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schistosomus reflexus

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starvin'dog

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Sounds like something Harry Potter would say but I think we had one this morning.
Moved a cow in close last night. She was big, early and kind of skinny, twins?
She was cleaning off a dead calf this morning that was premature. Looked for the twin and found a big mass, three big bags of "meat" joined together. No sign of hide or bone. Probably 150 pounds worth. Glad it happened overnight or I might have intervened and created a wreck.
I guess I'm lucky she never went full term. Ya, that's it, I'm lucky!
 
Well at least she didn't cost you a c section. I had one a few years back, and they are different... to say the least!
 
I've done C-sections on two of them, 1 was ours and the other was for a neighbor. Our cow had had 7 or 8 normal calves before, have no idea what caused the problem.
A ranch we worked at once had 3 or 4 in one year. one of them was a full term Char x calf that weighed over 100 lbs. Back legs were stretched up over his back and the guts were the first thing showing out of the cow. The vet had to make an overly long incision to get the rib cage out the side.

They are a mess.
 
we had 1 , had 6 front legs & 2 back ones . 4 of the front legs came right out of the ribs , the belly was open & after we got the thing out ,out came a ball of what looked like lung tissue about 100 #s of it . The calf died !
 
lefty said:
we had 1 , had 6 front legs & 2 back ones . 4 of the front legs came right out of the ribs , the belly was open & after we got the thing out ,out came a ball of what looked like lung tissue about 100 #s of it . The calf died !



really, guess ya can't save um all
 
Description:
Schistosomus reflexus is a birth defect resulting in the malformation of the entire body. Calves with this condition are commonly not able to pass through the birth canal, and must be retrieved by c-section or fetotomy.


Symptoms:
Calves which develop this condition are characterized by a failure of the body wall to close, resulting in a calf that is essentially "inside-out" with exposure of the abdominal organs. The skeleton is commonly malformed, with anomalies such as decreased number or fused ribs and vertebrae, crooked and improperly positioned limbs, and inversion of the spinal canal. Any number of gross defects have been described and are highly variable. The calf may be carried to term, and the first sign of a problem may be a dystocia in which the cow fails to make any progress towards delivery. Rectal palpation may detect a disoriented fetus.

Etiology:
No identifiable cause has been described for the condition, which is believed to occur spontaneously as a defect in embryologic development. Some data suggest a genetic susceptibility, but this has not been well defined.


Treatment:
The malformed fetus is not likely to be pulled by conventional methods, and must be removed from the uterus by fetotomy or cesarean section. Current opinions suggest that cows will bred back quicker when the fetus is extracted by fetotomy, however the complicated and irregular anatomy may require c-section to safely remove the fetus. Reports of live calves born twin to a schistosomus reflexus calf do exist, and will call for a c-section if the live calf cannot be delivered vaginally. Due to the suspicion of a genetic component, it may be advisable to remove the dam from the breeding herd.
 

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