Every special needs dog is possible to have a wonderful quality of life.
By: Carin Lee
Tags: 3D Printing, Anycubic, Dog Rescue

Volunteer Helping Special Needs Dogs/ 3D printing beginner

Dogs with special needs are unbelievably adaptable, regardless of their limitations. They are loving and can bring happiness to their owners’ lives. Sadly, many special needs animals can’t find a suitable home and face a much greater risk of being put down because of their particular needs. That’s where Amy and many rescue groups want to step in.

Amy Jo Martin is an elderly attorney in Wilkes County, North Carolina. She is self-employed and has been involved in dog rescue for over 25 years. In the beginning, she adopted big dogs with her roommate, then moved to adopt only senior dogs because she realized many of them could not find suitable homes due to them being “too old”. Amy’s first adopted dog is a tripod German Shepherd named Nick. His adapting to being three-legged removed Amy’s concerns in handling the dogs that need special care and inspired her to adopt different special needs dogs.

Here are the dogs that have been adopted by Amy

Little Jett is one of the cute dogs. He was only 1.7 pounds and had neurological issues and rear leg deformities when he was adopted. Amy and her roommate have been struggled to find mobility equipment to assist this little guy with his gait. They tested 3 or 4 different brands that made small carts online but found none fit Jett’s tiny body. “That’s when I realized how helpful a 3d printer would be. Last Christmas, my family bought me my first 3d printer (Anycubic Mega S…which I LOVE), and after a little trial and error, I made Jett a quad wheelchair, granted, it wasn’t fancy or “pretty”, but it worked for him — and that’s what mattered. ‘’ Said Amy.

How did the 3d print wheelchair benefit this kind of puppy with an underdeveloped leg (for instance, a puppy born without a paw and a shorter leg)?

“A properly fitted 3d printed wheelchair could help a puppy learn how to walk normally on all four legs and would assist the puppy with its gait as well as bone and soft tissue development. In addition, the 3d printed wheelchair is inexpensive to make, can be replaced with a larger one as the puppy grows. Once the puppy gets to full-grown size, the owner can invest in a professionally-made prosthetic. ‘’ Said Amy.

The 3d printed wheelchair helped Jett master walking on his rear knees (which also helps with his sense of balance), and he is pretty fast when moving across the room to play with his siblings.

The other medical issue of Jett is that he has a cerebellar disorder — meaning the portion of his brain that involves his coordination and sense of balance wasn’t fully developed prior to birth. It leads her to walk very “wonky.” In addition, Chihuahuas often have open fontanels (“soft spots” on the skull), making it dangerous if they fall and bump their head on the unprotected part of their skulls. Add a “wonky” walk and balance issues to that, and you have a dog that bumps his head a lot. So Jett needed a helmet to protect his head when he was learning to walk.

After finding nothing about the helmet online, Amy planned to make one by her newly received Anycubic Vyper 3d Printer. It’s an FDM 3D printer that features fast and reliable automatic bed-levelling, roomy print volume and provides a beginner-friendly experience. So it could make Amy handle her prints very well in a short time. She made two different types of helmets for Jett.

Original design by Brucho design studio based in Honduras

‘’Just like a leg prosthetic, if a puppy is growing, it will need a helmet that can be inexpensively replaced as its head grows. Once the pup is full-grown, then the owner can have a helmet made by a professional.’’ Said Amy. Using a 3d printer made her realize she could more than adopt the special needs dogs. So she wanted to loan out her extra dog wheelchairs to people who need them for the short term. Thus help others who are in the same situation as she with Jett.

‘’I would love to see others get interested in 3d printing. You don’t have to be a young person….you don’t have to have a lot of computer experience….you don’t have to be a male….you just need a desire to help. I would love to have more people like me get a group together (much like the now-disbanded group called The CAP Project) to help special animals with mobility items. I would love to learn from people who have more knowledge than I do. I would love to have people offering to help create STLs that can be used in non-profit ways. I would love 3d printer companies to take an interest in people who are using their printers to help others (filament is always needed). Anycubic has been so wonderful to me! Through my new Facebook friend, Rebecca Clark, Anycubic has just sent me 2 brand new Vyper printers to help me make these items. I am so very grateful and excited to see how many animals I can help with these printers! And finally, I would love for more people to understand that just because an animal has mobility or medical issue, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a wonderful quality of life.’’ Said, Amy

She also advised the people interested in adopting the special needs dogs. You can click here to check more details. If you are not ready to adopt, you could also talk to the rescues and see if you could foster them.

Here are the groups that you could connect with:

Lovey Loaves Special Needs Rescue — website: http://www.loveyloaves.org

Canine Castaways, Inc. — website: http://www.caninecastaways.org

Mutt Misfits Animal Rescue — website: http://www.muttmisfits.com

Perfectly Imperfect Pets Rescue — website: http://www.pipsrescue.org

Amy’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PeacefulHeart