Summary
Very little research or effort has gone in to developing avian orthopedic aids. This fact came to light recently here at BSC when Dr. Buckingham adopted Pete, an Indian Runner duck who had injured his intertarsal, or “ankle,” joint. His injury damaged both the joint capsule and its surrounding tendons, leaving Pete with no control over his left leg. Pete is unable to extend his toes, and has difficulty flexing his ankle joint. The objective of this project was to develop a splint that would enable Pete to walk again through combining the fields of physics, computer assisted design, and biology. As ducks are very light weight, Pete needs a strong, but light weight splint. Previous studies have had success 3D printing prosthetics and wing splints for geese and ducks; therefore a 3D printed splint was chosen for Pete. For the 3D design part of this project, TinkerCAD and FreeCAD were used to design the splint. The splint was printed using an Ultimaker 2+ printer.
Undergraduate Researcher
- Amanda Groover, Birmingham-Southern College, 2017-2018
Publications/Presentations
- Honors Project, which includes a presentation
Final Paper
The final Honors research paper can be found here.