British cat gets prosthetic paws after accident
June 28th, 2010 - 9:15 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt
London, Jun 28 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Oscar who is a 2 and half-year-old British cat may feel like the luckiest in the world now. In an unfortunate accident in a farm with a combine harvester last October, Oscar had lost his back paws. But now the black cat with green eyes has been elegantly outfitted with metallic pegs, which link his ankles to new prosthetic feet.
His owners - Kate and Mike Nolan, took him to see the local veterinary officer who in turn referred Oscar to Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick, who is a neuro-orthopedic surgeon in Eashing, which is located 35 miles southwest of London. Fitzpatrick worked in collaboration with biomedical experts to give the cat two metal prosthetic implants, or pegs.
Fitzpatrick said that he and his biomedical engineers designed the artificial paws, so that they would be fused to the bone and skin. “That allows this implant to work as a seesaw on the bottom of the animal’s limbs to give him (an) effectively normal gait. Oscar can now run and jump about as cats should do,” he said.
Oscar’s artificial paws cost about $3000 according to Gordon Blunn, who is the head of biomedical engineering at University College London. He was also a part of the team, which designed the paws for Oscar.
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Tags: ankles, biomedical engineering, biomedical engineers, black cat, cats, combine harvester, fitzpatrick, gait, green eyes, implants, mike nolan, noel, orthopedic surgeon, paws, pegs, prosthetic feet, seesaw, unfortunate accident, university college london, veterinary officer