Max has had a rough few years, he is a 20-year-old Macaw from the Hyacinth Haven Bird Sanctuary in the Western Cape, who got his beak damaged on two separate altercations with other Macaws. The first altercation damaged his top beak, and in the second, it broke off completely, and with only his lower beak left, Max was unable to eat solid foods. His owner, Trevor Glover, who established the sanctuary, took Max to Dr Brendan Tindall at the Robberg Veterinary Clinic in Plettenberg Bay for treatment and evaluation, where they managed to get him to start eating soft foods, but without the top part of the beak to keep the bottom part in check, it continued to grow straight out, eventually becoming longer than his tongue, preventing him from reaching his food, so they had to cut it back again.

Max was taken to the Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital (OVAH) for a CT scan to check if there was enough remaining beak left to attach a prosthesis, but the detail of Onderstepoort’s CT scanner was not enough to determine this. Luckily arrangements could be made with Eugene Marais Radiology where Dr. Craig Muller was able to do a highly detailed scan that showed fitting a prosthetic would be possible.
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A few years ago, we started helping vets on projects where animals needed assistance that was difficult to provide, we tried to help where we could by using 3D printing and digital design techniques. As we got more involved in medically-based projects on the human side, we realised that most of the same processes could be applied to the animal side and that there was a serious gap between these two, thus we formed our medical division BunnyMed that would cater for both.
Both working on the same principle, it all starts with an idea, a need, or an issue that a medical professional approaches us with. We collaborate with them to develop their ideas, find new innovative solutions, improve outdated products, and create new ones where needed. It starts with concepts, digital 3D models, and using 3D printing to create prototypes that can be field-tested, and eventually manufacturing the product, bringing it to market. In some cases, there is more than one idea that needs to be explored and we can see the potential to expand on those ideas in a partnership.

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We are excited to announce that we have launched our first veterinary product, developed in partnership with an award-winning avian veterinarian, Dr. Coetzee de Beer, owner of the Centre for Avian, Reptiles and Exotics (CARE) situated in Klapmuts just outside Stellenbosch.

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