Patches, a nine-year-old dachshund, was suffering from a massive brain tumor that had grown through her skull, but researchers at the University of Guelph have stepped in to help using 3-D printing.
Michelle Oblak, a veterinary surgical oncologist at Guelph says she thinks this may be the first surgery of it's kind. Veterinarians used 3-D printing to recreate Patches' skull where the tumor was removed.
Oblak says:
Our hope is this is something that could be more widely available on a broad scale. It went very well.
Danielle Dymeck, the dogs owner says:
We called her our little unicorn because she had this bump on her head, but it would have killed her. It's pretty amazing what they did for my girl.
Twitter @TheSpec
Twitter @The Spec
Patches was looking good after surgery.
People on social media are simply saying, "Yay science!"
Lots of folks gave prayers.
Unfortunately, there was this little side note.
And after Patches recovered from the surgery, she had another accident!
We really do wish Patches all the best with her health related issues.