How To Make A Prosthetic Leg For A Cat

Cat gets 3D printed bionic prosthetic legs in Novosibirsk, Russia

Kirill Kukhmar Getty Images

A cat from Russian federation named Dymka has become the world's second recipient of 3D-printed titanium prosthetic limbs later suffering from frostbite.
A passerby found the true cat in the snow and took her to a clinic where a squad of vets collaborated with researchers from a Russian university to requite Dymka a chance to walk once more.
Dymka has taken to her new legs and is now able to move around on her ain.

Things looked grim for Dymka, a cat found by a passerby on the side of a road in Novokuznetsk, a city in southwestern Siberia.

But thanks thanks to some quick and innovative thinking, a team of veterinarians and researchers from Russia'due south Tomsk Polytechnic Academy (TPU), saved Dymka's life—and mobility—past amputating the true cat'due south legs and 3D-press titanium replacements.

In order to create these prosthetics, the team took CT scans of the cat'southward legs using ten-rays. Then they used the scans to 3D-print titanium rods that would become her new legs. Dymka received these new prosthetics in July 2019.

Cat gets 3D printed bionic prosthetic legs in Novosibirsk, Russia

Dymka is seen with her new prosthetics.

Kirill Kukhmar Getty Images

The titanium limbs, which were implanted into Dymka's leg bones, were coated with calcium phosphate to assistance doctors mount them and reduce the take chances of infection. According to a paper in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research , the titanium is used "equally biomaterial" in prosthetics considering of its compatibility "with living tissue." In add-on to its antibacterial properties, the calcium phosphate besides helps prosthetics attach to bones and decreases the run a risk of implant rejection.

Sadly, Dymka's story isn't uncommon. Sergei Gorshkov, the vet who performed Dymka'south amputation, told The Moscow Times that the barbarous Siberian winters bring in "at to the lowest degree v to seven cats due to frostbite" annually.

Kirill Kukhmar Getty Images

But Dymka is the 2nd cat in the earth to receive a quadruple amputation and prosthetic implants. The other was Ryzhik—his name significant 'ginger,' or 'red'—who lost all four limbs to frostbite. The 2 cats struck up a friendship as they both live in the veterinarian clinic that saved their lives.

According to a news release from TPU, in the seven months since Dymka's surgeries, she "leads a full-on life," having regained the power to walk, run, and even make it up and down stairs.

Daisy Hernandez Daisy writes for Runner's World, Bicycling, and Popular Mechanics.