Method of using a support anchor for the vagina of a mammalian female

An anchor device for mounting a temperature sensing and transmission system within the vagina of a mammalian female such as a beef cow comprises a cylindrical body formed by a thin wall having an opening at one end into which the telemetry device can be inserted. Two sets of four fingers are arranged at axially spaced positions extending outwardly from the body wall at positions spaced from the ends of the body. The fingers are relatively rigid and extend substantially directly outwardly substantially at right angles to the longitudinal axis. Each finger has a convex outer end which is arranged to engage the inner wall of the vagina and is arranged to avoid irritation of the flesh. The relatively large spaces between the fingers allows the ready communication of fluids longitudinally of the vagina as are required for normal functioning and for artificial insemination.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to an anchor device for supporting an element within 
the vagina of a mammalian female. 
The present invention is particularly, but not exclusively concerned with 
the mounting in a suitable location on a mammalian female of a temperature 
monitoring device which can be used to detect temperature changes 
indicative of estrus of the female to enable accurate timing of artificial 
insemination. 
However the anchor device with which the present invention is concerned may 
be used for other purposes such as other telemetry devices or for drug 
release. 
It is known that temperature changes can be used to predict the occurance 
of estrus in mammalian females. In cows a rise in temperature of 0.3 to 
0.8 degrees celcius is usually found at estrus. Estrus has a duration of 
eight to twelve hours and occurs at roughly twenty one day intervals. If 
the cow does not conceive at first insemination, it is necessary to 
inseminate again at successive estrus until the cow does conceive. For 
this reason it is often necessary to continuously monitor the vagina 
temperature of the cow (to predict the occurance of estrus) for prolonged 
periods of time. Because vagina temperature varies due to factors other 
than estrus, it is necessary to compare vagina temperature to the rolling 
average of temperature for some days previous in order to make a decision 
as to whether the rise in temperature is significant. 
Other devices are available for detecting estrus and one example comprises 
a pedometer which detects increases in animal movement which are also 
indicative of estrus. Other techniques for detection in the past have 
involved visual observation of the cow behaviour or the use of marker 
bulls which result in colour marking of the cow upon mounting by the bull 
during estrus. In some cases the level of progesterone hormone in the milk 
can be indicative of estrus.. Also some milking machines measure milk 
temperature and some claims are made that milk temperature can be used to 
predict the time of estrus. No commercial use of this method has 
apparently occurred. 
Attempts have been made to manufacture an anchor device which can be 
located within the vagina of the mammalian female such as a cow. One 
example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,724 (Zartman) and in U.S. Pat. No. 
4,377,157 also of Zartman. These devices cannot support a telemetry device 
of a type comprising a radio transmitter of sufficient dimension to 
provide a receivable signal over a sufficient distance to enable continual 
monitoring of the temperature. A further device is known as the Heigro 
device (Agrophysics, San Francisco, Calif.) which was designed for long 
term residence in the heifer's vagina. In addition to these devices being 
unable to receive and support an element of sufficient size for remote 
telemetry, there is a severe danger that these devices will be expelled 
and in some examples up to fourty percent were expelled within the first 
month. It will be appreciated that in order for these devices to be 
commercially viable, it is necessary that the device remain in place for 
significant periods of time and also be reusable without the loss or 
damage which can occur if the device is expelled. 
Up till now, therefore, there has been no anchor device available which 
enables the relatively large transmitter necessary for continual 
monitoring to be mounted within the vagina of the mammalian female and 
which enables the device to remain in position for extended periods of 
time. 
In some cases this problem has been overcome by surgical techniques in 
which the telemetry device is mounted within an incision in the animal. 
This is of course however disadvantageous in that the surgical invasion is 
expensive and time consuming and is open to infection. 
Attempts have also been made to detect temperature changes by a measuring 
device attached to the ear skin of the animal. However it has not been 
proven that ear skin temperature can be used to effectively detect estrus. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is one objective of the present invention, therefore to provide an 
anchor device for anchoring an element within the vagina of a mammalian 
female. 
