No Chicken Little: Massachusetts Woman's Chicken Getting $2,500 Prosthetic Leg

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Massachusetts Woman's Chicken Getting $2,500 Prosthetic Leg

CLINTON, Mass. — Aug 3, 2015, 8:02 AM ET

This chicken leg isn't for eating.

A hen owned by a Massachusetts woman who specializes in chicken rehabilitation and rescue is getting fitted with a prosthetic leg Wednesday at Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

Andrea Martin, of Clinton, tells The Telegram & Gazette she is paying for the $2,500 operation out of her own pocket. She says the alternative is euthanization.

The chicken, named Cecily, was born with a damaged tendon in the leg that makes it useless.

The surgery will begin when Emi Knafo, a specialist in avian orthopedics, will amputate Cecily's right leg.

After a 10- to 14-day recovery period, the prosthetic, made on a 3-D printer, will be fitted.

Similar surgery has been performed on a rooster and duck, though not at Tufts.