by Guinness World Records and Ripley’s Believe It or Not arrived on Davidson on March 25th to certify the ʙɪʀᴛʜ of a three-headed calf. The tricephalic red angus cross calf was born at 2 a.m. on Gordon Willner’s farm west of Davidson. The weight was 113 pounds. It had been just another day on the farm during ᴄᴀʟᴠɪɴɢ season before to the historic event. The cow was being observed because she was about to ᴄᴀʟᴠᴇ. As her ᴅᴜᴇ date approached, it became evident that the ʙɪʀᴛʜ would not happen as anticipated. Willner, ᴀʟᴀʀᴍᴇᴅ, inserted his arm inside the cow and felt one, then two heads. He asked for help, figuring it was a pair of ᴛᴡɪɴs.
Dr. Olaf Lipro, a big animal veterinary medicine resident at the University of Saskatchewan, responded to the need for help. He arrived at the property and investigated, determining that two heads were present. After the ᴅᴇʟɪᴠᴇʀʏ did not progress, he decided to perform a s section. It was Lipro’s first time executing a C-s on a cow. He mentioned that he performed one around three weeks ago on a pug who was unable to give ʙɪʀᴛʜ to her pug/Rottweiler babies. “That went really well,” Lipro said, “so I figured pulling these ᴛᴡɪɴs out of Gord’s cow should be a piece of cake.”
“I was totally gob sᴍᴀᴄᴋᴇᴅ,” Lipro elaborated. He’d seen two-headed ᴄᴀʟᴠᴇs before, but never a three-headed calf, he stated. His first instinct, he said, was to get out his iPhone and post it on social media. Then he remembered he had to get back to work. He examined all three of the calf’s airways to ensure that it could breathe. One of the heads, the central one, seemed to be in ᴘᴀɪɴ. According to Lipro, he had to remove the amniotic fluid out of the animal’s nose. Others use a piece of straw, but Lipro claims to have discovered a new approach. He claims to suck the bothersome fluid out of his nostrils with the straw from a Tim Hortons Iced Capp.
He said that other cattle farmers may want to use similar method in their cow-calf operations. He suggested that in a pinch, a Twisted Sisters milkshake straw may suffice. Farmers should be cautious about relying on this because Twisted Sisters is still closed for the season. When he had the calf breathing, he moved his attention to the cow. After washing her wound, he patched it up. Because the calf was lying on the ground and having trouble taking a bottle, Lipro promptly tubed colostrum into its left head. “Then I realized I’d never get another chance, so I tubed the right head too, just to see if I could.”
After 48 hours of effort, the calf began sucking on its own, but it required to be bottle fed for the first 48 hours as it tried to stand. It was still standing on the third day. Nursing became challenging since all three heads collided as they attempted to latch on. According to Lipro, the calf’s outlook is bleak. A three-headed calf is rarely alive for more than a few days, but a two-headed calf is rarely alive for more than a few days. “Only time will tell,” said Lipro. Although one was born in Illinois in 1893, this could be the world’s first three-headed calf.
The following item appeared in the Mattoon Gazette on January 13, 1893, from Mattoon, Coles County, Illinois: “As we go to print, a Lafayette farmer reports a three-headed calf born in the neighborhood just southeast and a little north of the Monroe school building.” He asks that his identity be kept hidden so that the ɢᴜɪʟᴛʏ individual might be brought to justice.” …whatever it entails.
Guinness World Records and Ripley’s came flying into Davidson when Lipro posted a photo on Instagram, according to Lipro. He apologized for drawing so much attention to the Willner property. Lipro said, “I let my ego get the best of me.” “As soon as I noticed it was a tricephalic calf, I started thinking about how I might utilize it as a thesis topic for my PhD under Dr. Newt Scamander at the College of Large and Unusual Animals at veterinary medicine,” says the author.