According to the invention, therefore, there is provided an anchor device 
for supporting an element within the vagina of a mammalian female, the 
device comprising a body portion having an opening therein for receiving 
the element to be supported and a plurality of flexible fingers projecting 
outwardly from the body portion, the fingers being arranged at angularly 
spaced positions around the body portion, the fingers having outer ends 
arranged to engage the vaginal wall without irritation, the fingers being 
spaced and arranged so as to hold the body portion at a position spaced 
from the vaginal wall and to allow material to pass longitudinally out of 
the vagina past the body portion between the fingers. 
The vaginal anchor can be manufactured from a suitable flexible plastics 
material such as plastisol which is used to define a central body portion 
which encases a radio transmitter to allow permanent placement of the 
radio transmitter in the vagina of a cow or other mammalian female such as 
the horse, pig and in some cases more exotic zoological animals. The 
device generally consists of a hollow body from which a numerous flexible 
finger projections protrude. The finger projections are situated in such a 
manner that the anchor exterior shape is essentially spherical. In one 
example the finger projections are eight millimeters in diameter and the 
finger projection tips are convexly rounded. In one example the length of 
the fingers can be 30 to 34 millimeters. In a second example the finger 
projections are of 24 to 28 millimeters in length. The length of the 
fingers will of course vary depending upon the dimensions of the animal 
involved. 
The anchor is manufactured from plastisol or other residual plastics 
material which is non irritating to the animal tissue. 
One example of a suitable radio transmitter is manufactured by Wildlife 
Materials Inc. of Carbondale Ill., and this can be directly inserted into 
the hollow body of the anchor as a sliding fit. In the insertion process, 
the anchor is soaked for twenty minutes in a sterilizing solution and is 
warmed to body temperature to increase the finger projection flexibility. 
The device is then manually inserted into the cow vagina. For insertion 
the technician encases the anchor transmitter in the hand with the finger 
projections bent rearwardly toward the body of the anchor. The anchor is 
then deposited in the vagina against or adjacent the cervix. When released 
the fingers return by natural elasticity to the initial position 
projecting generally directly outwardly from the central body. 
The use of the finger projections are non-irritating to animal tissue 
within the vagina and also prevents the expulsion of the device. 
Each radio transmitter is designed to emit a unique radio signal which 
indicates the cow identity and the vaginal temperature. These signals are 
emitted at five minute intervals and are received by a receiver/computer 
unit which makes the record of the cow identity, temperature and time of 
day that the signal is received. The temperature values are used to 
predict the occurance of estrus in the cow. A rise in temperature of 0.3 
to 0.8 degrees celcius is usually found at estrus. When estrus is 
detected, the cow is inseminated by artificial insemination. 
The positioning, spacing and length of the fingers supports the body away 
from the wall of the vagina allowing material to pass through the vagina 
longitudinally between the fingers. In this way the normal flow of 
materials such as mucous in the outward direction can occur and in 
addition the artifical insemination can be carried out with the device in 
place. 
The anchor device can be used with a telemetry element to measure vaginal 
temperature of dairy cows and other mammals for estrus detection and also 
for reasons other than the detection of estrus. Continuous temperature 
measurement of financially valuable female livestock, for example race 
horses, could help in the detection of disease at the sub clinical level. 
Also the device could be used as a parturition alarm. With the onset of 
labour the transmitter and anchor unit would be expelled from the vagina 
and the resulting dramatic drop in recorded temperature could trigger an 
alarm which would alert the animal attendant. This will be particularly 
useful in a swine operation or where any financially valuable animal is 
about to deliver and where an unassisted labour is undesirable. 
One or more embodiments of the invention will now be described in 
conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
The anatomy of the dairy cow shown in FIG. 1 and the various elements of 
the anatomy are indicated on the schematic illustration. The vagina 
includes a vaginal wall 10 leading to the cervix and the device according 
to the present invention is generally indicated at 12 and is mounted 
within the vagina in contact with the vaginal wall at a position partway 
along the vaginal wall and spaced outwardly from the cervix. 
The device is shown best in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 and comprises a main body 
portion 14 and a plurality of outwardly projecting fingers 15. 
