I Created A Company That Designs And 3D Prints Adaptive Devices For Special Needs Pets (And Humans)!

It started back in April of 2017. My wife, Amber, had been following Hannah Shaw (@kittenxlady) on Instagram for quite some time because who doesn’t like daily cute kitten pictures? Hannah had posted about a new foster kitten named Chloe who had what looked to be rear leg problems. Hannah was all in with Chloe and did everything that she could to help this kitten walk again. Chloe had shown some signs of improved ability through acupuncture and laser therapy. So, that’s when Amber said that I should try to reach out to her to see if I could help in creating a device to assist Chloe’s rehabilitation. At first, I was like, there is no way someone with more than ½ million followers on Instagram is going to respond to me. To my surprise, Hannah did with enthusiasm. The next day I drove over to Hannah’s to meet Chloe and take some measurements to start the development of an assisted walking device (not a wheelchair). We both worked really hard on creating this device. I was doing the 3D printing and Hannah was busy with sewing up a custom fit harness to attach to the device. Once we had it ready, Chloe got her new wheels which turned into the cutest photo shoot I've ever seen! But, after a few days of using the device we noticed that Chloe wanted nothing to do with it and she was better off scooting around on her own. Hannah and I learned a lot from Chloe. We were trying to fix something that didn’t need to be fixed. Perfectly Imperfect became another one of Hannah’s mottos. Chloe now lives in California and is super happy with her forever humans!

Then, a year passes by and almost to the day Hannah called me about her new foster, Badger. He was born premature and found in extremely bad shape behind an oil painting at a local art studio. Hannah rescued him from certain death and he was tube fed for a number of days after she got him. After a trip to the vet Badger was found to have a congenital abnormality called megaesophagus. It is basically where certain parts of the esophagus are enlarged and can result in regurgitation, aspiration, and discomfort if the cat eats at a normal angle. Hannah did a bunch of research before reaching out to me and tried to find a device capable of assisting Badger with eating at a 45 degree angle but couldn’t find anything for cats. There are a ton of devices for dogs. When she called me I pretty much dropped what I was doing and drove to her house as fast as I could. Hannah had already sketched up some ideas for this feeding device that would allow Badger to eat at a 45 degree or more angle. After seeing him, I got to work on a device with a step up which had a fixed bowl position. This proof of concept prototype proved that the idea was going to work. With that knowledge, I went back to work on a final device that would be able to adjust to Badger as he got older. He quickly started gaining weight.

After that, Hannah had posted a YouTube video update about Badger, his condition, and the feeding device which I called the Mega Feeder 3000! After the video posted my email started to light up with requests to purchase one of the feeders. That’s when I founded Adaptive Tech & Consulting.

Adaptive Tech & Consulting primarily focuses on creating adaptive devices for special needs animals. We started with cats of course, but we are now developing devices for dogs and soon more animals like sheep! But, that's not all we can do! We are in the process of creating devices and tools that do not currently exist for vet technicians as well as adaptive devices for humans that may need something that'll help them with problems like arthritis.

More info: adaptivetechandconsulting.com