Prosthetic limb for the Tiger: World’s first

Pashu Sandesh, 10 January 2020

In December 2018 we told you about the heartwarming story of the struggle of Sahebrao a Royal Tiger, who lost its limb to a snare fitted by a poacher when it was a 2-year-old cub. Sahebrao’s struggle with amputated limb and the subsequent painful neuroma caught the attention of renowned Orthopaedic surgeon from Nagpur, Dr Shusrut Babhulkar who took pity on the animal and had decided to provide an Artificial limb to Sahebrao. 

Dr Babhulkar had contacted the specialists from all over the world on ways to provide relief to the animal. Now the fitting of the artificial limb is planned on January 18th under the guidance of Dr Babhulka and Dr Peter Giannoudis, professor of orthopaedics with University of Leeds, UK. Officials from the Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra (FDCM) which runs the rescue centre looking after the rehabilitation of the Tiger, wildlife veterinarians from Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University’s Wildlife Research & Training Centre (WRTC) would also be present for monitoring the procedure.

Such type of limb prosthesis has been used in the Dogs and Elephants but never in a Tiger, thus making it a world’s first a kind. The limb of a tiger is more than just a walking instrument. Tigers are used to attack and hold the prey using their limbs and it would be interesting to see how the Sahebrao respond to the artificial limb which according to experts has been made extra strong and tensile to suit the need of a Tiger. However, Sahebrao is not expected to hunt using artificial limb but he would for sure would like to use it to grab the feed. 

All the preliminary procedures such as X-rays and measurement of the limb has been completed. The surgery for the neuroma was done on October 09, 2019, and the pain from it has been considerably reduced. 

As a wildlife lover and animal activists, we all pray for the success of the procedure which has the potential for many such attempts in the future.