The main body portion 14 comprises an elongate cylindrical body of a thin 
wall 16 generally of circular cross-section as best shown in FIG. 4. The 
cylindrical wall 16 includes a forward end 17 and a rearward end 18. The 
forward end 17 is generally convex in shape and is fully closed. The 
rearward end 18 defines an opening 19 into which the telemetry element 20 
can be inserted as a sliding fit within the cylindrical wall 16. 
The telemetry element 20 is of a conventional design manufactured by 
Wildlife Materials Inc., Carbondale, IL which is commercially available. 
The telemetry element includes a temperature sensing device, an encoding 
system for transmitting a signal indicative of the animal concerned 
together with a signal indicative of the detected temperature, and a 
transmission system of a type for transmitting the signal over a distance 
of at least of the order of fifty and preferably of the order of 60 
meters. The telemetry device yet further includes the necessary battery 
power and an antenna for the long distance transmission system. The 
electronic components are potted within a suitable potting material so as 
to form a device which is resistant to corrosion or contamination by 
moisture. The complete element defines a generally cylindrical body of a 
length of the order of 2.5 inches and a diameter of the order of one inch. 
The dimensions of the cylindrical wall 16 are arranged to just receive the 
element as a sliding fit therein in contact with the inside surface of the 
wall 16 so as to hold the element permanently in place but removable from 
the hollow interior of the body as required for service. 
The hollow wall 16 of the body is formed from a suitable plastics material 
such as plastisol which is a medically acceptable plastics material and 
provides a relatively flexible structure in the form of a collapsible 
sheath which can to some extent stretch as required to receive the element 
therein and to allow some flexing of the fingers as discussed hereinafter. 
Each of the fingers 15 is generally cylindrical in shape of a circular 
cross section. Each of the fingers is attached at its inner end to the 
wall 16. In a prototype laboratory model of the device, the fingers can be 
attached by the provision of a flat disc at the inner end of each of the 
fingers with the finger passing through a hole in the wall 16 to allow the 
disc to abut against the inside surface of the wall. In a preferred model 
suitable for commercial manufacture, the fingers are integrally molded 
with the wall 16 so that the base of the finger is integral with the wall 
allowing some flexing of the finger by distortion of the wall 16. 
Each of the fingers 15 is similarly formed by molding from a suitable 
plastics material such as plastisol which again allows some flexibility 
and provides a medically acceptable plastics material for contacting the 
tissue of the animal. 
Each of the fingers 15 is somewhat rigid so that it allows only a limited 
amount of flexing from the normal substantially radial position to a 
flexed position shown in FIG. 3 in which the finger turns approximately 
through 90.degree. to lie closer to the body 14 but spaced outwardly 
therefrom. 
Each of the fingers 15 includes a convexly curved outer end 21. The 
convexly curved end 21 lies transverse to a longitudinal axis of the 
finger so that with the finger extending generally radially outwardly from 
the cylindrical body, the longitudinal axis of the finger lies 
substantially at right angles to an axis 22 of the body with the outer 
convex surface 21 lying generally parallel to the axis 22. Thus the 
fingers stand generally outwardly from the body with the outer convex ends 
21 in contact with the inner surface 32 of the vagina of the animal. 
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, in the normal inserted position, the fingers 
stand substantially straight out from the body with very little flexing. 
Thus each finger contacts the inside surface 32 and to some extent 
depresses the surface 32 to engage the tissue of the animal to hold the 
device in place. 
In one example the diameter of each of the fingers is of the order of 8 
millimeters (0.3 inches) leading to a surface area at the end of the 
finger which is 0.071 square inches. Preferably the diameter of the outer 
end of the finger lies in the range 1/8 to 1/2 inches thus leading to a 
contact area lying in the range 0.0122 to 0.196 square inches. A contact 
area of this dimension is unlikely to lead to irritation of the surface 32 
provided the length of the fingers is selected relative to the size of the 
animal to provide only a slight indentation of the surface but of course 
to maintain contact with the surface to prevent expulsion of the device. 
