3D printing provides leg for parrot to stand on

Vets and Pete still practising to perfect the plastic prosthetic at University of Pennsylvania

Pete cocked his head and fixed his sharp eyes on the people gathered to watch him. The blue-crowned mealy Amazon parrot had been through a lot in his 34 years, but he gave no indication on this late August day that he knew something remarkable was happening.

The stump of what remained of Pete’s left leg rested in a bootlike prosthesis, just one day after he was introduced to the latest in a line of 3D-printed plastic prototypes made just for him. It was an excellent sign not only that the bird was already starting to accept the prosthesis, but also that he understood he was supposed to place his weight on it.

“That in itself is revolutionary for a bird,” said La’Toya Latney, attending clinician at the Ryan Hospital’s Exotic Companion Animal Service at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, or Penn Vet. “He gets it.”

Pete isn’t the first animal to get a 3-Dprinted body part: Dogs, horses and at least one duck have been beneficiaries of the technology in recent years. But his new foot is the first created by Penn Vet, which had created only more-traditional prostheses for animals, and it is something of a test: Prosthetic legs, feet and beaks have been made for birds with mixed success. Pete’s road to Penn Vet, began on a warm evening in September last year. Pete had climbed up the wire mesh on the side of his six-sided aviary on the patio of his home in Allentown, Pa. That left his curled toes outside the enclosure, vulnerable to a predator lurking in the darkness.

“I heard this incredible screaming in the back yard,” recalled Ben Spalding, whose wife, Stacey Gehringer, owns Pete. Spalding looked outside, saw a fox at the aviary and bolted outside.

“The fox got his left foot and ripped it off,” Spalding said. He and Gehringer wound up at Penn Vet, one of the few veterinary facilities in the Philadelphia region that takes emergency bird cases after hours.

Latney amputated his mangled leg below the knee. But could Pete carry on with just one leg? Examples of large birds surviving after losing a leg are few and far between, because birds that weigh more than 100 grams usually experience pain and severe arthritis in the remaining leg from the additional strain, Latney said. Pete weighs 570 grams.

Latney decided that Pete’s intelligence and his composed, mature personality made him a good candidate for a prosthesis.

Resting his stump on a prosthesis for even a few hours a day would be beneficial to the long-term health of his remaining leg and foot. And his beak was already showing signs of wear because he was using it to steady himself by grabbing the bars of his cage.

Latney turned to Jonathan Wood, a staff veterinarian in neurology and neurosurgery, who had experience using 3Dprinted models for teaching and planning surgeries. Wood, in turn, brought in the University of Pennsylvania School of Design’s Fabrication Lab to make the prosthesis.

It hasn’t been an easy fix. After several tries, Latney had a light-bulb idea that required a needle, thread and a trip to Home Depot.

She attached a magnet to a piece of foam that she put inside the prosthesis, and she sewed another magnet to a soft fabric sleeve or harness — they call it a “flight suit” — that she created to cover Pete’s stump. The question was how Pete would handle the contraption.

Ultimately, Pete put his weight on the prosthesis, stood that way for more than an hour and even tried to take a step with it.

The magnets and sleeve didn’t hold together when the bird moved the boot, but Latney considered it a win.

“Pete is on-board with the idea of it, and that’s the biggest hurdle,” she told Gehringer and Spalding.

The right solution for Pete might take a few more months to perfect.

While Pete goes back home with Spalding and Gehringer, Latney and Wood will be fine-tuning the prosthesis and attachment system, and also creating a second prosthetic that the bird might use to walk.