WATCH: Tortoise with rare disease takes first steps with custom wheelchair
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Updated: 4:48 PM PDT Jun 3, 2021
KC Downey
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Updated: 4:48 PM PDT Jun 3, 2021
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Come on buddy. Yeah. Wait a little bit. It's just trying to get out of it. Come on buddy. Yeah, yeah. Wait a little bit, it's just trying to get out of it.
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Updated: 4:48 PM PDT Jun 3, 2021
KC Downey
Digital Media Manager
A tortoise born with a metabolic bone disease can now walk easier thanks to a New Hampshire company. Walkin' Pets, of Amherst, built a custom wheelchair for an 11-year-old Sulcata tortoise named George Bailey, who was rescued from an exotic animal rescue in Tennessee. "(It’s) a custom tortoise wheelchair with a special base featuring a convex support structure to accommodate the natural contour of George’s under shell and a harnessing system designed to expand with George as he grows," Walkin' Pets representatives wrote in a news release.The disease never allowed the tortoise’s bones to fully develop in his back legs, and as he grew, it became harder for him to walk. George Bailey currently weighs about 70 pounds and could end up at more than 200 pounds, as he might live at least 90 more years. So, a permanent solution was needed to improve his quality of life. George Bailey's owner, Jaime Loebener, told Walkin' Pets that the tortoise took to his new wheelchair right away. "George’s Walkin' Wheels wheelchair is amazing! I put George on it, and he is able to move himself around," Loebener said, according to the news release.See video of George’s first steps in the video player above.