Every pet owner would be devastated to have the limbs of his pet amputated. However, it can often be the kindest thing to do if it’s had an accident or is unwell.
Amputation sounds drastic, but it’s a much more common procedure than before. Disabled cats can cope well with no tail or on three legs without any major problems in most cases. However, they’ll need time to recover from the surgery and learn how to walk and run again, as that leads to a changed weight distribution.
Up until now, there’s been no effective method to help poor animals continue their life as it used to be if all of their limbs have been amputated.
Pets in the Siberia region in Russia are frequently victims of the harsh winters to frostbites, and many need to undergo such a surgery or even euthanasia.
Nevertheless, a cat named Ryzhik—meaning Redhead or Ginger—has been lucky to get a set of operations granting the quadruple-amputee four prosthetic paws constructed of titanium, according to Healthy Food House.
Ryznik had suffered from gangrene and frostbite on his ears and four paws in January 2019 in -40C cold in Tomsk, and as veterinary surgeon Sergei Gorshkov reported, its paws needed to be amputated.
Ryzhik’s owner, however, did not give up on the kitty and decided to make his life as comfortable; he, therefore, took the cat to a clinic in Novosibirsk that specializes in implanting artificial limbs.
By using computer tomography and 3D-modeling technology, doctors constructed a perfect set of artificial paws for the cat. They serve as prosthetic limbs and they're also very comfortable, so that the cat would not try to pry the new limbs off.
The cat is likely the first in the world to be entirely reliant on four prosthetics.
As Gorshkov reported, the surgery gave successful results, and those limbs have fully connected with the skin and bone and are completely functional. The part of the limb which goes inside the body is spongy, so the bone tissue grows inside it.
His team thinks that although Ryzhik still has to get over some initial awkwardness before regaining an entirely natural gait, it’s only a matter of time before he finds it easy to walk on its new set of titanium paws.
The clinic is pioneering new methods of helping animals in trouble and attempts to patent new techniques for attaching artificial limbs to birds, as well as rebuilding beaks for parrots, and hoofs for cattle.
Ryznik uses his new paws to play and defend itself from other cats. The footage depicts him walking around and going down the stairs using his new artificial paws, and as it isn’t trying to remove or shake off the prostheses, he is undoubtedly comfortable with his new modifications.
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