Nature is Fascinating!!!!!!

 

It’s Monday, which means, that we have our scheduled Monday morning Doctors meeting. This is a meeting where we discuss schedule changes, specific cases, and other various veterinary topics. I work in a 5 veterinarian clinic. Currently Dr. Shelly is on maternity leave, which leaves Dr. Erin, Dr. Sonya, Dr. Melissa and I to share emergency duties. Unlike many small animal veterinary clinics, which utilize an “Emergency Clinic,” large animal veterinary clinics provide emergency services to their clients 24/7/365. Dr. Sonya was on call for the weekend, and was called for a calving this morning at 6:30am, therefore having to miss our Monday morning meeting.  

When we are called to “calvings”, it means that for some reason, the cow is having difficulty having the calf and the farmer has tried to assist, but feels that it is beyond their scope of experience.  When we arrive at the farm, we want to be as clean as possible and assess the situation. Using a disinfectant, we wash the cow’s vagina and then put on a shoulder-length glove to ensure we do not introduce any bacteria into the birth canal. Dr. Sonya noticed that in this particular case, she was feeling two noses.  After much discussion with the farmer, they decided on a performing a C-section. I was called into assist with the surgery as it is very difficult to pull a 100 pound calf out of a 1200 pound cow, while she is standing up.

The cow was sedated, clipped, surgically scrubbed, and blocked (aka numbed) with lidocaine so she did not feel the incision. One of the hardest parts of the surgery is to get the uterus over to the incision site without intestines and the stomach getting in the way.  We really try to minimize the amount of amniotic fluid that enters the abdomen of the cow, so we try to exteriorize the uterus as much as possible.  Bloody picture coming, if you have a weak stomach!!!!!

Normally a calf comes out with both front feet and the head first. Kind of like diving into a pool… That being said, when we do a C-section, we are searching for the back legs of the calf.  We found the back leg of the calf, opened the uterus and then pulled the calf out of our incision by both back legs.  The calf was normal up until the neck. IT HAD TWO HEADS!!!!!  And was ALIVE!!!!

 

There were two mouths, 4 eyes, but only 2 ears.  This is another genetic anomaly. There is no hormones, or antibiotics or any "drug" we give to cows that causes this. We don’t really know why it happens, but our thought is that the fetus started to split into twins, as an embryo, but never finished.  Many times, these anomalies die and are reabsorbed by the cow, before even coming close to full term. This calf was still alive, which is unusual.  The head was really heavy and he was unable to hold his head up. Calves are precocious animals, therefore can see, hold their head up and walk within minutes of being born.

 The farmer was going to try to feed it with a bottle to see which mouth it could drink out of. It apparently could drink out of the right side. Usually there is really only one truly functional side.  Based on the difficulty of being able to hold his head up and therefore walking, and future issues with balance, eating and overall survivability; this calf will be humanely euthanized.  Mom is doing fine and as you can see in the pictures, is resting comfortably next to her baby.  These occurrences are few and far between. Some people think I’m crazy, but I do find these anomalies so cool!!!!