Russian surgeons install prosthetic limbs on all four legs of dog
Veterinarians in the Russian city of Novosibirsk have become the first in the world to install artificial prosthetic limbs on all four legs of a dog after they were chopped off by an animal trap.
Novosibirsk is the largest city in Siberia, around 3000 kilometers east of Moscow.
The dog, Monika, was operated on two weeks ago at the clinic BEST in the Siberian metropolis, and pictures of her swift recovery have been made public since Wednesday.
Monika, a stray, was found last December in the village of Plastunovskaya in the Krasnodar Region, with her paws chopped off. The police have initiated criminal proceedings for animal cruelty, but the culprits are yet to be found.
According to daily newspaper Rossisskaya Gazeta, animal rights activist Marina Gapich and her friend Alla Leonkina took Monika to a clinic, where vets saved her life.
Once she was stable, volunteers found Novosibirsk veterinarian Sergey Gorshkov, who had previously put four artificial paws on cats, but never dogs. Using 3D printing, Monika was made bespoke legs out of titanium, nickel and vanadium, and became the first dog to have four prosthetic limbs.
As seen in videos posted online, she has already taken her first steps with her new limbs.
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