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Bionic Cat Gets World's First Implant Paws
Several readers send in the news of Oscar, the first bionic cat, whose hind paws got cut off in a harvester accident. In a world's-first operation, a neurosurgeon has now given him exoprosthetic paws that are implanted directly into his leg bones. The BBC artlcle has a video captured just after the operation, and PopSci has an apparently later one in which Oscar is walking and running almost completely normally.
Big deal, they have been grafting lasers onto sharks for years now.
After all, everyone deserves a hot meal.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Does this mean that the kitty gets adamantium claws next?
they should have replaced his paws with rabbit feet, that way he might be luckier next time he meets farm machinery.
Nullius in verba
They should have given him can opener paws so he could open his own tuna.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
The bionic cat in the video looks like it is running in slow motion, but we all know it is running at 60mph.
Fight Spammers!
Because that's almost completely ridiculous.
I guess the press can't interview him. But I was just wondering if he accepted his new paws, or tried to bite them off? I mean, even some humans have some problems with new limbs, and they can understand what is going on.
What is going on in that cat's head right now?
Any cat psychologists on Slashdot?
"WTF!?!?! Where the hell did these come from!?!?! Oh, well, at least I can walk again."
"Hey, you, Walks-on-two-Legs! Where's my dinner! A tin of tuna would be a nice change from that dry stuff!"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I don't really understand why they needed to put the cat under to place the new legs onto the rods, then the cat walked and even jumped onto a pack of toilet paper.
Same reason you put a cat under to clean its teeth. Messing around with a cat's legs while it's awake is likely to cost you a few fingers.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Given:
Oscar was struck by the combine harvester whilst dozing in the sun.
I think the first order of business should have been some hearing aids.
What happened to the "You're a kitty!" tag? I think it's very appropriate. For those who haven't seen it, XKCD's "Cat Proximity" http://xkcd.com/231/
Cats in a farming environment generally seem to be considered disposable and people who grew up on farms rarely seem to be cat lovers.
Cats apparently like to hang out and hide in fields of grain, and after any harvesting/mowing operation you end up with a lot of cut grain and a field full of legless cats.
My father once described having the job as a kid of going out into the field with the .22 rifle he got for his birthday and having to shoot all the maimed cats to put them out of their misery.
So this is one damn lucky cat.
G.
Just as a point of interest, there were a series of experiments (honest to goodness animal cruelty WITHOUT benefit) to test the pain tolerance of various animals. One of the results of the experiment was that the scientist concluded that cats did not feel pain. This was later proven to be false, but because cats evolved as a unique mix of predators/prey (they're not the alpha carnivore) and as a solitary creature, there was no benefit to showing external signs of pain. In fact, it could put them at risk, so cats will actively hide it.
Now if you step on a cat's tail, it'll freak out, so there's none of that kind of pain going on, but cats are really good at hiding chronic pain, so simply because the cats are good at hiding pain doesn't mean that these implants are pain free.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
The through-the-skin interface is the real story
Huge implications if this can be approved for human use.
Getting something to anchor postively to the remaining bone and go through the skin, yet be sealed, so its not a huge source of infection would be a big big deal.
Getting a prosthesis to properly fit into a stump has always been hard, and expensive, and doesn't even work that great when its executed perfectly.
It often also being a source of lifelong discomfort, skin irritation, and annoyance.
What I'd envision is a permanent bone-interface protruding and few inches or so, with a strong locking mechanical interface on the other side, so that the user can tailor the prosthesis to the occasion
Yes, I can see that raising a creature that depends on you to feed, shelter, and keep it safe while teaching them how to do things for themselves is not even remotely analogous to raising a child. Thanks for dropping that knowledge bomb on me.
I didn't claim it was exactly the same. But your claim that it isn't "even remotely analogous" isn't even remotely analogous to logic. They are at the very least in the same ballpark.
"But this one goes to 11!"
Somewhat off-topic (but the story is about cat surgery, so...), over the past year, a cyst/tumor started to grow on my cat's forehead. When it grew to about 1.5cm diam., the vet said it would keep growing, eventually into her eye, if it wasn't removed. She quoted $850 for the surgery, much of it the cost of anesthesia and monitoring. After fretting over it for some weeks, and draining it every few days (which the vet said I'd have to do for the rest of her life without the surgery) to keep the pressure down and make it grow slower, I had an idea. Cat fur is very loose and pliable, so I pulled the tumor away from her skull, formed it into a kind of ball, and tied a rubber band very tightly around the base to cut off the circulation. (I don't think this caused her any pain; she was purring during the whole procedure.) Within a week and a half it dried up and shrank to the size of a raisin. The skin just under the rubber band fused together, and last week, about 6 weeks later, the tumor fell off by itself (rubber band still attached). Now there is just a tiny reddish spot where the tumor used to be. I thought that perhaps I should patent my "method to cure cat skin tumors with a rubber band", but upon researching it, I found that apparently Hippocrates suggested this technique in 460 BC.