Prosthetics in the animal industry

As technology in the field of biomedical engineering continues to evolve, our focus has expanded from human healthcare to even animal healthcare. This has given a rise to the plethora of prosthetics for animals, who tend to get injured pretty often, mainly due to human encounters. Thus, it is our responsibility to look after them. Moreover, prosthetics can improve an animal's mental and physical health.

The development of efficient and cutting-edge animal prosthetics has been made possible by the combination of knowledge from human orthopedics, biophysics, and materials science. Both domesticated animals and their wild counterparts are capable of losing limbs due to trauma or illnesses like cancer. Most of the time, three-legged animals can move about almost as effectively as four-legged ones, but the uneven motion and weight distribution required to make this possible ultimately take their toll on the rest of the body, resulting in life lengths being shortened and life quality being decreased.

I have myself played my part by attempting to design a prosthetic horn for caribou. I got this inspiration when I visited Alaska in the summer of 2023. During one of my excursions in Denali, I spotted an injured caribou with a broken horn, and that is what gave me this idea. Caribou use their horns to defend themselves from predators, forage for food and their horns can also improve their self-esteem. This 3D design of the prosthetic design could be used for other animals such as rhinos too, who often have their horns cut by poachers.

In this fashion, prosthetics could be used to manufacture other animal parts too.