DENVER — Despite her advancing years and front wrists bowed at an awful angle from a condition called hyperextended carpus, Willow frolics happily with other dogs and splashes with abandon in any body of water she can find.
"She's very active," says owner Matt Shovein of Highlands Ranch, Colo. The 11-year-old German shepherd "runs, jumps and swims." It has all been made possible by a couple of braces she has worn for the past year to straighten each wrist (called a carpus in dogs), supporting her like her collapsed joints once did.
Willow is one of more than 100 creatures a month being helped by OrthoPets, leader in a nascent industry: custom prosthetics and braces for animals that need help to stay mobile and relatively pain-free.
"A large number of conditions and situations can be helped by our devising devices to provide support, control, balance and stability," says Martin Kaufmann, OrthoPets founder, who was schooled in human orthotics and prosthetics and spent years creating and fitting humans, including at the renowned Shriners Hospital for Children in Salt Lake City.
Although dogs make up 95% of the client base, OrthoPets has constructed prosthetics or braces for cats, llamas, an alpaca, an orangutan, a turkey buzzard, sheep, goats and a calf.
Prosthetics that take the place of missing limbs (and run about $800) give extra confidence to three-legged animals — especially vital as they age and the remaining legs become weaker or more painful. "Three-legged dogs get along great, I always say, but four-legged dogs do better," Kaufmann says.
As for braces, some owners turn to the little company to avoid expensive surgery, especially for older animals like Willow, for whom operations are riskier; some to help conditions that don't generally have great surgical results; some to keep additional injuries from occurring after a bone, ligament or tendon has healed but been left weakened; and some to give support to areas that have been operated on and are recovering.
They've come a long way
OrthoPets got started six years ago, when a relative's dog had a stroke that left a front leg limp. The vet suggested amputation; Kaufmann thought that could be avoided if he constructed a brace.
Soon, he and his wife were creating braces and prosthetics in their basement, refining their skills and taking on bigger and more complicated challenges.
Three years ago, the Kaufmanns left their day jobs and took the leap into full-time animal-device production, leasing a unit in an industrial area near the railroad tracks. Word spread so fast that they're moving in January to bigger digs a few miles away with a rehab and pain-management operation.
Right now there are few competitors. Only a handful of companies are constructing animal devices, including K-9 Orthotics & Prosthetics in Halifax, Nova Scotia, founded five years ago by Jeff Collins, who, like Kaufmann, was a human orthotics specialist. But numbers are growing as more human orthotic experts offer animal devices on the side.
Since prosthetics can't be created for animals with no part of the limb left, some vets now call Kaufmann before surgery to establish the best amputation approach for allowing a prosthetic to be fitted in the future. That's not always possible, especially in cases of cancer, but there's growing interest in leaving the prosthetic option open.
The devices, constructed of composite plastic or carbon, generally will last "the lifetime of the pet," Kaufmann says, though the interior padding and other pieces like straps must be replaced every 12 to 24 months ($60 to $100).
Almost like a normal leg
Owners who take this route are grateful the option exists.
Randy Rader of Aurora, Colo., got a prosthetic leg this year for Chance, 6, his gregarious golden retriever rescued from a Dumpster as a tiny pup after his foot was chewed off and the breeder tossed the days-old puppy out. Rader hand-fed Chance every couple of hours; once the dog grew to adulthood, a leathersmith friend made boots to cover the stump so it wouldn't rip open.
The prosthetic is much lighter and durable and permits Chance to use his footless leg almost normally. When Rader saw Chance run full out on all four legs for the first time, "it brought tears to my eyes."
And that, Kaufmann says, is what it's all about: "Keeping the patient healthy, comfortable and active."
