To confirm the birth of a three-headed calf, Guinness World Records and Ripley’s Believe It or Not descended on Davidson on Monday, March 25. On Gordon Willner’s farm west of Davidson, a tricephalic red angus cross calf was born at around two in the morning. It was 113 pounds heavy.
It had been a normal day on the farm during calving season before the historic event. The cow was being watched because it could give birth at any time. As her due date drew near, it became clear that the birth was not going as planned.
As Willner inserted his arm into the cow, he felt one head, then another. He called for help, thinking it was a pair of twins. A resident in large animal veterinary ᴍᴇᴅɪᴄɪɴᴇ at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Olaf Lipro, responded to the distress call.
When he arrived at the farm, he conducted an inspection and discovered there were in fact two heads. He made the decision to do an emergency cesarean section after the birth failed to progress.
Lipro performed the procedure after giving the cow a local anesthetic. He grabbed the second hind leg, fastened it to a calving chain, and then gave it a powerful tug as he drew the first hind leg out.The calf remained immobile.
He claimed that the challenge of getting the calf out caught him off guard. They had to act swiftly to bring the calf out safely since they were running out of time and the cow’s life was at stake. Lipro exerted extreme force as he tugged on the chains. The calf was finally set free.
He was astonished to find that what he assumed was the first calf of a pair of twins was actually a three-headed calf as he drew it out of the uterus. Although it was mentioned that a three-headed calf was born in Illinois in 1893, this might be the first instance in history.
source: dailylifeworld.com