The fingers 15 are arranged in two sets of fingers indicated generally at 
24 and 25. These sets are spaced axially of the body so that one set 24 is 
arranged adjacent the end 18 and the second set 25 is arranged adjacent 
the end 17. Within each set of fingers the individual finger may vary in 
distance from the ends 18 and 17 with a minimum distance of 1/2" and a 
maximum distance of 1". Because both sets are spaced inwardly from the 
respective end, an imaginary surface including the ends 17 and 18 of the 
body and the ends 21 of the fingers lies substantially on a sphere 
surrounding a centre of the body lying on the axis 22. 
Each of the sets 24 and 25 includes four fingers arranged at right angles 
so that in FIG. 4 the set 24 is shown in cross section and the set 25 is 
shown set back from the cross section. Also as shown in FIG. 4, the 
fingers of the set 25 are rotated around the axis 22 by an angle of 
45.degree. so that they are offset from the fingers of the set 24. 
The number of fingers in each set can be varied but a minimum of two such 
fingers is required to locate each end of the body relative to the surface 
32 to hold the axis 22 of the body substantially centrally of the surface 
32. The fingers at each position are also arranged equiangularly spaced so 
as to be symmetrical around the axis 22. Thus the minimum number of 
fingers at each position would be two arranged at 180.degree. spacing. In 
the embodiment shown there are four such fingers arranged at 90.degree. 
spacing. Yet further fingers could be included up to a maximum of five. 
However the number of fingers is maintained so that each finger is 
attached separately to the body 14 at the wall 16 leaving some material of 
the wall 16 between each finger and the next adjacent finger to allow 
individual flexing of the fingers. Thus the fingers are formed separately 
and do not form of a spider structure carried by the body. As shown in 
FIG. 4, therefore the bases of the fingers lie on a circle surrounding the 
element 20 so as to leave enough room for the element 20 to be inserted 
inside the fingers. 
The device as described above provides an anchor device for a remote 
telemetry device or the like which effectively anchors the telemetry 
device within the vagina of the animal for use over an extended period of 
time without expulsion of the device by the muscular action of the animal. 
The device is wholly manufactured from a medically acceptable plastics 
material such as plastisol. The design of the device enables the device to 
be manufactured with different length of fingers for different dimensions 
of animal. The design of the device enables a relatively large element to 
be received within the hollow body to allow transmission of signals over a 
relatively large range up to sixty meters so that the animal can be 
continually detected rather than detected only at specific times when it 
is closely adjacent a receiving station. 
The limited number of large relatively rounded fingers ensures that the 
device while residing permanently in the vagina does not irritate the 
tissue of the animal which could otherwise interfere with the estrous 
cycle. The spacing between the fingers is relatively large both at the 
central body and at the surface 32 of the vagina allowing ready 
transmission of fluids longitudinally out of the vagina which is necessary 
for mucous flow and passage is also necessary for the artificial 
insemination process. 
Although the fingers are arranged to extend outwardly from the body 
substantially at right angles to the axis 22, the fingers may have a 
slight rearward inclination as best shown in FIG. 2. This inclination lies 
in the range 0 to 15 degrees and may assist in preventing expulsion of the 
device and also in allowing flexing of the fingers in cases where the 
outer diameter of the fingers is slightly large for the particular animal 
However in all cases the outer surface of the fingers faces generally 
outwardly away from the body as opposed to a "christmas tree" effect. 
Suitable receiving and decoding equipment can be used to analyze the data 
received from the animal. Each transmitter sends a unique identification 
signal at a common frequency. Signals are transmitted at regularly spaced 
time intervals much smaller than daily that is a plurality of times per 
hour and preferably at a time period of approximately every four minutes. 
A receiving antennae is placed with 60 meters of the location of monitored 
animals. This allows the animals to be monitored substantially 
continuously as opposed to daily which is only possible with short 
distance transmitters. In such a case the animal is only monitored as it 
passes a monitoring station for example at milking, in which case the 
detection period may be too course to detect estrus which can last less 
than twenty four hours. The signals are received and decoded using 
programs which will be apparent to one skilled in the art. 
Since various modifications can be made in my invention as hereinabove 
described, and many apparently widely different embodiments of same made 
within the spirit and scope of the claims without departing from such 
spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter contained in the 
accompanying specification shall be interpreted as illustrative only and 
not in a limiting sense.