Twins born week apart

[seniag1123]

Been in this business a long time but this is a first.  Had a cow have a calf a week ago and then this morning she brought in another new born.  No other possibility in this pasture.  Only one other cow in pasture that has not calved and she shows now sign of having a calf.  The calf's head is swolen like it was a difficult birth but seems perfectly healthy.  Has anyone ever heard of this or is it even possible?  To make this even crazier.  The cycle before she bred was when she was sync'd to put an embryo in.  She stood solid but did not have a CL but then bred the next cycle to the clean up bull and must have had 2 CLs.

 

[caledon101]

We had it happen once many, many years ago...back in the early 70's. A commercial grade Hereford cow.
The vet said it's just not possible to have this occur.....once the cervix opens up that's it; no way for another calf to be born a week later. Certainly not a live one!  I don't disagree with the vet.

The only possible explanation I can come up with is that these females possess a second uterus or second reproductive tract of some kind....who knows.
Like you, we could prove that the calf could not possibly belong to another cow.
Really weird stuff.

 

[justintime]

I had a similar thing happen many years ago, however, my cow had calves born 3 weeks apart. She had been AI bred and had came into heat on the next cycle so I AI bred her again. I know this is NOT supposed to ever be possible, but the only way I could explain it was that when she came back into heat the second time, she must have produced an embryo on the other ovary and the pregnancy was in the other uterine horn. Both calves were very healthy and she claimed them both...but it was a very rare oddity for sure.

I have had a few other cows that have shown full blown heats after they are pregnant and have not lost the pregnancy.Several years ago, I had a cow that was in full heat one day in January. She was totally soaked in sweat with steam rising from her, so she had been in standing heat for most of the night. I decided to take her to the auction mart and sell her. At the time, a local cattle buyer had a pen in our feedlot where he assembled cattle to be sent to various packers. He brought a load of cattle in late February and this same cow walked off his trailer. I could see that she was springing, and obviously close to calving, so I bought her back from the cattle buyer. She calved a few days later with a beautiful heifer calf that was our top selling female in our production sale that fall. This made me wonder how many other pregnant females I have sold thinking they were open.

 

[BTDT]

Here is a very over simplification:
Cows ovulate on the opposite side every other cycle. Sometimes, even after fertilization has taken place, the cow will ovulate and egg and come into heat.  The bull breeds her, and that second ovulated egg becomes fertilized. Since the cow is already pregnant, the cow carries both of them.
The tricky part is when both are viable and go full term. (Many times one will die and become a mummified fetus). The cow into labor and many times both are born, hence the "small twin" or the twin that didn't "make it".  (Even though they are not anything close to being "twins") On the rare occasion, the placenta does not detach on number two, and as soon as the cow has the first one, the labor stops and the cervix closes and the second one is safe and sound!  When it become full term, the cow goes into labor again, and SURPRISE, number two is born.  This might be a week after, and I have heard and seen one born a full 21 days apart. Pretty amazing!

(This is a huge over simplification, but hopefully you get the point.)

Congratulations on the two calves. 

 

[BTDT]

I also wanted to point out, that cows ovulate EGGS, not embryos. Embryos are fertilized eggs.
Sperm is the individual "swimmers" and semen is the sperm mixed with other seminal fluids.

 

[chambero]

If you didnt actually see the second one born, are you sure she didnt have it laid out and hidden when you saw the first calf?

 

[justintime]

I also wanted to point out, that cows ovulate EGGS, not embryos. Embryos are fertilized eggs.
Sperm is the individual "swimmers" and semen is the sperm mixed with other seminal fluids.

Good point! I am so used to taking about embryos that I never even realized what I had written. Thanks!

 

[frostback]

Here is a very over simplification:
Cows ovulate on the opposite side every other cycle.

That's not true. There is no rhyme or reason or pattern to which side ovulates.

 

[caledon101]

After 35 years it is finally reassuring to learn that I wasn't crazy or somehow imagining this. I was a student at the U of G at the time and the animal science prof's I spoke with all claimed that none of this could be possible; I must be mistaken etc.

 

[Lucky_P]

Never saw it happen, but had clients, decades ago, who swore that they had a cow that delivered two calves 6 weeks apart.