Camel gets new shoes to help him walk again

A camel has been given new shoes to help him walk again. Timujin, a 27-year-old Bactrian camel owned by Lady Chichester, was left unable to walk after suffering stretched tendons and swollen joints in his front legs.

Vets even recommended that he be put down because of the intense pain he was in. But a specialist pair of shoes fitted by a cobbler have now given the humped mammal “a new lease of life”.

Stuart Moss, owner of Mossy’s Shoe Repairs in Salisbury, Wilts, was commissioned in April by Lady Chichester to make his unlikely client a pair of shoes using leather, memory foam and rubber.

Timujin is one of a number of camels kept by the Earl of Chichester and Lady Chichester at their Grade I-listed Little Durnford Manor estate.

“When I first got the phone call, I thought someone was having a bubble [bubble bath = laugh],” Mr Moss said. “But obviously it then transpired it was not a prank call.

“I never thought I would be making a pair of shoes for an animal, let alone a camel.”

He added: “When he was walking, it broke my heart. His tendons had stretched, so he was walking on the back of his legs.

“He just did not want to walk, and so because of his lack of movement his joints swelled up.”

It took four months and six fittings for the cobbler to put together the unique pair of shoes.

To make them, Mr Moss filled two washing up bowls with kinetic sand to take an imprint of Timujin’s front feet which he then filled with plaster.

He and colleague Michelle Bradford then used the moulds to stitch together a pair of boots using leather, memory foam and a rubber sole.

Mr Moss said camels do not have a foot or hoof, like an ape or a cow, but have soles that are similar to a “big leather pad”.

“Since he had the shoes fitted, the swelling went down,” he added. “He now goes for walks everyday, and is bouncing around like there’s no tomorrow.

“Before he never wanted to walk, but now he gets up, waits for his shoes and is off! As he is 27, which is quite old for a camel, the shoes have given him a new lease of life.

“In one of the photos he is smiling with a big smile – it is certainly a first for us both.”

Ms Bradford, who took Timujin out on one of his first walks with his new footwear, added: “He is the gentlest camel and seems to know we are helping him.”