Meet Oscar the Bionic Cat. Oscar lost both his hind paws in a farming accident in England. And he might have been subjected to getting around with a wheeled attachment or worse. But Noel Fitzpatrick, a neuro-orthopedic veterinary surgeon came to his rescue. He developed weight-bearing bone implants which gave Oscar a new lease on life.
The metal implants are custom designed and fastened directly to Oscar’s ankle bones, inside his fuzzy little legs. They jut out directly through the skin and fur with prosthetic paws attached to the ends of the implants.
“The real revolution with Oscar is [that] we have put a piece of metal and a flange into which skin grows into an extremely tight bone,” Fitzpatrick told BBC News.
“We have managed to get the bone and skin to grow into the implant and we have developed an ‘exoprosthesis’ that allows this implant to work as a see-saw on the bottom of an animal’s limbs to give him effectively normal gait.”
When I first read about Oscar and his new hind paws late last week I thought science was really pushing the envelope. How could a cat or any animal for that matter have the right quality of life? But after viewing this video Oscar seems to be getting along just fine. Hip, hip hoorah to Dr. Fitzpatrick and congrats to Oscar! May you live another nine lives…..
