ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- Over the past three decades, Ara Mirzaian has fitted braces for everyone from Paralympians to children with scoliosis. But Msituni was a patient like none other - a newborn giraffe.
"It was pretty surreal when I first heard about it," Mirzaian told The Associated Press this week during a tour to meet Msituni, who was strutting alongside the other giraffes with no troubles."Of course, all I did was go online and study giraffes for like 24/7 until we got out here." And in 2006, a Hanger team in Florida created a prosthetic for a bottlenose dolphin that had lost its tail after becoming tangled in ropes from a crab trap. Their story inspired the 2011 movie"Dolphin Tale."
Msituni suffered from hyperextended carpi - wrist joint bones in giraffes' front limbs, which are more like arms. As she overcompensated, the second front limb started to hyperextend as well. Her back leg joints also were weak but were able to be corrected with specialized hoof extenders. For the custom braces to work, they would need to have a range of motion but be durable, so Hanger worked with a company that makes horse braces.
In the end, Msituni only needed one brace. The other leg corrected itself with the medical-grade brace.
Thank for helping that precious animal!
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