Hi, I have a dog whose paw is partially missing/mangled. Its healed up of course but not in a way that he should be putting weight on it, though he does. He managed to tear his "stump" up quite a bit when he goes out and I have yet to be able to make a proper shoe for him. I have cobbled together a child's shoe from the second hand store chopped the toe off and put that on which is kinda working but is definitely a hack job and doesn't stay on that well. I tried a bought solution but that worked even worse than my homemade job. What I want to do is make a shoe/sole that is custom molded to his foot that i could perhaps put a slit down the back to take it on/off and velcro to keep it on snuggly. Problem is i have never worked with liquid rubber or rubber/silicone at all. I have been searching for something that dries about to the consistency of a tire/innertube but am not sure what to use.
Any suggestions on how to go about doing this would really be appreciated!!
Hmm, interesting problem. You might do some research on some of those Silicone baking pans. Those are pretty flexible and are molded (I'm not sure of it's a thermoset material, or if they're a polymer; thus the research needed.).
However, the problem may be worse than you first realize. Any tension strong enough to hold the device on may inhibit circulation to the mutilated limb, possibly leading to further problems (e.g., gangrene, etc.). I know that human amputees have significant problems with prosthetics fitting correctly, and not producing circulation or pressure problems. Is there any literature available on human prosthetics?
Furthermore, I'm not sure if animals may have latex allergies or not, but that can be a significant problem for some people. Thus, it may be good to test the animal for an allergy before going too far down the development path.
There's also the issue of whether the dog may accept the prosthetic or not. While most humans can train themselves to accept a prosthetic, animals may view it as a foreign object and try to remove it, possibly causing damage.