e-NABLE Forum

Hello all, Our Prosthetics Club received an urgent case from John, who owns a 13-year-old Toco Toucan named Wico. I am not experienced in prosthetic design, and this club has been inactive for some time (I am working on reviving it), so I am kindly calling for everyone and anyone’s help. This case is time-sensitive. Below are John’s text and the pictures he sent to me. “Hello Anjeli:  Thank you on following through on my request for assistance.  Wico is a 13 year old Toco Toucan.  She is a free flyer that lives in a human house. Her curiosity gets her into trouble.  She uses her beak as a pry bar to open cabinets in the house.  Since her beak is designed for eating fruits in the wild, she placed stress on the tip and broke a section off the front of the top half of her beak. A local veterinarian used tooth bonding material cured with ultraviolet light as a repair.  It worked for a while, but it is to heavy, hard and ridged compared to her natural beak and once again broke off.  Her beak is unlike fingernails.  The beak has blood vessels throughout its structure.  It is used as a cooling device in her natural rain forest setting. A temporary tip has been used over the past few weeks.  This allows her to pick up food and eat.  The temporary tip is a piece of poly styrene sheet material cut and folded to approximate her original beak end.  It is attached with blank duct tape.  The repair lasts as little as a day and possibly several days, depending on her reaction to the tip.  She rubs her beak in an attempt to remove it.  I have considered glueing the tip on with alpha cyanoacrylate glue.  While it is FDA approved for direct skin contact, I am a bit apprehensive based upon the vapor of this adhesive.  A toucans nostrils are at the top junction of the beak and top of head. Here are some pictures of Wico.  I have included a before picture with full beak, broken beak, beak with white tip of dental bonding material, and repair with poly styrene sheet and duct tape. Thank you for your interest and expertise in similar repairs. I’ll also send you some information about the makeup of a toucan’s beak, as it is filled with hollow spaces and a spongy cellular makeup.  My ultimate goal is a more permanent repair. The nature of a toucan is to maintain its beak.  They do this by bathing in water, scratching their beak with one foot while standing with other foot, and rubbing beak against surfaces.  All this is done to dislodge any peeling layers of the beak.  Toucans also use their beak to gather natural oils from a gland under their tail and use it to preen and maintain its feathers (waterproofing). Thank you again.” Please feel free to contact me, ask me questions, or request measurements. Any help at all is appreciated. Thank you so much.