Monica was found near death with her limbs mutilated; today she walked again thanks to the prostheses specially designed for her
:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/lanacionar/MXV2TNO66NGXHAM5YD33RFEG3U.jpg)
Monica was found lying in the street, without all four legs and almost dead from hunger and cold; After being rescued, a group of veterinarians implanted the bionic prostheses so that she could walk again
Russian veterinarians managed, for the first time in history, to implant four bionic prostheses in a small dog that, supposedly in a situation of animal abuse, had had all four legs amputated. The animal, named Monica, was found in December last year on the brink of death in a Russian town and was close to being euthanized because it was estimated that she would never walk again.
The dog had all four legs amputated and was numb and without eating when they found it in a place in the town of Plastunovskaya, in Krasnodar, a city located in southwestern Russia. “My neighbor called me and informed me that the dog had been lying on the frozen ground for 15 days and did not want to eat anything,” Marina Gapich, an animal rights activist in the aforementioned city of Krasnodar, told the Russian outlet RT Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
So, the woman took Monica and transferred her to a veterinary clinic in the city, where the professionals did everything possible to keep her alive. For 10 days the animal was on the verge of death, until it finally regained consciousness. But the lack of her four legs, and the impossibility of her walking again, led the veterinarians to make the decision to put her down.
Monica’s bionic legs A group of animal rights volunteers thought about the possibility of saving the dog by contacting Sergei Gorshkov, a veterinarian at the Best clinic in the city of Novosibirsk (almost 4,000 kilometers from Krasnodar), who was the first Russian to implant two cats with four artificial legs.
Monica’s case was complicated. No one had made this type of prosthesis for dogs before. A CT scan also showed that the dog’s bones were severely deformed. And to that we must add that a dog weighs much more than a cat. But even so and everything, we took the risk, ”Gorshkov himself pointed out to the aforementioned medium.
:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/lanacionar/FL5BN65FTRD5VPWCUOD7XYMHZU.jpg)
Las patas biónicas -se entiende por biónicos los órganos o miembros artificiales que, por vía mecánica o electromecánica pueden reemplazar a los órganos o miembros naturales- fueron creadas en la misma clínica Best por el grupo de veterinarios de Gorshkov.
The artificial limbs were designed by an individual digital model and then produced using a 3D printer, which used an alloy of titanium, nickel and vanadium for the prostheses. The porous structure of this material allowed optimal osseointegration. In connection with this, and to prevent rejection, the implants were treated with a special biological coating that was developed by scientists at Tomsk Polytechnic University.
“Run, Monica, the world awaits you”The interdisciplinary work paid off. Ten days after the operation, carried out at the beginning of this month of November, the brave Monica was able to take her first steps. “It was a success, the dog is already walking on her own, and soon she will resume her normal life,” Gorshkov said, adding that when the osseointegration process is complete, the dog will be ready to be discharged from the clinic.
This is the first time that this type of prosthesis implantation procedure in the four legs of a dog is performed in the world.
On the Instagram account of zoo_sos_krd, an organization dedicated to helping animals that are victims of abuse or neglect, it is possible to follow Monica’s evolution through moving videos. There the dog appears, in an initial stage, trying to take her first steps, shyly but firmly, inside the veterinary clinic. And then, in another sequence, she is seen walking in a nice pullover, already on the sidewalk, over the snowy landscape of Novosibirsk. This last image is from this Saturday and the creators of the aforementioned Instagram account wrote in their post: “Monica, you are a miracle! Run, Monica, run. The world is waiting for you.”
Thousands of people are those who follow the recovery of this pet. Among them is Kasey Carlin, a British animal activist, who runs the Maggie the Wonder Dog Instagram account, where she shows how she cares for animals with disabilities. She offered to take Monica with her to London, to live with her in her home.
video: