Pooch Gets Hi-Tech Prosthetic

(CBS)  Prosthetic limbs have long been used to help humans who have lost a limb live a normal life. Now man's best friend is getting a leg up from prosthetics.

Prosthetics on animals is not actually new, reports veterinarian Dr. Debbye Turner Bell. But there's an exciting new technique that's given a three-legged dog a fourth leg and a new life.

At first glance, Cassidy looks like an ordinary dog on a walk.

Until you take a closer look. Then you see his brand new high-tech artificial leg.

"We decided to do the implant June of '07," said Steven Posovsky.

When Steven and Susan Posovsky adopted Cassidy from a New York City shelter in 2005, he was already missing his hind leg.

"Getting him a leg was not even in my thought at the time. It was just to save the dog," Steven Posovsky said.

But missing a leg was taking a toll on the German shepherd mix.

"You could see his posture; it was really hard for him," said Susan Posovsky.

So the Posovsky's found Veterinary Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Denis Marcellin-Little at the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

"We worked for about a year first to try to design an external brace that was fairly sophisticated, but did not work very well," said Marcellin-Little.

"There were two removable legs were made for him. Slip-on legs, which he was able to just kick off," Steven Posovsky said. "At that point, they took out some computer diagrams and said let's look into this possibility of an osteo-integrated leg."

Cassidy's artificial leg is a permanent prosthetic, literally a part of his body. A titanium rod was implanted into Cassidy's tibia or lower leg bone. Over several months, Cassidy's own bone fused to the titanium rod. Then a custom designed carbon fiber foot with a rubber tread for traction screws right on to the implant.

"Now he walks for two, three hours and not a hint of fatigue," Steven Posovsky said. "Watching him run on the beach is a very emotional thing for me personally. But a lot of tears of joy."

Cassidy's new leg was a collaboration between Marcellin-Little and the Engineering department at N.C. State. It took 14 months of planning, trial and error before they finally fit a leg that would fit Cassidy permanently.

[LABLVR]

This is fantastic! It never fails to thrill me when something wonderful is done for animals. We humans owe so much to other members of the animal kingdom.
Kudos to the owner and the folks who worked together to build Cassidy's new leg.