TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Pugnacious Pooch Keeps Pace With Implant

ADVERTISEMENT

By GEOFF FOX, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 15, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - He posed for the camera, leapt onto the couch and ran to the door to meet his favorite human.

A month ago, Nike, an 11-year-old Chinese pug, looked to be at death's door. He had a history of heart problems but had never seemed so sluggish and often was short of breath.

His owners, Debbie and Tim Muldowney, took him to Suncoast Veterinary Care Center, where the family was referred to Alan Spier and Nicole Piscitelli at Florida Veterinary Specialists.

The news was bleak: Nike's heart was so enlarged that it practically filled his rib cage. The Muldowneys could take him home to live out his days in discomfort - or have a pacemaker implanted.

"Who ever heard of a pacemaker on a dog?" Debbie Muldowney said Thursday as Nike leapt into her lap.

Desperate to save their pet, the Muldowneys didn't hesitate. Nike received the pacemaker Jan. 20, and it wasn't long before he was bounding around their Suncoast Meadows home like a puppy.

"He's back to normal," Tim Muldowney said with a grin Thursday afternoon. "He was just, like, depressed before."

To Debbie Muldowney, "back to normal" doesn't quite capture Nike's newfound energy.

"He's a maniac now," she said. "He's off the wall."

To demonstrate Nike's energy, she told him that "Nanny," her mother, was at the door.

His eyes wide, Nike scampered to the door and waited expectantly. After a few moments, he realized he had been tricked. Seemingly irritated, he gave his owner a sideways glance and plopped down in his basket.

Spier, a veterinary cardiologist, could not be reached for comment Thursday. In a news release, he characterized Nike's case as a "great example of how successful pacemakers in pets can be."

"Since we put in Nike's pacemaker, he's doing great and his prognosis is good," he said.

According to information in the release, 300 to 400 dogs receive pacemakers every year, while about 4,000 dogs need the device.

"It's becoming more and more routinely done in veterinary medicine today," Spier said. "It's just another amazing example of how the gap between human and veterinary medicine is closing."

Debbie Muldowney said Nike had seemed unwell for about a week before she took him to a veterinarian.

"I thought maybe he just got into something," she said. "He gets into a lot of stuff. He got into the chocolate cake one time. Another time, I dropped a Benadryl and he licked it right up."

Around Christmastime, she said, he ate an entire carton of Whoppers malted milk balls.

"We thought he was going to die because of the chocolate," she said, "but they just gave him some charcoal."

Debbie Muldowney said she has to take Nike back to Spier in about a week to see whether his heart is getting back to its normal size.

"Unless something happens and he gets lethargic, he should be fine now," she said.

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT