Cat to get first-of-its-kind prosthetics

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Cat to get first-of-its-kind prosthetics

By United Press International

1 Min Read • March 22, 2005 | 21 years Ago

| Tuesday, March 22, 2005 12:00 a.m.

A new surgical procedure at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine will give a cat born without hind legs the chance to walk. Veterinarians, undergraduate students and researchers at the university’s College of Engineering have banded together to help a family cat, named George Bailey, born without the lower half of its hind legs, the chance to walk with the help of functional prosthetic feet. Dr. Denis Marcellin-Little, associate professor of orthopedics, normally focuses on canine hip replacement and treatment of bone deformities in cats and dogs. Marcellin-Little is attempting to pioneer the use of osseointegration — a new approach in which the shaft of the artificial limb is inserted and anchored into the bone to provide a stable and permanent prosthesis — in animals as a means of providing prosthetic limbs. Osseointegration is rare even in humans, only about 60 people, mainly in Scandinavia, have undergone the procedure. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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