Friends,
See the attached photos. This is Dear Donkey, a growing baby donkey. On January 8, 2011, when he was tiny, he suffered a horrific accident on Eastern Express Highway near Vikhroli, Mumbai. The tiny foal was picked up by our Thane SPCA ambulance, and painstakingly rehabilitated over 13 months. Finally, on February 16, 2012 (which was coincidentally Thane Municipal Corporation’s election day), an IIT engineer named Dipankar fitted a prosthetic leg on the young foal, enabling him to finally experience being on four legs 13 months after his accident.
Dear Donkey’s story (PowerPoint): http://tinyurl.com/Dear-Donkey-Thane-SPCA
11 Hi-Res photos & captions: http://tinyurl.com/Hi-Res-Dear-Donkey-Thane-SPCA
DEAR DONKEY’S 13-MONTH ORDEAL:
After the baby donkey was brought in on a stretcher by our staff, we requested many experienced veterinarians to help with the surgery. They refused, presumably because there were very few precedents for this kind of surgery. Finally, Thane SPCA’s own surgeon Dr Vikram Dave <vikram.drvet@gmail.com> studied the subject extensively and took the plunge. (Dr Dave named him Dear because of the baby donkey’s gentle nature.)
Dr Dave had to amputate the broken foreleg to prevent gangrene. While the stump was healing, we suspended Dear from the ceiling in the cattle shed in a makeshift sling. Then, after the stump healed, our staff regularly exercised Dear and coaxed him to stand up and walk again. Eventually, he could stand up on three legs on his own.
Meanwhile, to enable Dear to become more independent, Dipankar <dipankar@treelabs.org>, an IIT engineer, decided to design a prosthetic leg. On Feb 16, Dipankar fitted the padded prosthetic leg on the young donkey for the first time.
However, the prosthesis poses a technical challenge. The wider opinion is that artificial limbs do not work for large animals. And Dear is a growing donkey, which poses additional challenges…
But Dipankar and his team are not taking no for an answer. They have taken up the tough job of adjusting the prosthetic leg to his changing height, weight and requirements. They are thinking out-of-the-box to ensure that Dear stays up and running.
Today, Dear’s feeling of being handicapped has been considerably reduced. He wears his leg the whole day and we remove it after 8 pm when he gets ready to sleep. Please note, this is still the prototype; the final design is yet to come. There are five other changes that Dipankar is adding in the final design.
In the meantime, Dear is getting used to using his new leg. Often during the day, we watch in wonderment as this baby donkey gets up and takes a smooth walk without tripping over, and socializes with other inmates in the compound. And while Dear Donkey takes his baby-steps, all of us are getting a fresh lesson in taking life one day at a time!
With Happy Feelings from
Team Thane SPCA
9821520229
thanespca@hotmail.com
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