With a first-of-its-kind procedure, a Siberian husky gets a new lease on life.
Veterinarians at the North Carolina State School of Veterinary Medicine have fused a titanium prosthetic paw into a dog’s leg bone. The dog, a 5-year-old Siberian husky named Zeus, lost his paw as a puppy after a female dog on the farm where he was bred mauled him. In doing so, she ripped off his front paw, leaving a sensitive stump that was excruciatingly painful if he knocked it and it often bled.
The type of procedure performed on Zeus has been done before, but what made Zeus’s procedure different is that veterinarians performed the surgery on his front leg. The goal, the veterianarians say, was to improve the 5-year-old Siberian husky’s quality of life. With three working legs, hobbling and limping was wearing him out. Dr. Denis Marcellin-Little, DEVD, an NCSU professor of veterinary orthopedic surgery, performed the osseointegrated wrist implant on the dog. Zeus can expect a 10- to 12-week recovery after the surgery. During that time, he won’t be allowed to run on his new limb in order to ensure the skin is securely in place around it.
To read more about Zeus, click here.
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