LONDON — Oscar the cat might have lost one of his nine lives, but his new prosthetic paws make him one of the world’s few bionic cats.
After losing his two rear paws in an encounter with a combine harvester in 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, 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. Fitzpatrick said he and biomedical engineers designed the artificial paws so that they would be fused to the bone and skin.
“This is a pretty lucky cat,” said Dr. Mark Johnston, a veterinarian and spokesman for the British Small Animal Veterinary Association. “Giving a cat artificial limbs is a very novel solution.”
Johnston said that although there are many “perfectly happy” three-legged cats and dogs, animals that lose two legs do not usually fare as well.
