Meet Dr. Nikki Milligan of Footloose Veterinary Services

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikki Milligan.

Hi Nikki, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I got married at the age of 19 in 2010. My family and I started breeding and raising Gypsy Vanner horses soon after. My husband went into active duty Army and was stationed in California for a few years. I lived there for 10 months but came back and graduated from my undergraduate studies at Francis Marion University. I got pregnant right before graduation with our first son and my husband got out of the military and became a police officer.

When our son was 5 months old, I went to vet school at The University of Georgia. We had our second son in my third year of vet school and found out he had a rare congenital heart disease at birth, Ebstein’s Anomaly. He went into heart failure my senior year while I was in clinics when, he was just 6 months old.

My husband became his full-time caregiver. I graduated from vet school in 2018. I started working at a small animal clinic in my hometown 3 days after graduation. My heart warrior was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and ultimately had several open heart surgeries at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN in 2019. What we thought would be a 7 day stay turned into an extended one.

Three days after being told his heart failed and he was being placed on ECMO life support and the transplant list, I fell and broke my ankle and knocked myself out. It required reconstructive surgery on my ankle. We waited for a transplant for months. I had to stop working and live there basically with my husband and father while our youngest son and my mom stayed in SC with our farm.

He had less than a 5% chance of leaving there without a heart transplant, but one day his heart turned back on. He got to come off ECMO but had a stroke coming off the machine. He lost all function in the left side of his body at the age of 2. We came home. I had surgery a few months after arriving home to remove my ovary which was a tumor.

I decided to open my own clinic at the beginning of 2020 so that I could set my own hours to be available for my family and doctors appointments for our youngest son. In January 2020, I got sick with an upper respiratory infection. I saw my doctor and within 2 weeks of back and forth to doctors, I was hospitalized.

Within a few days, I was completely paralyzed. I was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome. I was almost placed on a ventilator because I would stop breathing. I was treated and recovered but have secondary conditions now. However, with the help of the good Lord, my family, and wonderful clients I have grown a thriving practice in the chaos of mine and my child’s diseases and the pandemic. This is proof that you can do anything if you just keep going.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I am a mixed animal veterinarian. I see everything. If you can own it, I can see it. I see small animals, large animals, exotics, and wildlife.

I do general practice and surgery. I am most proud of the fact that I offer quality medicine in a down-home and friendly environment where people feel comfortable. The biggest compliment our office gets is that we listen to people and actually take time to talk to them.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
I would say the day that I got my first horse, Buck.

Contact Info:

• Website: footloosevet.com
• Instagram: @footlooseveterinaryservices
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/footlooseveterinaryservices/
• TikTok: @footloosevet