any opinions welcome

Help Support Steer Planet:

CAB

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
5,607
Location
Corning,Iowa
Sire's Canadian reg. # 1332064 / Dam's US. registration # 1433367. Red Angus. Depending on which gestation chart you use the calf was born 2 to 4 days early. Pictures are of the front & back legs plus a shot of the whole calf.
 

Attachments

  • Calf 2.jpg
    Calf 2.jpg
    142.3 KB · Views: 521
  • Calf 1.jpg
    Calf 1.jpg
    155.4 KB · Views: 525
  • Calf 3.jpg
    Calf 3.jpg
    140.1 KB · Views: 509

jbzdad

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Messages
783
Location
southwestern Kansas
Ii that a mass of tissue where the tail ought to be?  If so this is probably some type of neural tube defect... kind of like a meningiomyelocele... I don't know if there is a heritable disorder in RA with neural tube defects?
 

CAB

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
5,607
Location
Corning,Iowa
No there is no mass where the tail should be. The tail if you look real closely is just laid up over it's back. The genetics so you don't have to look them up are Six Mile Sakic on a Packer x Dolly 2S cow. The calf was an ET. We had one other Flush mate born the same day which is doing fine.
 

Red Cow Relocators

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 25, 2011
Messages
172
Brent, by pedigree the calf appears to be clean of any known genetic defects in the Red Angus gene pool. Maybe just one of those freak things that happens. RCR
 

flacowman

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
673
If it wasn't a neural defect I would say it looks like there was something wrong with the development/relaxation of his tendons/ligaments.  Could you tell if he was born alive?  Environmentally it could be a deficiency, a toxin, or an injury to the cow at an early stage of pregnancy.
 

leanbeef

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
944
Location
Tennessee
That's extremely disappointing. Thanks for the pictures...from a purely educational point of view. Good luck determining the issue if that's possible. Did you send the calf or any samples of the calf to a lab anywhere?
 

CAB

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
5,607
Location
Corning,Iowa
Calf was born dead. Our local vet said that the Deer Wasting disease may have something to do with it, but didn't know for sure. We have had a dozen calves so far & no other troubles like this anyway. Thanks for all of your thoughts and insight.
 

idahoag

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 19, 2012
Messages
62
Not sure where you are from, but do you happen to have any lupine (a weed) around your area.  About 10 years ago we had about 4 or 5 calves in row born with similar defects....curved legs, spine, etc.  Turned out that our cows got some silvery lupine while grazing some dryland.  It only affects the fetus if it is eaten, I believe, between day 30 and 90 of gestation.  Just a shot in the dark...other than that I don't really know.  Sucks though!!
 

CAB

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
5,607
Location
Corning,Iowa
To answer some of the questions, it did have a tail but only the skin for the tail. No bone at all within the skin.
Did save 4 ear punches but have not decided if I will send them in anywhere yet.
We live in Western Iowa and I did go look up Silvery Lupine last night. By the book it says that we don't have Lupine here, but NE. does. We have a wild flower that looks very similar to Lupine that I call Western Iron weed.
 
Top