ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The 6-year-old patient has two new legs and can walk, run, sit and frolic. And bark.
After Helen DePinto of Washtenaw County's Webster Township spotted Footsie the handicapped shepherd mix on television six years ago, she went to Buffalo, N.Y., and adopted him. Missing the lower halves of his hind paws, Footsie used to have to tuck his two back legs under his backside and scoot with his front paws.
Now he has prosthetic legs, thanks to an Ann Arbor prosthetist and orthorist who tackled the project of creating legs for the dog.
In more than 30 years of combined experience with humans, Steve Hoover and Kenneth Woodard said this was the first time they worked with an animal.
"It wasn't easy," Woodard told The Ann Arbor News for a recent story.
Woodard normally fits braces on humans from head to toe.
"I don't know how many times we spent talking and trying to figure out how we were going to do this," he said.
The pair spent nearly a year working on the project, which they tackled without pay.
"It was fun," said Hoover, who makes artificial limbs for humans. "But it was a real challenge to improve on what he already had. There were a lot of stops and starts."
The key was getting a good cast of Footsie's hind legs, Hoover said. After several failed attempts, Hoover said they finally made a mold that satisfied them.
Using a process called vacuum-forming, they shaped a layer of foam and a layer of plastic over the mold, then added a hard, black shell with tread material on the bottom, to give Footsie a grip. The shell is fastened to the dog with a Velcro strap.
"Footsie tried them on when they were done and it was a home run," DePinto said.
Full Article