AN ANIMAL-lover is hoping the world-famous ‘bionic vet’ can help give her crippled dog her back her mobility.

Julie Magee, of Burnley, said Yarna, her six-year-old West Highland terrier, is in urgent need of knee replacement surgery due to a genetic condition where her knees are permanently dislocated.

Yarna’s knee bones are permanently dislocated and fixed in place outside their normal position, which causes friction to the side of her stifle joints every time she moves.

She also has no cartilage in her stifle joints, meaning bone is grinding on bone and causing further pain. Vets have told Julie that Yarna, who was rescued from an abusive home two years ago, will eventually lose the ability to walk unless she undergoes the surgery, which would cost £10,000.

Julie, 42, of Athol Street South, believes Yarna’s only hope of being mobile and pain-free again is Noel Fitzpatrick, a neuro-orthopaedic veterinary surgeon and star of the BBC documentary ‘The Bionic Vet’.

The animal doctor last year became the first surgeon in the world to bioengineer two bionic feet for a cat which lost both its feet in a combine harvester accident.

Julie is hoping he can work a similar miracle on Yarna and has launched a mission to raise the money to pay for the surgery.

She said: “When I first got Yarna she was very traumatised, but this year she blossomed into a lovely dog.

“ Then in May she started having problems with her knees and I’ve since been told they are beyond repair.

“Noel Fitzpatrick has agreed to do the surgery for £10,000 which is a very good price.

“He says if she has this surgery then the prognosis is excellent.

“She had just started to get her life back and it’s such a shame for her.”

Julie, a self-employed cleaner, is trying to fund the surgery, but is also asking local people and businesses to help out.

Go to the website below.