black lab Sally now deceased and taking her to the emerg vet for eating too much crap(this time it was pears coming off a neighbour's tree). Great dog but cost lots of $$$ in vet bills but what can u do except spend $$$ on these furkids.
Guy

[sammyg2]

Glad it worked out. Bloat is common in bigger breeds, they say to restrict physical activity (running, jumping) immediately after meals.
Even that is no guaranty.

BTW you have a ways to go to catch up to what my daughter's dog has cost at the vet over the years. Think low mileage 993 .....
Totally blind, mostly deaf, been under general anesthesia at least 6 times. Cancer twice, aftermarket hip. Lost count.

Ironically my daughter named him "Lucky".

[jwasbury]

Originally Posted by Baz

Did you ever find out what conditions may have led to the bloat?

As Sammy wrote, they don't really know what causes it, but it tends to affect larger breeds most. Nigel's symptoms were pretty non-specific. I suppose the fact that he appeared to be having GI issues, but there was no diarrhea or vomiting was a good indication of what was happening, but it wasn't obvious. In fact, when I got him to the ER, the vet who examined him thought his stomach was a little distended, but wasn't immediately thinking it was bloat. Only when they did an x-ray was it obvious. It was Nigel's uncharacteristic lethargy and strange behavior that was the signal to me that something was seriously wrong.

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Just one surgery? Heck your dog is just an piker on the list of most expensive dogs.

Originally Posted by sammyg2

BTW you have a ways to go to catch up to what my daughter's dog has cost at the vet over the years. Think low mileage 993 .....
Totally blind, mostly deaf, been under general anesthesia at least 6 times. Cancer twice, aftermarket hip. Lost count.

Ironically my daughter named him "Lucky".

^yeah, I know...I haven't told you about the time about 2 years ago Nigel got into a large container of chewing gum sweetened with Xylitol. For those who don't know (and we didn't), Xylitol is something like 100x more toxic than chocolate to dogs. There are cases where just a few little pieces of Xylitol gum have killed even large dogs. Nigel ate an entire container - estimated about 40 pieces. This should have caused liver failure and killed him. Miraculously, it did not. He did have seizures, spent about 10 days in the ICU, and was on Phenobarbitol for about a year afterwards.

I'm into him for about the cost of a decent 911 SC...wouldn't hestiate to do it again, love that big lug head. He was a rescue, so also "free"

[Brando]

Just shelled out a few grand to keep my miniature dachshund going.



About 2.5 weeks ago he got into the trash at mom & dad's while they were watching him. He ate 6 chocolate biscottis, some chicken w/bones, and who knows what else. Pancreatitis immediately, bacterial infection... you name it. Just getting him over that and now diagnosed with kidney disease. Vet estimated 3-6 months

Yesterday really sucked. Hug your furry friends.

[sammyg2]

Last week on the day we got doggy home from his latest over-night stay at the vets, he was walking out in the back yard to do his business.
He's completely blind but has memorized every inch of that back yard.
All the sudden I heard SPLASH and i said OH **** and bolted out back and dove in and got him out of the pool. Evidently the drugs had him disoriented and he couldn't tell where the pool was.
You should have seen his little short legs trying to paddle in a circle.
He definitely wasn't built for the water.

Oh and the water was cold too, felt like I was crab fishin in the Bering sea. Musta been down to at least 60 degrees F. BRRRRRRR.

[Tobra]

Glad it worked out and you were paying attention.


That is not the world's most expensive mutt. She is sleeping next to my wife right now.