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February 22, 2008
parrot gets a new leg
( Sue note: Emailed to me by a friend of Natures Corner)
A PARROT who likes to say 'bloody hell' will have more cause to be cheerful now that he's being fitted with a prosthetic device for his missing leg to help him sleep.
The false leg will be fitted by University of Salford experts after George, an African grey parrot, lost his leg when he was attacked in his aviary by a wild animal 18 months ago.
The poorly parrot has been having trouble sleeping ever since as he had to balance on one leg all night.
As a result, his owner Sheila Weare contacted Dr Glyn Heath of the University's School of Health Care Professions who runs Lacerta - a company that specialises in fitting prosthetics to animals.
Glyn has designed a specially moulded slot that will be fitted to George's perch so that he can rest his injured leg in it at night and get some much-needed rest...
Glyn, a former zoologist has successfully manufactured and fitted artificial limbs for animals including dogs and even rats, and hit the headlines last year when he helped a panda by giving her a false leg to help her mate.
Glyn said: "While I've worked on dogs, rats and even a panda, George is my first bird. He's quite a challenge as he'll be more difficult to train than a dog. But with the simple solution of the slot, I'm hopeful that we can give him a little more comfort."
George's owner, Sheila who lives in Onneley near Crewe, is hopeful that George can now have a better quality of life.
She said: "You can tell by the way he fidgets that he's not comfortable and he has to bite the bars of his cage at night to balance. I'm really happy that Glyn has agreed to take him as a patient."
As for George, his vocabulary is limited to 'bloody hell', 'good morning' and 'good night'. But with his new prosthetic giving him a decent night's sleep Glyn hopes, it'll be the last phrase he'll be using most often.
Posted by sue at February 22, 2008 11:04 AM