Vincent The Cat With Titanium Legs

Vincent The Cat With Titanium Legs - The costs of the surgery and treatment have been paid for by Vincent’s owners, the Jones family.

Vincent’s implants require him to antibiotic spray applied to his legs twice daily to prevent infections.

Cindy said: “Vincent was surrendered at the Story County Animal Shelter in Nevada, Iowa, where I work and I took one look at him and fell in love and took him home”.

Vincent the cat was born without rear tibias, a deformation that could have spelt death for the wee kitten if some folks hadn’t found him at a campsite.

“The first time I saw him after surgery, it was scary, to be honest”, Jones says.

Only a couple of dozen such surgeries have been done on animals to date, so Dr. Bergh and her team had little information to go by regarding what to expect in rehab. That’s where Vincent met Dr. Mary S. Bergh, who would perform the surgery – the first of its kind. Bergh guessed he would have longer legs placed on a few more times, but each process can be done without surgery.

To change his legs, Bergh simply needs to unscrew the original pair from the implant’s post, slide them off and insert the new pair. But thanks to the kindness of strangers, some titanium implants and the skills of a veterinary orthopedic surgeon, Vincent can now walk on all fours… albeit not with the grace of a normal feline.

BioMedtrix, a veterinary orthopedics company, donated Vincent’s customized legs created from 3-D models for the procedure, which typically costs somewhere in the “thousands” of dollars.