Balling gun

• US 3,934,584 A
• Filed: 09/26/1973
• Issued: 01/27/1976
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/1973
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nicholas N. Corio
• Original Assignee: Nicholas N. Corio
• Inventors: Corio, Nicholas N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaudet, Richard A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Opitz, Rick
• Application Number:
  US05/401,037
• Time in Patent Office: 853 Days
• Field of Search: 128/223, 128/222, 128/264, 128/217, 128/261, 128/263, 128/237, 128/238, 128/127, 128/130, 221/232, 221/268, 221/279, 222/256
• US Class Current: 604/59
• CPC Class Codes: A61D 7/00 Devices or methods for introducing solid, liquid, or gaseous remedies or other materials into or onto the bodies of animals for reproduction or fertilisation A61D19/00 ; devices for implanting pellets, radon seeds or the like A61M37/0069
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 31/00 Devices for introducing or retaining media, e.g. remedies, in cavities of the body A61M25/00 takes precedence ; introducing or retaining ophthalmic products into the ocular cavities A61F9/0008

Abstract

A thumb operated balling gun for discharging a bolus within the throat of an aminal is disclosed. A plunger, responsive to the movement of an operator'"'"'s thumb, is axially slidable within a barrel having a plurality of resilient arms extending therefrom. The resilient arms, in combination with the barrel, are particularly configured to avoid damaging the delicate tissues within the mouth and the throat of the animal. A collar, circumscribing the plunger and contacting the interior surface of the resilient arms on retraction of the plunger forces the resilient arms to open and permit insertion of a bolus within the grasp of the arms. After insertion of the bolus, slight extension of the plunger disassociates the collar from the arms, whereby the latter close upon the bolus and retain it in place. Further extension of the plunger ejects the bolus from within the grasp of the arms and into the throat of the animal.

The present invention relates to medicinal dispensing apparatus, and, more particularly, to balling guns.

Balling guns have been and are presently extensively used by veterinarians, farmers, and others for administering medicinal cartridges of one form or another to livestock and other domestic animals. The medicinal cartridges may contain vitamins or curative medicines or a combination thereof. To provide for a range of cartridge size without requiring several different sized balling guns, an expandable mechanism has been incorporated at the extremity of the balling gun. In example, U.S. Ser. No. 453,508, teaches the use of a pair of oppositely disposed spring arms for engaging a bolus. Normally, the animal will struggle to some extent when the balling gun is inserted into the animal'"'"'s mouth and throat. During such a struggle, it is not unusual for the bolus to become disengaged from in between the spring arms as the latter only exert a retaining force in one lateral direction.

To minimize the loss of the cartridge during insertion into the animal'"'"'s throat, balling guns were developed to include an open ended cylinder mounted at the extremity of a long handle and adapted to receive the cartridges, or boluses. The handle was used to position the cylinder within the throat of the animal. Means were also included for ejecting the bolus from within the cylinder into the animal'"'"'s throat. As the cylinders were configured to receive a bolus of a specified size, larger or smaller boluses could not be conveyed by the cylinder, or might have inadvertently fallen out of the cylinder during the insertion of the cylinder into the animal'"'"'s throat. For these reasons, it was generally necessary to purchase the boluses from a specified manufacturer who made the boluses in a specific size to fit the cylinder of the balling gun. In the alternative, the cylinder was made detachable whereby a plurality of different sized cylinders could be attached to accommodate different sized boluses. Examples of such devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,325,699, 1,868,308, 2,170,599, 2,601,852, 2,621,655, 2,650,593 and 3,238,941.

In an effort to incorporate the beneficial features of resilient arms, which are adaptable to various sized medicinal cartridges or boluses, and cylinders, which cylinders reasonably firmly protected the cartridge against dislodgement, a balling gun incorporating both features was developed, as shown in United States Pat. No. 2,587,364. This device, while satisfactorily retaining and ejecting the bolus, required that the bolus retaining mechanism be of substantially greater cross-sectional area than that of the bolus.

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a balling gun useable with variously sized boluses.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a balling gun of minimum cross-sectional area.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a balling gun which will prevent lateral displacement of a bolus during insertion of the bolus into an animal'"'"'s throat.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a balling gun which may be operated with one hand.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a balling gun with automatically opening resilient arms to receive a bolus.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a balling gun having contracted resilient arms during withdrawal of the balling gun from the animal'"'"'s throat.

These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as the description thereof proceeds.

Claims

1. A balling gun for administering a bolus within the throat of an animal, said balling gun comprising:

a. an elongated barrel having a plurality of resilient arms disposed at one end thereof for grasping the bolus;

b. said arms having inner surfaces which define a space within said gun to receive a bolus through an opening located at the end of the arms,

c. a plunger extending through the other end of said barrel and slidably mounted for axial movement within said barrel with one end extending within the space defined by said arms;

d. expansion means located within said space and secured to said plunger for engagement with a portion of said inner surfaces extending directly from said one end of the barrel with said portion being inclined with respect to the longitudinal axis and toward said other end of the barrel,

e. said expansion means being effective to radially expand said arms in response to axial movement of said plunger toward said other end.

2. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said resilient arms comprise at least three arms, said at least three arms being equiangularly disposed about the longtiudinal axis of said barrel.

3. The apparatus as set forth in claim 2 wherein said barrel is split into four arms.

4. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including finger grip means extending lateral to said barrel and a thumb grip connected to the other end of said plunger;

whereby, said balling gun can be grasped and operated with one hand.

5. The apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein said thumb grip includes a hollow shaft slidably disposed within said other end of said barrel.

6. The apparatus as set forth in claim 5 wherein the ends of said arms are smoothly rounded to preclude injury to the animal'"'"'s mouth and throat.

7. The apparatus as set forth in claim 6 wherein the longitudinal surface of each of said arms is smoothly rounded to preclude injury to the animal'"'"'s mouth and throat.

8. The apparatus as set forth in claim 5 wherein said arms are tapered toward said one end of said barrel to permit said arms to contract and define a cross-sectional area less than the cross-sectional area of said barrel.

9. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said expansion means comprises a collar secured about said plunger,

said collar having a diameter greater than the inside diameter of the barrel.

10. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including means for effecting axial movement of said plunger.