Disabled ‘Buttercup’ To Get A 3-D Print Modelled Foot
ByA disabled duck living at Feathered Angels Waterfowl Sanctuary, will be given a new lease of life. The duck, 'Buttercup' was born with a birth defect - backward left foot - in 2012 at a high school biology lab. Since then, the duck has been unable to walk properly because his foot was developed only partially.
Thanks to a 3-D printing technology, the duck is set to have a new webbed foot prosthetic this week. This foot will help the duck walk and swim like a normal duck.
The veterinarians decided to cut the duck's foot last February because it bleeds whenever it walks. But the duck struggled to walk with an amputated foot and experts fear that the duck wouldn't survive this dreadful condition.
"When he would walk outside, his leg would start bleeding," Mike Garey from the sanctuary said. "I knew Buttercup would be better off as a peg-leg duck than a duck with a disabled foot."
Garey used Buttercup's sister Minnie's left foot as the base to design Buttercup's new foot. He created and designed the artificial mold using 3D software. Gary then sent the design and materials to a 3D-printing company called NovaCopy, which printed out a three-dimensional mold of the foot.
The mold was completed last Friday and is most likely to take 16 hours to set. Experts are hoping that Buttercup will be able to wear the prosthetic foot by Sunday afternoon. Buttercup is currently walking around on his stump.