Naki’o is the first dog to receive four prosthetic legs.
The poor little guy was found abandoned in the celler of a foreclosed home as a puppy. His feet were frozen in a puddle of water, and his mother was dead. Naki’o was rescued along with his litter mates and taken to a shelter. Because of frostbite, he lost all four of his paws.
Veterinarian assistant Christie Pace adopted the dog and changed his name from Stubby to Naki’o. When she brought him home he only weighed four pounds, and it didn’t hurt him to walk around without paws. His limbs were too short for him to walk down the stairs, so Naki’o chose to slide down stairs on his belly.
As he got bigger, Naki’o spent more time on his stomach even when playing. It was just too painful for him to support his weight and he had more and more difficulty walking on different surfaces.
Christie started wondering about prosthetics for dogs after a human came in to the clinic where she worked wearing a knee brace. She found out about an animal hospital called OrthoPets that builds biomechanically correct orthotics and prosthetics for animals.
The prosthetics have to be custom made for each animal and it’s an expensive process. The clinic where Christie worked helped her raise money to get two prosthetic legs for Naki’o.
They started with his back legs because they were in the worst condition. Surgery to reestablish his residual limb in his rear left leg was required before he could wear the prosthetic safely. After healing from surgery, the doctors at OrthoPets were able to to fit the prosthetics on his back legs and they decided to cover the cost of the prosthetics for his front legs too.
Naki’o can now run and play with other dogs and even stand up on his hind legs to beg.
Grab some tissue and watch Naki’o’s story.
