Olive, a three-legged cat, was brought from a shelter in Nebraska one day to participate in an engineering study that would change her life forever.
Due to Olive’s left foot missing the bottom, the goal of this project was to build a 3D prosthesis for her.
Harrison Grasso, a senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who worked with Olive, said: “I was initially puzzled as I’m not a big fan of cats, and I did not particularly consider dentures as of my future profession. ”
“However, I was pleased to discover that I would be working on a project with a mechanical mechanism and a physical product for the client.”
They had to come up with a prosthesis that was “adjustable, removable and non-toxic”
So Olive was brought to the university by veterinarian Beth Galless, who is also an assistant professor in the university’s veterinary medicine program. Galles was working with a three-legged cat for the first time.
The two-part creation took several months to create after much planning, modification and refinement.
It was made up of plant material and a strong plastic.
“Getting a prosthesis to work with the cat was the biggest problem. “Olive, as you might expect, was not very enthusiastic about trying out the device,” adds Grasso.
“It took three rounds of testing and refining to come up with a method that allowed Olive’s prosthesis to stay attached to her leg. The prosthesis was challenging to install because of Olive’s slippery wool and soft flesh that surrounded the amputation site. ”
“At first, Olive was afraid to put the weight on the device and hold it, which is a natural reaction for an animal that is equipped with a prosthesis. Olive mostly tried to remove the prosthesis during the time we placed it,” Grasso said.
“However, after a period of adjustment, she became more willing to use the prosthetic. Regardless of the fact that our time with Olive during testing was limited, we saw her learn to walk and jump with the prosthetic.”
Finally, the story comes to a joyful conclusion.
They were finished after a semester and a half of work on the perfect prosthesis, and the students were satisfied.
“I liked our project because it enabled us to work independently with little supervision and put all of the information and abilities we had gained over the previous four years to use,” he adds.
“It was a fantastic team-building and engineering exercise that accurately resembled the situations we’ll face in our future engineering professions. Because of the living topic, our endeavor was one-of-a-kind. This allowed us to put our invention to the test and evaluate how it would perform in real life.”
Olive now not only gets a new leg, but she also has a new home. Galles fell in love with the cat so much that she and her family decided to adopt her once the job was over.
