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Prosthetist Keeps Poultry in Motion
By Jim Young, CP, FAAOP Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: Well, in this case he was searching for the newest Amputee
Prosthetic Clinic in south Georgia.
 Jim Young, CP, FAAOP, was attacking a small stack
of administrative paperwork at his new prosthetic care facility in
Tifton, Georgia, when the phone rang. Jim answered with his usual
greeting, "Amputee Prosthetic Clinic; Jim speaking; may I help
you?" The caller said, "Hey, I've been driving past your facility
and could not help but notice your sign with the colorful pirate
for the last month, and I've been meaning to call you."
The caller explained that he was a physician whose office was
around the corner, and that what he was about to ask was no joke.
"Alrighty then," Jim thought, "let's have it."
Rooster Loses Limb
The caller (we'll call him Dr. Farmer) explained that he raises
fancy chickens as a hobby, and that about a year ago his rooster
got his leg caught up in some bailing twine. Before Dr. Farmer
discovered the entangled rooster, circulation had been disrupted to
the point that gangrene had set in, and the result was a
spontaneous amputation. Next Dr. Farmer asked Jim if he had ever
made a prosthetic device for an animal, and, "Do you think you
could make a prosthesis for a chicken?"
Jim proceeded to tell Dr. Farmer that in fact he had once made a
prosthesis for a dog, but that after gimping around as a tripod for
a year, the prosthesis was more a chew toy that anything else.
"However, a chicken being bipedal might increase the chances for
success, if we can find a way to gain purchase and suspend the
prosthesis," Jim said. In other words, Jim's answer to whether or
not he could make a prosthetic limb for a chicken was an emphatic
"maybe?"
The night before the chicken was to be seen, Jim scoured the
Internet, researching chicken anatomy. Dr. Farmer described what he
thought was a below-the-knee type amputation during the initial
conversation. However, after a little research, Jim believed the
amputation was more likely a partial foot amputation. Jim, like
many folks, believed that a chicken's knee bends the opposite
direction of a human knee, but that is not true. What most people
think of as a chicken's knee is actually the ankle. Chickens and
humans have a femur, but where humans have a tibia and fibula,
chickens have a tibiotarsus, and where humans have tarsal bones for
a multi-axial ankle, chickens have a tarsus/metatarsus for a
single-axis ankle. Schedules were coordinated and confirmed,
recoordinated and reconfirmed, until finally the chicken was
brought in for evaluation and consult.
Designing the Chicken-Foot' Prosthesis
 During the evaluation, Jim's suspicion of a
partial foot amputation was confirmed, and the chicken's residual
limb was about two inches from the proximal joint and bulbous. This
bulbous distal end was ideal for a supracondylar-type suspension. A
two-stage casting technique was used to capture the shape and size
of the residual limb, and a supracondylar style socket with
anterior opening was laminated.
The socket now complete, Jim's only real concern was
"where can I buy a prosthetic chicken foot?" At once a vision came
to Jim of his mentor, Rodger Wier, CP, Department of Veterans
Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) prosthetic chief (ret.) from
Huntington, West Virginia. Rodger always told him to look to the
toy industry for innovative, outside-the-box, cutting-edge genius.
Clinging to that thought, Jim found himself wandering the aisles of
"Wally World."
In the Halloween aisle, he found it. The suitable replacement.
The economic pumpkin carving set.
The pumpkin saw was used like a pipe, and the orange handle fit
perfectly into the inside of the standard galvanized pipe used in
the industry. The scooper, even though it looked more like a duck's
foot, worked well as a chicken foot. The area where the scoop and
handle merge was heated with a propane torch so that the angle of
the dangle mimicked that of the chicken. A Silipos gel liner--the
small ones used for fingers and toes--was placed on the chicken's
residual limb as an interface.
After all the effort, what does Jim have to show for it?
Well, if this is not EGGSACTLY what one calls POULTRY IN MOTION,
then what is?
Jim Young can be reached at Amputee Prosthetic Clinic, 802
East 20th Street, Tifton, GA 31794; 229.387.6600; joylegs@aol.com 
Table Of Contents - January 2006
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