Meet Zeus the Husky who lost his wrist and paw as a young puppy. Zues who can get around on his three legs seems to tire very easily and injures his leg regularly by scrapping it or bumping it into things.
His owner decided to take him to North Carolina State University where they have fit other pets with bone infused prosthetic including George Bailey the cat who received the first ever animal prosthesis in 2005. In the past the missing paw has always been on a back leg giving veterinarians more skin to work with for the bone-infusing prosthetic surgery. Being that Zeus lost his front paw surgeons at NCSU decided they needed more time to perfect the procedure and to learn more about how those who had received the prosthetic limb did over the course of time. They now feel ready to perform the surgery and give Zeus a paw.
Ola Harrysson, an NCSU associate professor of industrial and systems engineering, has partnered with the surgeon to design the prosthetic legs that veterinary surgeon Marcellin-Little will use to help Zeus. Their collaboration makes N.C. State the only university in the world that manufactures and implants custom-made animal prosthetics.
When Zeus first lost his paw as a puppy his bones weren't mature enough to consider any sort of work on his leg for fear it would damage his leg more. He is now 5 years old and veterinarians are confident his body is mature enough and their techniques ready to try a front leg bone infusing prosthetic. There were no guarantees and recovery will be between 10 and 12 weeks where Zeus will not be able to climb stairs or run but he will be able to go for walks on a leash as soon as he feels up to it.
"We want his quality of life to improve," said Zeus' owner, Sandy Vandall, "He's self-conscious about it. When he meets other dogs, he tucks his leg in."
I am not sure that self conscious is the right word but he is definitely aware of his missing paw and he knows that someone or something bumping into it hurts him. Which is probably why he tucks it in to keep it protected even from an innocent nose of another dog just trying to say hello and checking out a new friend. When out and bout to keep from hurting his leg his owner puts on a baby sock and some sort of paw protector to keep Zeus from scraping it.
The surgery is taking place today after a day of pre-operative procedures yesterday. I don't know if we will find out the results of the surgery tonight or will have to wait for another news conference after the 10 - 12 weeks of healing.
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/31/1093566/dog-will-get-a-new-paw-at-ncsu.html#ixzz1IC5RcPFe