Calf with fatal birth defect.

[WFfarm]

Rough day for calving season. Had to euthanize a good sized bull calf. You breath a sigh of relief when he's born without issue and feel even better to know he's nursed well and got his colostrum. Then the train left the tracks...

Called the vet when we realized something was wrong the next day. The vet reported that the calf had an anus that didn't go very far and was not connected to the colon. He was bloated, it distress, and kicking at his stomach. Waste has no were to go. It's a fatal birth defect and the only thing to do was put the calf down.

 

[Nesikep]

That sucks Nature just doesn't get it right sometimes
I'm going to do a last ditch effort to help my wheezy calf today

 

[darcelina4]

That really sucks. I'm glad you were paying attention so you eased his suffering. Sorry that happened

 

[TCRanch]

Dang, I'm sorry! I have a preemie that was kicking at her stomach and read about that during my frantic Google search while waiting for the vet to call back (and she's fine - over eating).

 

[WFfarm]

I guess its called Atresia Ani.

 

[76 Bar]

I guess its called Atresia Ani

Correct. Occasionally read a site whose focus is birth defects/abnormalities in animals & poultry so I was aware of it.
Really sorry you encountered it but thankful you obviously keep a close eye and the calf was quickly dispatched.

 

[Lucky_P]

Atresia coli. If, as you described, it had an anus and some distal colon/rectum, it was not atresia ani.
May be just an 'accident' in fetal development, but it (atresia coli)has been demonstrated to be a heritable defect in some lines of Holstein cattle - I saw several cases in calves out of the UofMO dairy herd back in the early 1990s.

 

[WFfarm]

Atresia coli. If, as you described, it had an anus and some distal colon/rectum, it was not atresia ani.
May be just an 'accident' in fetal development, but it (atresia coli)has been demonstrated to be a heritable defect in some lines of Holstein cattle - I saw several cases in calves out of the UofMO dairy herd back in the early 1990s.

You are correct. I had the two mixed up.
Vet said both are fatal.

 

[Lucky_P]

Yep, every one I've seen died or was euthanized; it'd be the rare calf , if any, that would be worth what it would take to fix it.
I suspect that there have probably been human babies born with atresia coli &/or ani that ave had correctional reconstructive surgeries, but who knows what that would cost?

 

[Buck Randall]

I saw one calf with successful atresia ani corrective surgery while I was in school. Unique case; there was actually a bump under his tail where the impacted feces were pushed tight against the skin. The surgeon made a hole in the skin, opened up the rectum, and sutured it open against the skin. Turned out great. I might never see one present quite like that again, but I'd be willing to try to fix it in the field under the right circumstances.

 

[Lucky_P]

Yep, ani I'd give it a try; coli, you'd have to be fishing around in the abdomen looking for the segments of closed off gut that didn't connect during organogenesis and attemp to anastomose them. Not always all that easy to find the ends at necropsy, much less through a surgical incision.

 

[gcreekrch]

We had a cleft pallet calf born yesterday, one nostril, kind of a hydrocephalus shaped head to boot. It donated its mother to half of a set of twins born an hour later.

A second calf cow lost a little runty thing overnight, she raised a beauty last year. Found a hungry calf today, carried it around on the quad until we found his mother. This calf is 5 or 6 days old and Mom decided while I was watching that she would prefer to be ground beef. Second calver now has a baby.

 

[Lucky_P]

Sounds like your clouds did, indeed, have silver linings. Bad deals, but reasonably good outcomes

 

[Ky hills]

One of the calves that I posted a picture of a while back that the cow had big teats died the next day. It had looked to have nursed on one side of her udder the first day and seemed fine the next day it was laying stretched out with its head back and kicking. We though it hadn't gotten any milk maybe, so we tubed it but it was about gone at that point. After tubing it it started kicking out again. Never saw any evidence of where it pooped but it didn't look right to me in that area. It died shortly after.
That was from a cow that has had several calves had her since she was a heifer and always did good raising calves.

 

[76 Bar]

I obviously confused the artresia ani & coli conditions as well. Has ani been implicated as a genetic defect?

 

[nagwag]

Holy Cow. I just had the exact same condition in a calf that I put down. Born Saturday - up & nursed. 24 hours later, laying on side, back leg kicking, head jerking around. I have never seen this before. Vet examined the calf and said it was Atresia coli. The colon was "deadended".

 

[Lucky_P]

I saw more atresia coli cases through the diagnostic lab than atresia ani cases...but lack of an anus is readily apparent, and those wouldn't likely come in for a necropsy.