U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,838 describes an animal dosing syringe (for drenching via a nozzle to the throat or by needle for injection). It is in the shape of a gun having a handle at right angles to the nozzle.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,161 describes a multi-barrel dispensing apparatus. The interchangeable components allow change in dosages supplied.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,949 describes a multiple pharmaceutical syringe. It has a number of sterile cartridges containing insulin held within its housing. The cartridges are pierced and fluid flows into an accumulator form which it can be dispensed via a needle assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,057 describes means for dosing dental cartridges—the cartridges are placed in a breech opening and held in place in a syringe gun before the paste is expelled by the operation of a piston operated by a lever or screw action.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,634 shows an ergonomic syringe designed to reduce fatigue and strain in surgical procedures.
US patent application 2008/0058732 describes a hypodermic syringe and a plurality of single use cartridges able to be successively loaded into the syringe for providing rapid dispensing of a medicament to numerous human patients without contamination. It is in the shape of a gun having a trigger at right angles to the cartridge dispenser.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,563 describes a dispenser-gun assembly and dispenser which are operative for dispensing viscous fluids without significant amounts of post extrusion. It is in the shape of a gun having a handle and trigger at right angles to the dispensing nozzle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,642 describes a dispenser adapter apparatus particularly for use in the dental profession, which allows dispensing of multiple types of materials with use of a single dispensing device. It is in the shape of a gun having a trigger at right angles to the dispensing nozzle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,736 describes a closed delivery system for the handling of injectable biological products and vaccines used in the treatment and prevention of livestock diseases. The system embodies a multidose prefilled disposable cartridge and a metered pistol grip syringe body.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,664 relates to a pistol grip syringe apparatus which has a removable container for the fluid to be dispensed from the syringe and a piston which disconnects from a driving rod of the apparatus with the container.
Australian patent 652664 relates to a gun for dispensing discrete doses of a fluid product from a cartridge associated with the gun. The trigger is at right angles to the dispensing cartridge.
It is a common practice for entire dairy herds to be treated with intramammary antibiotics at “drying-off”. Currently, antibiotics are administered via very basic disposable syringes. Each quarter of a cow's udder is treated, so for a herd of 250 cows, this requires 1,000 doses. A common complaint is that existing syringes are awkward to hold, hard to squeeze, and hard on the user's fingers, particularly when used repeatedly during application of more than a few treatments.
With traditional syringes, only two fingers and either the thumb or palm can be used to exert force to administer the contents of the cartridge. Further still, the longitudinal axis of the syringe is aligned parallel with the axis of force applied by the user. Thus, to inject an udder located on the underside of the cow, the administrator must awkwardly contort their body to try to get the syringe needle facing upward, which has proven awkward and exhausting.
Another problem with traditional syringes is the need to inject several teats in a similar position. At present this requires constant manual changing of used syringes, reloading and repositioning of the user to recommence syringing. It is also difficult to know when the whole of the contents of a cartridge have been dispensed.
Visibility of the syringe nozzle during dispensing is also important during intramammary application, for visual guidance. Due to the problems mentioned above it can be very difficult to see the syringe nozzle and guide it to the correct position during application. Another problem is the space confinements under a cow's udder. Some udders hang very low to the ground and teats might also be very close to the animal's leg. Traditional syringes are not very compact and their bulkiness in conjunction with the limited space makes it difficult to successfully manoeuvre the syringe onto any given teat.
A further important aspect of intramammary application is sterility. The syringe must be kept sterile to prevent contamination to teats and cross contamination between the teats of one cow and the teats of other cows, in order to minimise the risk of infection. The design of existing syringes does not make it easy to maintain a sterile environment during intramammary application.
The prior art listed above describes various forms of dispensing devices which are all in the shape of guns having a handle and/or trigger at right angles to the dispensing nozzle of the device. In each of these prior art devices, the longitudinal axis of the syringe cartridge is aligned parallel with the axis of force applied by the user to dispense the contents of the syringe. Although such devices may be suitable for use with human patients who are generally cooperative, and at injection or administration sites which are unencumbered and easy to access, they are not very suitable for administering to areas such as the udder of an animal such as a cow, which is low to the ground and in a confined space, and therefore difficult to access. The administrator must awkwardly contort their body to try to get the dispensing nozzle of the gun facing upward, which is uncomfortable and exhausting, especially as the gun may be bulky and it may be difficult to see and guide the nozzle of the gun to the correct position. Furthermore the animals may be moving or uncooperative, making administration even more difficult.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved device that is easier to use, less exhausting, reliable, compact, inexpensive to manufacture, and/or which minimises the risk of contamination occurring during applications.
In this specification unless the contrary is expressly stated, where a document, act or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge; or known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which this specification is concerned.