Cornbread,
Sorry to hear about your calf! DL sent me an e-mail so I came over to look at your pictures. I'd say right now it's probably not a TH calf. The tell-tale sign is by far the lack of abdominal hernia. I think she said you had an ear on the way for us to test to be sure, and that's absolutely fine. So the reason I'm pretty sure it's not a TH calf (I could be wrong, have been before ;D) is this. I have pictures and/or samples on 3 or 4 other calves that look identical to your calf. They are all black with twisted up ankles, again same phenotype as yours We got one when we were working on TH, got the rest when we were doing PHA. I've tested them for both and they were 100% negative for the Improver mutation (the Outcast mutation wipes out so much DNA that it is more than likely an embryonic lethal). They were all negative for PHA as well. Whether this is genetic I don't know, we just don't have enough calves and breeding info to make that conclusion yet. I'm guessing that more than a few times they have been mistaken for TH calves. I'll try to help as much as I can, you can also talk with Dr. B as well. I'd probably e-mail him, as he's on two phones almost all day long.