The Pet Peeve of Assisted Animal Mobility, Solved with Legos
From: Medical Design Technology - 01/13/2015

I'm entreating a group that medtech companies rarely consider as their market
audience, the animal rights activists. Perhaps in the wild animals are left
to the mercies of natural selection, but shouldn’t pets we care for be given
opportunities to move freely if they are unable to do it on their own? Pets
are members of the household too, after all, and if Sparky can’t run to fetch
a stick there should be available technologies to enhance his quality of life.

While there are accounts of animal prosthetics, these are more anomalies than
general practices. I'm not saying that medtech companies should be rushing to
design a catalogue with specialized devices like tiny, purr-powered
wheelchairs for cats or prosthetic fins for goldfish. There's practically no
market for devices like these, because they’re essentially luxury items –
people are only going to buy them if they have excess money after paying for
their own healthcare.

All that's necessary to produce mobility-assisting devices for animals is a
little old fashioned ingenuity, according to the custom "skate" developed for
Blade the Greek tortoise. It's simple enough that a five year old could have
imagined it - the device was manufactured out of Legos glued to the underside
of his shell. Blade unfortunately has a metabolic bone disease that renders
him unable to bear the weight of his own shell. Using his legs to propel
himself, "The Little Tortoise that Could" rolls along on his Lego skates, now
faster than the average turtle. The device should also build up Blade's
muscular strength, so he can eventually walk on his own. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.mdtmag.com/blogs/2015/01/pet-peeve-assisted-animal-mobility-solved-legos

Links:
Nine inspiring animals that use prosthetics
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/photos/9-inspiring-animals-that-use-prosthetics/oscar-the-cat

A Doctor Used Lego Bricks to Build a Tortoise an Awesome Wheelchair (with video 2:20 in German)
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelzarrell/blade-lego-wheelchair-tortoise