Goat’s Joy at First Walk With Prosthetics After Losing Legs to Frostbite

After losing her back limbs to frostbite, Lolli the goat has spent years being held back by her difference, but not anymore. It’s been a long process to get here, but in a recent TikTok video Lolli can be seen walking for the first time with two prosthetic legs that she recently received.

It’s thought that Lolli was born during a harsh winter and didn’t have adequate warmth, which meant she sadly lost her back legs and the tips of her ears in the early stages of her life. She would drag herself around using just her front limbs, but when founder of The Gentle Barn, Ellie Laks, heard about Lolli’s condition, she immediately offered to take her in.

However, Laks didn’t want to remove Lolli from her family, so she explained to Newsweek how she also “insisted on taking her mom as well” to keep them together. A year later, she found out that Lolli’s father was still alive, so she brought him to The Gentle Barn in Tennessee to reunite the whole family.

The first step in Lolli’s journey was to undergo surgery to remove “a very painful bone spur,” and then she could be fitted with her very first prosthetics.

“She did great, however once she started to grow, the prosthetics no longer fit her,” Laks said. “We supported her with a wheelchair until she was finished growing, and now that time has come, we were able to create prosthetics for her that she can acclimate to and wear for a long time.”

Using a wheelchair for such a long time gave Lolli the freedom to run around the yard, but Laks knew that it was “more limiting than prosthetics.” The wheelchair meant she couldn’t climb up onto the play structures the other animals used, and the straps could be bothersome at times—not to mention, the contraption made her feel different to those around her.

But thankfully, after months of creating molds of her legs and waiting for them to be complete, Lolli’s new prosthetics finally arrived at the barn in April, and they couldn’t wait to watch her take them for a spin.

“Watching someone we love struggle with immobility and be dependent on a wheelchair, and then seeing the real potential for freedom is inspiring and moving to say the least. The prosthetics will help her feel more typically functioning alongside her parents and other animals, and they are more stable as well, without risk of flipping over or getting stuck,” Laks told Newsweek.

She added: “Lolli will wear her prosthetics for about an hour and then take them off for a few hours, before wearing them for another hour before bed. It takes a while for the skin to get used to wearing the prosthetics, so we are watching her residual limbs carefully for blisters and bruises. Lolli will wear the prosthetics for longer stretches of time until eventually she can wear them all day.”

TikTok Users React

Laks knows that it will be months before Lolli’s completely used to the prosthetics, but she’s so excited to see her progress. After years of using a wheelchair, there are various muscles that Lolli hasn’t had to use for some time, so she will also need to build up her strength, which will also take time.

But once the prosthetics finally arrived, Lolli was so thrilled to test them out, and the adorable footage was shared earlier this week to TikTok (@thegentlebarn). The video of Lolli “trying her new prosthetics for the first time” delighted many, and the clip has already been viewed over 304,100 times and gained more than 66,500 likes in a matter of days.

The love and support for Lolli has been wonderful to see, and Laks is so excited to continue sharing the goat’s journey. “Lolli is moving forward and being very brave and resilient. We are very proud of her, and people are right along with us and they’re hungry for the next update,” she said.

The viral TikTok post has amassed over 660 comments already, as many users praised The Gentle Barn for giving Lolli the life she deserves.

One TikTok user wrote: “You have changed her quality of life forever. Thank you.”

Another user commented: “Lolli is an inspiration to us all.”

While another TikTok user posted: “mom & dad in the back looked so proud.”

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