This document lists and provides brief descriptions of various veterinary instruments used for different purposes such as surgery, dentistry, obstetrics/reproduction, and animal identification/procedures. It includes forceps, retractors, scalpels, scissors, needles, speculums, dehorning/castration tools, and more for both small and large animal use. The instruments are organized by type and each has a 1-2 sentence description of its intended use.

1. Veterinary Instruments

2. Hartmann Alligator Forceps
 Used for removing foreign
material from the ear canal

3. Gelpi Retractor
 Self retaining
 Most often used in
orthopedic and neuro
surgeries

4. Army Navy retractor
 Double ended, smooth
blade
 Used to retract skin, fat
and muscle

5. Senn Rake Retractor
 Hand held retracts soft
tissues

6. Balfour retractor
 Self retaining
 Holds open incision site
 Comes in larger size to
hold open body wall for
laparotomy

7. Suture scissor
 Utilizes hook to go under
suture and cut for removal

8. Mayo scissor
 Used to cut tissue or for
blunt dissection

9. Iris scissor
 For delicate dissection,
very small and sharp

10. Bandage Scissor
 Cuts bandage material

11. Scalpel blade holder
 Holds scalpel blade

12. Kely Hemostatic forcep (clamp)
 Used to clamp off bleeding
vessels or vascular tissues
 Grooves perpendicular and
halfway down the blade

13. Crile Hemostat
 Used to clamp small to
medium sized blood
vessels

14. Babcock Tissue Forceps
 Used to grasp delicate
tissues without damaging
them like intestines, uterus
etc.

15. Mosquito hemostat
 Curved or straight, used to
clamp small blood vessels

16. Rochester Carmalt Clamps ( forceps)
 Used to clamp blood
vessels and large tissues
 Grooves on blade surfaces
that run in the same
direction as length of
blades

17. Rochester Pean forceps
 Used to clamp large tissue
bundles

18. Metzenbaum scissors
 Used to cut delicate tissue
 Used for blunt dissection

19. Spay hook
 Used to “hook” the uterine
horn for spay

20. Brown-adson forceps
 Very fine teeth at the edge
 Used to grasp delicate
tissues

21. Rat tooth forceps
 Grasping forceps
 Good tissue grip with
minimal damage to the
tissue

22. Allis Tissue forceps
 Sharp teeth at the ends
 Grasp tissue that will be
removed

23. Mayo – Hegar Needle Holder
 Drives suture through the
tissue but does not have
the scissors

24. Backhaus Towel Clamps
 Clamp surgical towels to
patient to keep them in
place for sterile surgical
field

25. Olsen-Hegar Needle holder with scissor
 Holds the needle for
suturing and can cut the
suture

26. Probe
 Used to measure pocket
depth

27. Manual descalers
2 types
1. scalers- descaling outside
gingival pocket, pointed
tip
2. Curette- used for inside
and outside of gingival
pocket, rounded tip

28. Extraction forceps
 Used to grip tooth to
extract
 Only used after the tooth is
loosened

29. Shepherd’s hook
 Check for open pulp
cavitites
 Check tooth for roughness
 Explore dental pockets

30. Elevator
 Used to break the ligament
and loosen the tooth for
removal

31. Calculus removal forceps
 Used to remove gross
calculus , large amounts of
tartar

32. Root tip pick
 Various sizes used to
remove root tips

33. Periosteal elevator
 Used to scrape gingiva or
oral mucosa off bone
 Flat sharp edge and
rounded back to detach
mucosa or periosteum
from bone

34. Bone curette
 Used to clean out sockets
after removing infected
roots with its spoon shaped
end

35. Mouth gag
 Holds mouth open

36. Polisher

37. drill

38. Ultrasonic scaler

39. Large Animal Instruments

40. Hoof Knife
Trimming sole, heel and wall
of hoof

41. Hoof nippers
 For nipping the hoof wall

42. Nail Cinchers
 Cinching over nails that
protrude from the hoof wall

43. Hoof Rasp
 Rasping nail clinches and
hoof wall

44. Clinch cutter
 Cutting the clinches in the
nails on the hoof wall
before removal of the shoe

45. Shoe pullers
 Pulling horse shoes from
the hoof

46. Hoof tester
 Puts pressure across
different parts of the hoof
trying to elicit pain
response during a
lameness exam

47. Hoof parer
 Roughly shapes the hoof
wall

48. Square Hoof Trimmer
 Mainly used to trim cattle
feet but can be used on
horses and swine

49. Burdizzo
 Trimming sheep and goat
feet

50. Rusher mouth speculum
 Wedge between pre
molars to keep the mouth
open for inspection

51. Frick oral speculum
 Used for passing stomach
tube or bolus

52. Balling gun
 Placed in line with the
esophagus in the buccal
cavity for passing a bolus
(pill)

53. Emont speculum
 Stomach tube speculum

54. Moore obstetrical chain and handle
 In cattle and horses to put
additional traction on the
fetus during a forced
extraction

