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A Better Fix for Fido's Tummy Troubles

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It's a common problem for veterinarians. Dogs in particular are prone to ingesting toys and other foreign objects and ending up with them lodged in their stomach or digestive tract. If the object is too large for the animal to pass on its own, the resulting surgery required to move it can be invasive, and expensive.

Part of that expense comes from the tools that are used, which aren't always effective and frequently wear out and need to be replaced. That's where the team of biomedical engineering students Connor McBride, Edward Ruppel and Chandler Woo came in.

The team was tasked with creating a more effective tool, but also one that could reduce the cost. In many ways, what they designed is similar to other tools on the market. It could best be described as a wand that would be held by the vet, with a mechanism that controls the wire that extends and retracts from the end of the wand. On the end of that wire is a loop that the vet can manipulate to retrieve the foreign object.

Their design does have one key difference: it has a removable head. This might seem like a small detail, but since the wire is the part that must travel into the dog's digestive tract to remove the object, it is most prone to wear and require replacement. It's also the least expensive part of the device. Being able to remove that head and replace just the wire, rather than the entire device cuts down on the vet's cost significantly, and that drop in cost can make the procedure less expensive for pet owners.

In addition to the reduction in cost, the removable head also allows for different types of retrieval tools that can be mounted onto the end of the wire. This makes it more versatile than a device with only one option for retrieval.

The team has gone through several versions of their prototype, experimenting with different mechanisms to enhance how the tool is deployed and maneuvered. The hope is that it will eventually be implemented for its intended use, improving the experience of dealing with this common problem for vets and for the pets and owners that find themselves in need of the treatment.

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