Derrick Campana is a certified prosthetist who got his start fitting humans, many of whom were war veterans, with prosthetics. One day, a veterinarian approached Derrick asking if he could make prosthetic legs for a dog. Derrick had no idea that this simple request would change his life forever.

At first, Derrick did not know if he would be able to help the vet. He remembers that he told him, “I can try to help you. But I’ve never worked on a dog before.”

Derrick was able to successfully build a prosthetic for the dog, and once he did that, he realized that there was a gap in the veterinary industry when it came to prosthetics.

“I built one successfully and said, ‘Hey, there’s a need for this,'” he explained.

Derrick then decided to start Animal Ortho Care, a company that specializes in veterinary orthotics and promises to “give your pet a healthier life with the gift of mobility.” Since then, Derrick says that he has made around 25,000 prosthetics for animals all over the globe.

“We get emails every day on all types of devices, ranging from turtle to deer to pandas,” he said. “I did elephants in Thailand, a ram in Spain. Goat, sheep, llama. Name it, we’ve probably done it.”

Many of the animals that Derrick helps have suffered catastrophic injuries, and his prosthetics give them a new lease on life. One animal that he has helped is a pony named Angel Marie, who was injured when her mother stepped on her leg, leaving her unable to walk.

“It’s a really great thing. The prosthetics, if it wasn’t for that she wouldn’t have made it,” Angel’s owner said.

Another animal that was helped by Derrick is a puppy named Hudson, who was dubbed “Railroad Puppy” by the press after he was found on train tracks with a paw nailed to a railroad tie and injuries to all of his legs. As soon as Derrick heard Hudson’s story, he drove straight from Virginia to New York to help him.

“[Hudson’s owner] was crying, I was tearing up,” Derrick recalled. “It’s one of the best moments… When all these things lined up together, and we fit him with new prosthesis… and he just ran away. It all lined up. Perfection.”

Hudson’s life was completely changed by the prosthetic, and he’s now a therapy dog for people with various issues, including war veterans dealing with PTSD.

“When he walks in and sees amputees and war vets like I used to treat, he’s able to give them a sense of relief and show them that, ‘Oh if this dog can overcome this handicap, then I can too,'” Derrick said.

Derrick is now trying to raise awareness of what he is doing so that he can help even more dogs.

“Maybe 20% of the population knows that these options of prosthetic and orthodontic devices exist,” he said. “If 100% of dog owners knew, then we could treat thousands more dogs and save thousands more dogs’ lives. You don’t have to put them down.”

God bless Derrick for figuring out such a beautiful way to help animals in need!