Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
s~s
~his invention relates to an improved obstetric
device for use in assisting the birth of animals such
as lambs, kids, calves or piglets.
The device o~ the present invention is particularly
5. envisaged for use in situations where the nascent offspring
is alive with its nose and eyes showing through the mouth
of the uterus of the mother animal but where the legs are
reverted or facing backwards in the uterus away from the
normal delivery position. In this situation, the birth
10. of the nascent animal while still alive can prove very
difficult, and is generally done by an operator inserting
:~ a hand through the uterus mouth to pull the nascent animalinto the correct position within the uterus. However,
such procedure subjects the mother animal to considerable
15~ pain and di.scomfort due to the ~act that a human hand is
generally too large to comfortably fit through the pelvis
of most animals to carry out the necessary repositioning
;~ of the nascent animal.
It is the main object of the present invention to
20. provide a simple device which may be readily inserted
into the uterus of the expectant mother and easily
manipulated to grasp a portion of the nascent animal so
as to extract same, and which will considerably enhance
the chances of successfully delivering nascent offspring
25. unharmed and with minimum discom~or-t to the mother.
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., ~
.
Accordlng to this inven-tion therefore, an obstetric
device for assistlng in the birth of animals comprises a
hollow stem having a fork at one end thereof, the said
fork having a first hollow prong which forms an approximate
5. linear extension of said stem and a second hollo~ prong
extending at an angle to said stem, a length of cord or
wire extending into and through said stem from a point
remote from said one end thereof and passing ou-t from one
of said prongs and around to enter the other said prong so
10. as to form a loop between the free ends of the prongs, said
loop lying essentially in a single plane and being offset with
respect tothe central axis of said stem, said cord being arranged
so that, in use, the offset loop can be varied in size by
manipulating the cord externally of the stem.
15. Preferably, said first prong has a length exceeding
the length of said second prong.
In anather preferred arrangement, there is provided
a probe attachable to the free ends of the cord extending
out from the stem, the probe being designed for use as an
20. instrument for applying pressure to the brisket of the
nascent animal. at the locality of the uterus mouth of -the
expectan-t mother to assist in inserting the forked stem
into the uterus.
The present invention will now be described, by way
25. of example only, with reference to the accompanying
drawings wherein:
Fig. 1 is a side elevational v:iew of an obstetric
device according -to thls invention (the do-tted lines at
the orked end of the stem representing different
5. positions of the offset loop),
Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the
line 2 2 of Fig. 1, and
Fig. 3 is an elevational view of an associated
sterilizing container for housing and sterilizing the
10. device of Fig. 1.
In this embodiment, there is shown an obstetric
device 10 comprising a hollow stem 12 of semi-rigid but
flexible material which in this embodiment is polypropylene,
however, any other suitable plastics material can be used.
15. The stem 12 is provided with an aperture or opening 14
communicating with the interior of the stem near one end
thereof. The stem 12 is formed to have a fork 16 at the
other end (head end) thereof. The fork 16 comprises a
first hollow prong 18 which is substantially in axial
200 alignment with and forms an approximate linear extension
o~ the stem 12 and a second hollow prong 20 disposed at
an angle to the hollow stem 12. In this embodiment, the
first prong 1~ has a length which slightly exceeds the
length of the second prong 20.
25. The hollow stem 12 is provided with a polygonally
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shaped base flange 22, the flange being provided with a
pointed corner 23, or some other form of visual indicia
so -that, in usel an operator can readily ascertain the
orientation of the device 10.
5. The device 10 is further provided with a cord 2
which passes into the stem 12 through the opening or
aperture 14 and extends through the interior of the stem
12 and passes out of the open end of the fork prong 16,
around in a loop to enter the open end of the other fork
10. prong 18, back through the interior of the stem and
finally out through the aperture 14. The cord 24 is
preferably formed of plastics material which may be
metal xeinforced to prevent the cord from collapsing or
distorting under body heat.
15. As shown in Fig. 1, the cord 24 forms an offset
loop between the free ends of the prongs 18 and 20, the
size of the loop being able to be readily varied by
appropriately manipulating the cord 24 in the region
beyond the opening 14.
20. In this embodiment~ the free ends of the cord 24
are detachably secured within a hollow probe 26 which is
also formed o~ polypropylene. The probe comprises a short
length o~ tube which is provided with an elliptically
shaped end flanges 28, and a polygonal end flange 29.
25. The wall of the tubular probe 26 is provided with apertures
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through which the cord 2~ may pass :in order to attach the
probe 26 to the hollow stem 12. The attachment of the
probe 26 to the stem 12 is for convenience only and simply
serves to minimise the likelihood of the probe 26 becoming
5. separated from the remainder of the obstetric device lO.
In use, the probe 26 i9 used by the operator to apply
pressure by means of the leading elliptical flange 28, to
the brisket of the nascent animal at -the uterus mouth. This
allows the operator to insert the hollow stem 12 with
10. the for~ 16 leading with minimum resistance or discomfort
so preventing undue stress and pain to the mother animal.
The prong 18 of the forked end 16 of the stem 12
is pushed along a leg of the nascent animal until the
lower Fetlock joint or the cleft of the hoof i5 reached.
15. The operator receives a tactile sensation when this point
is reached. Then the offset loop is adjusted to the size
required to attach the loop to the leg of the nascent
animal with which the first prong 18 is in contact. The
loop is then slipped over the hoof and leg of -the nascent
20. animal, by simply rotating the stem through 180 degrees
and then tightened by withdrawing the cord 24 from the
stem 12. The leg attached to the loop can be returned
or placed to its correct position for delivery of the
nascent animal without injury.
25. Preferably, when increasing the size of the offset
loop, the cord is fed through the prong 18 and ln order
to facilitate this step, the cord 24 is preferably marked
to show which portion of the cord is to be manipulated.
Both forelegs of the nascent animal can be treated
5- independently as described above and then both legs
subsequently gathered in the loop -to further assist in
cases o~ difficult birth. If difficulty is still
experienced the loop can be passed over both foreleys
and the head of the nascent animal. With the use of the
lO. probe 26, the loop can be inserted on top of the nascent
animal's wither, the loop then tightened and the nascent
animal delivered unharmed.
The device of the pxesent invention can also be used
to remove asphyxiated young and so save the life of the
15. mother.
The device can be easily dismantled for sterilization
and by using plastics material components, high hygiene
standards can be maintained. The components are con-
veniently placed in a cylindrical sterilizing container 30
20. for stexilization and transport. The container body may
be ~ormed of transparent durable plastics material, for
example polyvinylchloride, and be provided with a screw-on
lid 32. Following use, the device 10 may be placed in the
container 30 with a suitable sterilizing solution for
25. storage until next required. This is a matter of considerable
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practical importance, since an operator's hands are likely
to be su~ficiently contaminated to risk infection to the
other animal. Also, the container 30 may have slotted
openings 34 for locating st:raps so that it can be con-
5. veniently attached to the handlebars of a motorcycle or
carried on horseback~
As illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawings, the hollowstem 12 is approximately elliptical in cross-section with
the long axis of the ellipse parallel wi.th the plane
10. containing both fork prongs 18 and 20l for minimum
resistance during insertion.
A brief consideration of the above described embodiment
will indicate that the invention is extremely simple but
nevertheless provides a very convenient tool for facilitating
15. births of nascent animals - births which would otherwise
prove difficult to carry out.
