Mechanical engineering students make adjustments to their canine physical therapy device while Chelsea the dog patiently waits. From left are: Nelson Dichter, Jay Panchal, Blake Summers and David Shira. (Liese Greensfelder, UC Davis photo)
Mechanical walkers get dogs back on their feet
Many dogs suffering from mobility impairment due to spinal cord injuries and other problems can learn to walk again.
Unlike humans, even dogs with spinal cords that have been completely severed can get back on their feet. But they need a lot of therapy to accomplish the task.
During sessions with paralyzed canines, UC Davis physical therapist Jackie Woelz manually supports her patients, receiving their weight on her hand, which she holds under the sternum between the animal’s front legs.
To the best of her knowledge, there’s no device currently available that can do as good a job supporting the dogs as she can.
“The slings and carts on the market now create restrictions around the legs,” she said. “So even if an animal is weakly ambulatory, it has to push through those constraints before it can take a step.”
The sooner a dog relearns to walk, the better. “Early rehabilitation minimizes muscle atrophy and the risk of secondary complications,” explained Woelz (pronounced “Wells”).
‘I can’t hold up every dog that needs help, so I needed a device to fill the gap.’
Jackie Woelz, UC Davis physical therapist
“But I can’t hold up every dog that needs help, so I needed a device to fill the gap.”
During winter and spring quarters this year, two student teams worked with Woelz to fill that gap. A biomedical engineering group designed a mechanism to hold smaller dogs while a mechanical engineering group designed one for larger animals.
Walking with Chelsea
On a spring day in June, four mechanical engineers wheeled the culmination of six months of their design and fabrication work into the Physical Rehabilitation Center at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital on the UC Davis campus.
Nelson Dichter, Jay Panchal, David Shira and Blake Summers were greeted by Woelz and her seven-year-old patient, Chelsea, a sweet-tempered lab/shepherd mix whose surgery for a brain tumor in December had left her with severely diminished use of her left legs.
Chelsea didn’t pay much attention to the adjustable, padded supports and side rails that were being fitted under and around her.
The affable pooch seemed much more interested in the attention she was receiving as the first animal to test the new device.
Pushed forward with two good legs
When the supports were in place, the dog stood motionless for a moment, then pushed forward with her two good legs. After two steps, the team stopped her to do more adjusting, and when they let go, she pulled ahead, supported by the students’ apparatus.
Over the summer, both engineering teams are fine-tuning their devices. When their work is completed, they will do what every other capstone project team does: turn their inventions over to their faculty collaborator.
“The supports work. They are going to help a lot of our patients,” Woelz said. “These students have been fantastic to work with. So professional and so ingenious. It’s been a wonderful collaboration.”