Thursday May 4 11:54 AEST

It could only happen in America - plastic surgery on a kangaroo.

The aspiring Skippy's career appeared to be on the rocks after being attacked by a wolf last year.

But then plastic surgeon of 25 years Theodore Corwin, better known for performing facelifts, tummy tucks, breast enhancements and other cosmetic procedures on humans, stepped in.

The Los Angeles-based surgeon spent two hours operating on the four-year-old kangaroo, named Feznik, to reconstruct his lip and save his burgeoning career as an actor.

"He was missing part of one side of the lip and it made him look ugly and his tooth was sticking out," Dr Corwin said from the United States.

Before the operation, Feznik's career was on the skids - there's not much work for ugly kangaroos in Hollywood.

But three months down the track, things are looking up for the 1.3m marsupial who lives on a Californian farm for Hollywood animals used at corporate events, in movies and advertisements.

"I've talked to the vet who takes care of these animals and he said all's well, he's healing well, eating fine and looks good," Dr Corwin said.

"I don't know what's happening with his acting career. I should check on that."

Dr Corwin said Feznik was fortunate to have fur to cover over his scars.

But the operation, which involved about 25 stitches, still presented its challenges.

"The biggest difference between humans and kangaroos is that the kangaroo has a natural cleft in the middle of the upper lip so the lip doesn't go straight across, it goes up into the nose," Dr Corwin explained.

"If I had been operating on a human we would have just pulled the lip straight across and sewn one side to the other but because we had this cleft in the middle, it made it more difficult to pull this thing across over the tooth, but we managed to do it."

Dr Corwin performed the operation for no fee but he said similar surgery on a person would cost several thousand dollars.

©AAP 2006

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