Surgery – Means for introducing or removing material from body for... – Treating material introduced into or removed from body...
Patent
1984-12-12
1987-01-20
Pellegrino, Stephen C.
Surgery
Means for introducing or removing material from body for...
Treating material introduced into or removed from body...
604 77, 221197, A61M 518
Patent
active
046378162
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to apparatus for the oral administration of capsules to animals.
The invention is more particularly, but not exclusively, concerned with the administration of medicinal capsules to ruminants such as sheep.
There are known balling guns which operate by mechanically pushing the ball or capsule into the animal's throat. This is a slow and tedious process, and involves the risk of damage to the soft parts of the animal's mouth.
There is a need for an apparatus which enables capsules to be administered to animals quickly and easily, and which enables a number of animals to be dealt with in quick succession.
It has been found, by a study of ruminants, and of sheep in particular, that the mechanics and make-up of the animal's mouth gives it great control over anything taken into the mouth. Food taken into the mouth is transported to the throat area by the forward and backward action of the tongue which compresses the food against the hard palate. The hard palate has backwardly inclined ridges which encourage the food to travel backwards towards the throat. The food is collected at the back of the mouth until swallowing occurs. Swallowing is an automatic process caused generally by pressure on the soft palate. The pressure is exerted either by the build up of food at the back of the animal's mouth or by the large hump-like part of the tongue known as the dorsum. Experiment has shown that the ability of a sheep to manipulate its tongue, and the pliability of the soft palate, makes it very difficult to deposit capsules at the back of the sheep's mouth, in a position where the capsule will be swallowed.
This invention includes apparatus for the oral administration of capsules to animals, comprising a tubular member adapted to be inserted into the animal's mouth so that the tip of the tubular member is near the root of the animal's tongue, means for introducing a capsule into the tubular member and for propelling the capsule to its tip, in which the tip of the tubular member consists of two tip portions extending from the mouth of the tubular member and laterally spaced from one another so as to define a cavity in which a capsule is deposited at the root of the animal's tongue.
In one form of the invention, the tubular member is formed at or near its tip with a convexly curved upper surface adapted to engage the animal's soft palate to encourage a swallowing reaction. The tubular member is formed at or near its tip with a lower surface shaped in a concave curve and adapted to engage the dorsum of the animal's tongue to restrain movement of the dorsum. The tubular member may be formed with a second concave surface adjacent the first concave surface and adapted to engage and restrain movement of the front part of the animal's tongue.
Using the apparatus of the invention, the movement of the animal's tongue can be restrained whilst the capsule is deposited into the cavity formed at the base of the animal's tongue and the animal's soft palate is engaged to encourage a swallowing reaction so as to ensure that the capsule is swallowed.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided apparatus for the oral administration of capsules to animals, comprising a tubular member adapted to be inserted into the animal's mouth so that the tip of the tubular member is near the root of the animal's tongue, means for introducing a capsule into the tubular member and for supplying air or gas under pressure to the tubular member to propel the capsule to its tip, the tip being shaped to release the capsule into the animal's mouth.
The use of gas, which may be air or a non-toxic gas, to propel the capsule ensures that it is administered rapidly with no risk of damage to the animal.
In one embodiment, the tubular member is part of a hand-held gun including a magazine to hold one or more capsules in a portion in which they can be inserted into the tubular member, and the gun is connected to a source of pressurizing gas through a flexible tube, the supply of gas to the tubular member being controlled by a
REFERENCES:
patent: 453508 (1891-06-01), Ruby
patent: 1694246 (1928-12-01), Boyne
patent: 1936437 (1933-11-01), Peters
patent: 2017783 (1935-10-01), Clark
patent: 2722934 (1955-11-01), Brackbill
patent: 2723661 (1955-11-01), Hull
patent: 3192915 (1965-07-01), Norris et al.
patent: 3757781 (1973-09-01), Smart
patent: 3774607 (1973-11-01), Schmitz
patent: 3854478 (1974-12-01), Cunningham
patent: 4004565 (1977-01-01), Fischer et al.
patent: 4474308 (1984-10-01), Bergeron
Dobson Park Industries PLC
Pellegrino Stephen C.
LandOfFree
Apparatus for the oral administration of capsules to animals does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Apparatus for the oral administration of capsules to animals, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Apparatus for the oral administration of capsules to animals will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2133356