Set of Twins with a PHA calf!

Yes it was horrible and yes it was quite the experience!  I just blogged the whole experience with added pictures! Check it out!

www.wvcattlewoman.blogspot.com

Good Story. Great Job. Brent

Thanks it is a story I would have prefered not to been able to tell

wow!   

i hope i never have to go thru something like that, but if i do, because of your story ill have a better idea of how to handle it!  great job!

And they say people no longer need to be educated on lethal recessive defects - just out of curiosity why would you breed a carrier to a carrier?

I didn't,  not purposefully, she was suppose to be bred clean........ there is a neighbor bull that is a Joe Rider son, and the only thing we can come up with is that some how he got in with her and we didn't know it.  Which as farmers we all know is not out of the question!

Titangurl said:

I didn't,  not purposefully, she was suppose to be bred clean........ there is a neighbor bull that is a Joe Rider son, and the only thing we can come up with is that some how he got in with her and we didn't know it.  Which as farmers we all know is not out of the question!

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I gather you AI'ed her - what bull did you use? would be interesting to know if both calves were sired by the same bull - 2 things you know for sure (1) you are real lucky to have a healthy calf and cow and (2) now you know your cow is a PHA carrier - put a chunk of ear (from the PHA calf) in your freezer if down the line you want to determine parentage

(clapping) I think history has been made.  This is probably the first live cow/calf surviving a PHA affected pregnancy.  To keep the calf alive and then deliver the affected calf without C-section and have the cow survive is absolutely unbelievable.  You should be very proud of that accomplishment.  At my place, it would have been 0 for 3!

DL - we AI'd her to Salute, yes hindsite being 20/20 I should have frozen a chunk of the carrier calf to determine parentage. As far as being a carrier now I just need to get her TH tested!

Veritas- Thank you for the compliment!  I really wish this wouldn't have happened but I'm lucky that I still do have the cow and calf!  We decided just to go ahead and raise the calf ourselves and let the cow recover as you can imagine she is a sack of bones.  Plus Millie ( the survior) is to little to b on her own and doesn't have a true hair coat quite yet, so still a little too cold.  I'm glad as well I didn't have to do a c-section because so far the only cost I'm out is the milk replacer no vet charge!

Titangurl said:

DL - we AI'd her to Salute, yes hindsite being 20/20 I should have frozen a chunk of the carrier calf to determine parentage. As far as being a carrier now I just need to get her TH tested!

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if you buried it, just go get some hair roots.  should still be good.

I'll try that!

WOW that's about the same thing i went though on March 22 we had a cow have a very deformed calf  of course born dead and we had to use the puller, she didn't look like she could have twins didn't check her got her out of the chute and then water bag and then we got her back in the chute and pulled the other calf and it was very small but alive. The cow is trying to still recover but she is doing well and so is the calf. Hope the cow recovers for you.

O wow was it a shorthorn??

Salute is pha positive?

No he is clean we think at some how the neighbors Joe rider son got in with her we r doing bloodtesting to make sure.

What is a normal Salute calf birth weight? Are you sure it was deformed?

Did you look at the pics??? I pulled two buckets of water out of him, his head was the size of a watermelon, his sack was the size of my wallet!  I hope he was deformed!  O0

Yeah aj pretty much your typical PHA calf - you know the bloated pig look

tg - sounds like the  PHA calf a male - so you may have a free marten on your hands .....what a story

Yes the pha calf is a male so more than likely I do have a free Martin unfortunately but we will have her tested.  If she is she'll be a pretty lawn ornament

This is EXACTLY the reason I INSIST on all animals DNA tested for ALL defects when I purchase. "Clean by pedigree" translates to me as "Too cheap to test, and really do not want to know. Plus I am hiding something...."  Seems pedigrees get "mislabeled" for many different reasons (want clean pedigree, wrong straw, not AI'd vs. bull sired, neighbors bulls, want the "popular" sire, etc, etc, etc) 
Again, if an animal is worth purchasing, it is worth the extra few bucks to DNA them. Just think of all of these types of disasters that could be avoided.