Life wasn’t always so easy for Ziggy growing up as a puppy. The two-year-old Border Collie was found abandoned in 2014, with a broken front leg that wasn’t correctly healing and required amputation. At just three months old, an Australian couple adopted him from the animal protection agency, the RSPCA.
Ziggy’s handicap never seemed to deter him from being a puppy, though. According to his owners, “He was a happy… and didn’t mind at all that he only had three legs.” Despite all the fun he was having, the couple could clearly see that he was limping and seemed to be in pain when walking.
Vets at the University of Queensland, where the couple are also students, discovered that Ziggy had an angular limb deformity due to damage to his growth plates in his remaining front leg. The increased weight on his front leg was making it “bent and twisted” due to abnormal bone growth.
In order to stop the deformity from getting worse, Ziggy underwent surgery in 2014, where part of his bone was removed and the front leg was splinted to ensure it would grow straight. To help Ziggy get around, the owners had a customized cart made so he could still run around and play without bearing weight on the leg before and after surgery.
Unfortunately, Ziggy began to develop arthritis and needed corrective surgery to ensure a long and healthy future. So in December 2015, the adorable Border Collie received another surgery, this time with the aid of 3D modelling and printing. CT scan images of the leg were used to create computerized, 3D-printed models of his limb, which were then employed to calculate where the bone had to be cut and how it had to be manipulated to straighten the limb so the pup could walk normally. The doctors had to cut and realign the abnormally-shaped bone based on calculations from the 3D models, which were held in place with an external frame known as a hybrid external skeletal fixator.
Following this procedure, Ziggy was unable to bear weight on his front leg, so his owners used the forelimb cart and a body harness to help him get around. Two months after surgery, however, the external fixator frame remains in place, his bones are healing and he is now roving the yard free from the cart! Ziggy has become a poster pup for success in the face of adversity, and a prime example of how the Maker Movement continues to ‘make’ a difference in our world.
[Images: The University of Queensland]