DONNA IMPRESA cover SANDRO FERRARI _ TORONTO

How do you help these athletes?
The trend now is preventative bracing. For
example, football players wear braces to
prevent ACL injuries which can end an
already short career, of say five years. Tests
have shown that these new age braces do
not hinder performance.
Is the use of orthopaedic prosthesis for
animals recent?
People have been applying prosthesis to help
the handicapped ones ever since the
Egyptians but probably only recently we
realized, we're not the only ones suffering the
pain on Earth. Unlike people, animals can't
cry or complain about the pain, and the less
resilient ones lead a much shorter and harder
life in case of any accident. Even though
veterinarians do provide considerable help,
more serious surgeries or even usage of a
special prosthetic is a fairly recent thing the
humanity started doing for the animals. While
in the wild, animals can get hurt in a number
of different ways, be that a disease or an
accident, getting harmed by a human or
larger predators, or any other. However, now
more and more centers worldwide are
applying mechanisms to help the animals
recover from the injury and live as normal of
a life as possible.
What are animals
prosthetics?
They are a device that assists an injured
animal to regain normal or as close to normal
gait, depending on the severity of the injury.
Prosthetics: is there a difference between
humans and animals?
After the prosthetic is actually developed, the
client comes in for a fitting. This is where
there is a large difference between humans
and animals, although both can experience
physical decline of the device, humans have
an added obstacle mentally. Humans
experience issues with the appearance of
their prosthetic whereas animals just have to
physically accept the device. Then depending
on whether or not the prosthetic is accepted
by the patient, it will be tweaked,
redeveloped, or if accepted, the patient will
move onto rehab. The rehab period typically
lasts a few months but can be longer
depending on progress. The patient goes to
rehab with a rehabilitation specialist and is
worked with so that they can achieve
maximum compatibility with their new or
modified limb. This is just to readjust the
patient to life with their extra hardware.
We are becoming a more active society
and this often include our dog friends in
our athletic pursuits. Running, chasing a
ball or catching a Frisbee are all great
exercise for dogs but can also result in
injuries. Do knee braces work for dogs?
Absolutely. I've fitted dogs for ligament
injuries which prior, refused to run or use
stairs. Once they realize they have support
through bracing, the difference is like day and
night.
Every type of animal has a different size
variance and anatomy. In order to create
truly compatible prosthetics research
needs to be done on every animal?
Although most canines have similar anatomy,
it is very important to treat each dog as an
individual. I don't agree with the concept of
small, medium, large or extra large. I believe
each dog should have custom leg
measurements. Research is certainly ongoing
in the medical field, thus the reason our
braces keep improving.
Is the material used a standard material?
We use Kevlar and high grade plastics for our
braces as they combine strength and
functionality.
What is the most common color?
There is no common colour. Because we
have over 120 colours/designs, we get a
broad spectrum of paints people choose for
their dogs. We can accommodate sport team
This dog is Harley
who had cranial
crucial ligament
surgery as you can
see his leg is
shaved post surhery,
the brace I made
him was a perfect fit