Cow having calves 3 weeks apart

[Pan mixer]

I have only 4 cows left in the shed, one calved 3 weeks ago, the calf was a bit rotten and had been dead in the cow for a while I think.

That cow had a bit of a limp and so I kept it in, wondering whether to put it on the market as she just over 11 years old.

Today she produced a perfectly healthy live bull calf. Splendid but odd surely.

 

[Bucks Boy]

Are you sure one of the other cows didn’t have the dead calf?

 

[Pan mixer]

Are you sure one of the other cows didn’t have the dead calf?

I have wondered about that but they all look pretty full still and this was the only one that had a change in body shape when the dead calf appeared, certainly none of the otheres had any evidence round their back ends.

 

[beardface]

Have read about it happening before. Apparently more common than you think.

 

[som farmer]

seen it 10 days apart, 2 live calves, but still not 100% sure it was the same cow, 99.9% sure, but ....

 

[Princess Pooper]

Time will tell, when they have all calved, if it WAS one of the others that had the dead calf. Someone discussed this as happening on his farm on The British Farming Forum years ago and it was dismissed by a vet on the forum as not possible but the farmer was adamant that he was correct.

 

[Gulli]

I've had them the other way around

 

[som farmer]

l have had odd cows, that have twins, only to realise much later, l have an unexpected barren cow, expensive mistake. The only case l have seen, l pulled the calf out of the cow, and with a mastitus problem, we had her suckling calves, and we had 1 extra calf, 10 days later, in the shed, pretty conclusive, but niggling doubts remain.

 

[BAF]

When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Old bessie has 2 horns of her uterus and cows regularly have twins. I'd guess she decided to abort the rotten one once the other calf got to near full term and was running out of room. Being rotten it didn't stimulate the hormones to kick start a full blown calving and then 10 days later the other calf is fully cooked and normal service is resumed.

I know a very well to do pedigree sheep breeder who had a ewe lamb twins and rear her lambs then go for AI only for them to discover a fully formed full term lamb parked up inside her. Dead obviously but otherwise perfectly fine. Animals are strange!

 

[Chopps]

We are all year round calving and generally have 25ish dry at any one time. We are also flying with everything in calf to Hereford. Last summer I found a small, live calf under the hedge with no cow showing any interest in it. Walked round and round the drys trying to find mum and no one was showing any sign of having calved. Took the calf in and gave it colostrum and it did fine. Nothing calved for another 5 days and all the cows that were in the dry field went on to calve as expected.

So either a cow managed to push out a viable, early twin and keep the other one going too or my neighbour chucked a prem Hereford X calf under my hedge to confuse me

 

[Pebd99]

I’ve had this before. 3 weeks apart and the calves were identical. Vet told me it was impossible.

 

[som farmer]

nothing is impossible, just highly unlikely.