Special prosthetic for Pretoria tortoise born without a paw

A Pretoria-based tortoise has been given a new lease of life with a specially designed prosthetic leg.

‘Madrie’, as she is known, was born without a front left paw, presumably because she was born soon after her mother was struck by a car.

For the first two years of her life, Madrie was able to walk on her own, albeit with some difficulty.

But now that she has grown larger and her shell is getting heavier, moving around has become increasing difficult and straining.

Her shell was already starting to tear into her skin where the missing paw should be.

Werner Smit, a local orthotist and prosthetist, took pity on Madrie and designed a specialised wheel prosthetic for her.

“I could see that walking was not easy for her.

“She had to use her three paws to lift her shell off the ground just to move one step forward,” Smit said.

The wheel prosthetic is designed around Madrie’s shell with a special harness that wraps around it to fully support her weight.

Six years earlier, Madrie’s mum was taken in by a Pretoria couple after they found her alone in the middle of the road after she was struck by a car.

At the time she was found, the tortoise was ill and weak, but the couple were able to nurse her back to health through “medicine and prayer”.

After seeing she was strong and healthy, the couple let her back into the surrounding mountains, but their thankful friend never strayed too far from their home.

When Madrie was born, the couple immediately noticed the missing paw, and made sure to keep her close to their house and under their watchful eyes whenever they saw hadedas and other birds known to prey on tortoise flying around the area.

A few years later, and after seeing Madrie walking at a snail’s pace and with visible difficulty, they went straight to Smit.

“She was very shy when I first met her, and crept all the way back into her shell,” Smit said.

“At first we wanted to make the prosthetic smaller and lighter, but the only way we could get it on was to fit it around her shell.

“I think we did it just in time because we feared that if she started dragging her body, she would eventually tear through her own shell.

“We also had to make sure the wheel was big enough to traverse the difficult terrain where she lives,” Smit said.

After her prosthetic leg was attached, it took Madrie about a week to get used to it and move at a regular pace.

The couple said Madrie is now moving with ease, but still has to get used to moving around corners and tight turns.