55. Western Obstetrical Snare
 Used to bring fetus in to
normal position for birth.
Not used to pull the fetus

56. Caslick vaginal speculum
 Used in cattle and horses

57. Pelvic chisel
 Used to split uncalcified
pubic symphysis in heifers
24 months of age or
younger to widen the pelvic
canal

58. Cornell detorsion rod
 Connected to front legs of
fetus by an OB chain to
rotate the the UTERUS to
its normal position

59. Wiltman Fetal Extractor “calf jack”
 Fetal extractor for traction
and leverage when
delivering the calf

60. OB Hook
 Can have a blunt end (
used on live animal) or
sharp end ( used on dead
animal) with Moore OB
chain to aid in delivery of a
fetus

61. Fetotomy Knife
 Used to dissect a fetus
during fetotomy to remove
from the uterus

62. Obstetrical wire saw and handle
 Works for fetotomies,
dehorning, claw
amputations and cast
removal
 Called a GIGLI wire

63. Fetotome
 Protects vagina and uterus
from being cut by the OB
wire during a fetotomy
 Wire is passed through it
with a wire threader

64. Burdizzo Emasculatome
 Used for bloodless or close
d scrotum castrations
 Crushes the spermatic
cord without destroying
blood supply to the testicle
 Can be used to dock tails

65. Newberry Castrator
 Used for castrating cattle
 Cuts through lower 1/3 of
scrotum and the testicle is
removed by hand

66. White’s improved emasculator
 Used primarily for equine
castrations
 Only one row of teeth with
crushing/cutting action on
the spermatic cord

67. Serra Emasculator
 Used primarily for equine
castrations but can be
used for older bovine and
porcine
 3 rows of cutting/crushing
teeth to completely crush
blood vessels of spermatic
cord to minimize
hemorrhage and remove
testicle

68. Elastrator
 Used for castrations and
docking tails

69. Tracheotomy tube
 Used to maintain artificial
airway in cattle and horses
 Emergency equipment

70. Stallion Urinary Catheter
 Used to get a urine sample
or infuse medication

71. Spinal needle
 To collect spinal fluid or
inject anesthetic agent

72. Hip sling
 Clamped over tuber coxae
of cattle used to lift them to
their feet
 Only used for short period
of time

73. Dental float
 Used to file the points off
molars of horses

74. Automatic repeat syringe
 Delivers consistent amount
of liquid at each injection

75. Cattle trocar
 Last resort to relieve bloat
in bovine
 Stabbed through
paralumbar fossa into the
rumen
 Allows the gas to escape

76. Mammary infusion tube
 Infuse udder through the
teat canal
 Drain mastitic quarter
 Flush abcsess or keep teat
canal sphincter open

77. Taped teat dilator
 Used to stretch teat
sphincter

78. Udall teat bistoury
 Used to open stenotic
teats by cutting through
scar tissue

79. Cornell Curette
 Passed up the teat to cut
away scar tissues or
nodules

80. Hugg’s teat tumor extractor
 Used to remove tumors or
other tissue from the streak
canal or teat lumen

81. Krey’s obstetrical tongs
 Used to remove dead fetus
or its parts

82. Dose syringe
 Used to give oral liquid
meds

83. Stomach pump
 To aspirate liquids

84. Metal ear tag plier
 Used to place metal ID tag
in animals ear
 Used on cattle and sheep

85. Tattoo plier
 Used to put permanent
tattoo in animal’s ear

86. Ear Notching punch
 Used to cut triangular
notch in ear, usually swine

87. Electric Calf Dehorner
 Cauterizes tissue around
base of horn button

88. Tube calf dehorner
 Used to gouge out the horn
bud on small calves

89. Barnes Dehorner
 Cupped cutting blades
which cut off the skull to
which the horn is attached

90. Keystone dehorner
 Used to dehorn cattle
whose horns are too large
for Barnes dehorners

91. Dehorning saw
 Used to cut off horns too
large for Keystone
dehorner

92. Implant gun
 used to deposit a growth
stimulant pill SQ in ear