Eric 3D horseshoes
Eric Ross
Week 4
Blue Rabbit pt. 1 WD:614
10/19/2014
3D Horseshoes
In a world full of mass produced junk is it OK to create something useful? 3d printing can be used to improve plant, animal and environmental life.
The following image is of a horseshoe that was 3d printed by CSIRO in Australia. This shoe is a titanium shoe printed for a horse named Holly she has Laminitis. Laminitis is a painful inflammatory condition of the tissues (laminae) that bond the hoof wall to the pedal (coffin) bone in the horses hoof. These shoes are remarkable bringing pain relief to horses everywhere. What if I could help do that in America?
My Idea is to create something significant to do my part and help improve the planet. I’ve been thinking about the horseshoes and how much its improved Holly’s life in Australia. I want to use this idea in America to help horses with Laminitis.
Due to excessive intake of grass and grains being a common trigger. The website www.animedvets.co.uk/laminitis mentioned prevention through diet. Some other risk factors other than diet include enlargement of the Pars Intermedia of the Pituitary gland and high insulin levels. Can horseshoes be 3d printed to relive pain for horses?
I believe my Idea is important because eight thousand horses per year get Laminitis. Of those eight thousand six hundred are euthanized. Laminitis is a disease that has affected the horse from the beginning of recorded time. If one those horses can be saved than what are we waiting for? I also worked with horses most of my teen years. Saddling, Feeding, riding and fencing. I remember the farrier telling us that any horse is prone to Laminitis no matter the breed or size. That’s why this idea is important to me.
CSIRO and a veterinarian named DR Luke Wells-Smith have created a titanium horse shoe for a 10 year old mare named Holly. They scanned her hoof and 3d printed a shoe perfectly fitting her hoof. The new shoes redistribute the weight away from painful areas and allows Holly and other horses to heal. CSIRO alaso makes horeshoes for race horses. (http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Media/Hollys-Christmas-wish-comes-true.aspx)
In 2010 Pre-Vet student Amanda Lee Welch researched Laminitis of the bovine claw. What if this idea can be used on other animals that suffer from this disease? Think of how many animals we can relive from this burden. (http://www.udel.edu/ocm/development/evan/delete_me/envirotext_ek_older.html) It would be nice if she could 3d print something to help relive Laminitis the bovine claw.
Maryland farrier Henry Heymering wrote a paper in 2010 titled a Historic Perspective of Laminitis. At the end he concluded. “We’ve had nearly 2,000 years of bleeding as treatment, 1,700 years of exercise as treatment and more than 40 years of phenylbutazone as treatment – without proof of effectiveness in treating laminitis. Although longevity suggests effectiveness, until we have proof of our treatments, future generations may find them as quaint and misdirected” as the ancient treatments that have come before. (Historical perspective of laminitis Henry W. Heymering, CJF, RMF)
What I believe he is trying to say is that until we know what treatments work we will doubt current treatments out there. So if this idea can help there will be no need for doubt or skepticism.
So without a doubt I believe that this idea is worth spending the rest of the quarter on. If I can help just one animal it will be worth that and more. If veterinary medicine can use 3d printing to evolve then it must. In order create and improve the animal life across the world, that would be amazing wouldn’t it?
Blue Rabbit Sources
- http://www.csiro.au/Portals/Media/Hollys-Christmas-wish-comes-true.aspx (Holly’s horseshoe’s)
- http://www.udel.edu/ocm/development/evan/delete_me/envirotext_ek_older.html ( Pre-Vet student Amanda Lee Welch)
- http://www.laminitishelp.org/504/history-of-laminitis-may-date-to-ancient-greece-and-beyond/ ( Historical perspective of laminitis Henry W. Heymering, CJF, RMF)