Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 06/25/2010 11:09:45 AM PDT by marthemaria
scar the cat may have lost one of his nine lives, but his new prosthetic paws make him the world's first bionic cat.
After losing his two rear paws in a nasty encounter with a combine harvester last October, the black cat with green eyes was outfitted with metallic pegs that link the ankles to new prosthetic feet and mimic the way deer antlers grow through skin. Oscar is now back on his feet and hopping over hurdles like tissue paper rolls.
After Oscar's farming accident, which happened when the 2 1/2-year-old-cat was lazing in the sun in the British Channel Isles, his owners, Kate and Mike Nolan, took him to their local veterinarian. In turn, the vet referred Oscar to Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick, a neuro-orthopedic surgeon in Eashing, 35 miles southwest of London.
Together with biomedical engineering experts, Fitzpatrick gave Oscar two metal prosthetic implants, or pegs. Those were attached to custom-built faux paws that are a bit wobbly, to imitate a cat's natural walk. But first, he covered the brown implants with black tape to match Oscar's fur.
Fitzpatrick said he and biomedical engineers designed the artificial paws so that they would be fused to the bone and skin. "That allows this implant to work as a seesaw on the bottom of the animal's limbs to give him (an) effectively normal gait," he said. "Oscar can now run and jump about as cats should do."
The veterinarians then inserted the peg-like implants by drilling them into Oscar's ankle bones in his rear legs. The metal implants are attached to the bone where Oscar lost his paws and were coated with a substance that helps bone cells grow directly over them. The cat's own skin then grew over the end of the peg to form"
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(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
wow
“faux paws” - cute. But this thread is useless without pictures.
Oh man, I’d call him ‘Battlecat’. Or ‘Purrminator II’
http://gawker.com/5572837/worlds-first-bionic-cat-has-prosthetic-paws
This includes both video and pics. I dont know how to post pictures.
picture @ link
I know I will get burned for this, but I cannot help but wonder how many kids could have been fed with what it cost to put prosthesis on this $2.00 dollar cat.America could feed the world on what we spend on Vet bills and food for pets.
I know I know. it’s a sin to say such a thing.
If I may say so:
1. This was done in the UK I think. How many of their patients die due to the NHS refusal to pay for treatment for their diseases?
2. I am happy for this cat. It is one of God’s creatures, as we all are, and should be treated with love and respect. However, its life shouldn’t be above a human one.
So, I agree with you.
It’s not that it’s a sin. It’s that it’s none of your business how people spend the money THEY earned.
Look at it as an experiment - it contributes to the knowledge base of the effectiveness of various prostheses and techniques that might be too risky in a human at the moment.
They probably ought to have the cat's hearing checked. I can't imagine a cat who would lay there while a combine approached.
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It’s research for human prostheses. It’d be really bad to take a perfectly healthy cat, chop off a couple of paws, then try the implants.
Pirate Cat!
Always wanted to give kitties wheels, so they didn’t jump up where they know they don’t belong.
Absolutely agree. The denunciation of this expenditure sounds like it is coming from the Obama staff where they just live to redistribute other peoples money.
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