On Tuesday, the cat became the first animal to be fitted with a custom-made prosthesis that fits inside the bone of one of his back legs. The cat was born missing both back feet.
They were in the full glare of the media limelight in Raleigh after a ground-breaking two-hour surgery on George Bailey at the Veterinary School at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
The surgery involved veterinary doctors drilling into his right tibia and fastening a prosthetic leg with titanium screws onto the end. A second porous metal known as tantalum was also affixed to the site with hopes that it will grow and become part of the bone so that the cat can walk more normally without pain.
For now, a “peg leg” has been put over the place with a champagne cork on the tip to enable him to walk. When he heals enough, a permanent footed rubber tip in the form of a cat’s paw will replace the temporary “pegleg.”
“The big part of the story is that we’re waiting to find out in about six weeks whether the bone has actually grown over the prosthesis and also how he’s learned to use the leg,” Al Simmons said. “He used to just drag it, and the bone would peek through sometimes.
“To avoid infections, we knew something would have to be fitted over his stump to protect it. The other leg was just held up and didn’t drag on the ground. It has a backward-facing kneecap so the doctors leveled out the bone on that one too and stitched the skin back over it. He’ll get along fine on three legs, and what is cool is to see how he does with his new right leg.”
Simmons and his wife work at FirstHealth at Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst. He is clinical lead pharmacist, and she is a nurse in the coronary care unit.
In about 10 days, they’ll take the cat back to Raleigh to have stitches removed, and they expect George Bailey to be examined to check on his progress with the prosthesis about once a month after that.
In Scandinavia, a human underwent a similar process with a detachable thumb. Attaching the prosthesis into the bone instead of directly onto the stump makes a stronger connection, relieving parts of the body, like the hip in George Bailey’s case, from unnatural stress.
The surgery is reversible, Simmons said. So that if it doesn’t work out, George Bailey can be returned to the way he was before, no worse for wear.
Many cats do fine on three legs, veterinarians say.
The Simmonses have always had cats, he said. They also have a 13-year-old house cat, Desi, who was born without a tail and who had some trouble adjusting to George Bailey as the handicapped runt of the litter. But the two cats have made peace, Simmons said in a Thursday telephone interview.
At first, George Bailey painfully dragged himself around on his front legs at home. Bailey was named by Kathy for the James Stewart hero of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the classic “feel-good” movie that is shown around Christmas every year on television.
After failing to find a good homemade cover for George Bailey’s right leg, they took him to the family veterinarians at Whispering Pines Animal Hospital for a general exam. They learned George is healthy and normal in other ways, and eventually they took him to the Veterinary School at N.C. State in Raleigh.
Simmons won’t tell how much money the couple is spending on the surgery and prosthesis. He did say that N.C. State is not charging the full bill to them because part of the cost is beneficial research that could help both animals and humans.
The Simmonses brought George Bailey home Wednesday. The cat is on plenty of painkillers and antibiotics but doesn’t like having to be confined in a small cage while his “parents” are both at work.
“He talks a lot,” Simmons said.
Because of their nurturing attitude toward George Bailey he has grown up to be a spoiled-rotten cat, Simmons admits.
The Simmonses have never begrudged spending what they could afford for needed treatments on their animals, which they consider part of the family.
Before George Bailey, they had a cat everyone thought was done for after it was mauled by a dog.
“He walked away from the vet a few days later,” he said.
The veterinary bill was several hundred dollars, Simmons said.
Another cat had to have surgery on its eyes. After the surgery, her lids were temporarily sewn shut and a plastic collar put around her neck to prevent her from pulling at the stitches. That was also an investment.
Neither has been of the magnitude of George Bailey’s treatment, however.
“The procedure helps other people and other animals through the knowledge NCSU will acquire through this,” Simmons said. “Our money is well spent in all the cases, because it’s a permanent solution and helps keep the family member around for you to enjoy many more years. The same amount of money could be blown on a vacation trip, and it would be all gone.”
The television show “Inside Edition” is doing an in-depth piece of George Bailey, he said. It will run the episode in May 2005 after the results of the epoch-making surgery is known.
