Escondido, California (AP) – For the past three decades, non -Mirzaians have installed orthodontic appliances for everyone from the Paralympics to children with scoliosis. But Mitsitun is a patient like no other: a newborn giraffe.
The calf was born Feb. 1 at the San Diego Zoo in Escondido Safari Park, north of San Diego, with the wrong forelimb bent. Safari Park staff feared she might die if they didn’t resolve the condition right away, which could have prevented her from walking around the nurse and shelter.
But they never experienced riding a small giraffe. This is especially difficult because he is a 178cm tall newborn and grows every day.
So they contacted orthopedic experts at the Hanger Clinic, where Mirzaian brought his first animal patient.
“It was pretty surreal when I first heard about it,” Mirzaian told The Associated Press on a trip this week to meet Mitsun, who rode the other giraffes without any problems. “Of course, all I did was go online and study giraffes 24 hours before I got here.”
Zoos are increasingly turning to medical professionals who treat people to find a way out of sick animals. The collaboration is particularly useful in the field of prosthetics and orthosis. Earlier this year, ZooTampa partnered with similar experts in Florida to successfully replace the large horned bird’s beak with a 3D printer-printed prosthetic.
The Hanger team in California has customized orthoses for the cyclist and kayaker, who both won medals at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Brazil and set the stage for the multiple sclerosis marathon, which runs on seven continents.
And in 2006, the Hanger Group in Florida created a prosthetic for a dolphin bottle that lost its tail after being knotted in crab trap ropes. Their story was inspired by the 2011 film The Dolphin Tale.
But it has been a definite learning curve for everyone, including Matt Keane, the senior veterinarian of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance who oversees Mitsun’s case.
“We usually make fabrics, bandages and other things. “But something as extensive as the bracelet given to him is something we really need to turn to our human (medical) counterparts,” Keane said.
Mitsun was plagued by overly enlarged redness: the bones of the wrist joint in the forelimbs of giraffes that looked more like arms. When he overcompensated, the other forelimb also hyper-expanded. The hind leg joints are also weak, but their correction is made by special nail extensions.
And because she weighed over 55 kilos at birth, this condition is already hurting her joints and bones.
Before building the custom braces, Keane first bought post-operative knee pads from Target, which he cut and sewed, but it always fell off. The missionary then wore medical grade braces for those who changed for his long legs. But in the end Mitsun broke one.
For custom suits to work, they needed to have range of motion but be durable, so Hanger partnered with a company that makes horse suits.
Using giraffe legs, it took eight days to make carbon graphite stirrups with a pattern of sharp points on the animal to match its plumage.
“We wore a giraffe pattern just to have fun,” Mirzaian said. “We always do it with kids. They can choose the superheroes or their favorite team and we will print it in their ratings. Why not do it with a giraffe?
In the end, Mitsun only needed one parenthesis. The second leg was straightened using a medical grade brace.
When they inserted it to fit the brace, Mirzaian was so shocked at the beauty of the animal that he hugged it.
“It was amazing to see a big and beautiful creature lying in front of me,” he said.
Fixed the problem after 10 days in the custom bracket.
He is said to have been in the unit for 39 days since he was born.
He was always in the animal hospital. After that, he was slowly introduced to his mother and the others in the herd. His mother never returned him, but he was adopted by another female giraffe, so to speak, and now he fled like other giraffes.
Mirzaian hopes to hang an image of a small giraffe on the bracket of his model to inspire the children he treats to wear them.
“The coolest thing is seeing an animal walking in a parenthesis,” he said. “It’s fun to know we saved the life of a giraffe.”
Source: Huffpost
