grey eyed angus?

[Dee]

I had an angus calf born three days ago, and just noticed today that his eyes are a grey color. He seems fine otherwise. I have never seen anything but the dark brown. Is this somewhat common, or do I need to watch him/do something?

 

[Frankie]

Is he a registered calf? I've never seen it. Could it be this:

"CLASS II DEFECTS
Heterochromia irides (white eye) is the only Class II genetic
defect now monitored by the American Angus Association.
Although affected calves have abnormal skin and eye
pigmentation, the disease is not known to affect the
reproduction, growth or beef-producing ability of an
animal. The animals, however, are extremely light-sensitive,
which makes the eye pupils always constricted in daylight,
giving the eyes their 'slit-like' appearance.Cows that have produced affected calves are not included
in this listing, and affected calves are ineligible for
registration by the American Angus Association."

 

[cattleluvr18]

i had a holstein bull calf that had beautiful kind of a bluish greyish colored eyes. nothing is wrong with it. but it may not be the same as your calf.

 

[KMacGinley]

I had some grey eyed calves born a couple of years ago, and they turned brown by weaning time. The vet scratched his head over that when I pointed them out to him.

 

[Victoria]

Sometimes if a calf is premature the eyes can be grey or blueish (is that a word???).

 

[Putangitangi]

I had a bull which threw several calves with blue-greyish eyes. Most of them turned brown by weaning, although in the odd one I could still see the translucence of the lighter color. By adulthood they were brown as normal.

 

[Dee]

Thanks! Glad to know it's nothing serious. They are a pretty blue/grey color. Frankie, I checked his skin, and it's black everywhere, including his tounge so it's not irides. Thanks again. I can quit reading the fine print of all strange diseases now!

 

[Caustic Burno]

Dee hadn't seen you on in awhile you still playing with pvc.

 

[Dusty Britches]

I had a calf 2 years ago that was born with blue eyes. He was Brangus. He has blue - almost white eyes for about 3-4 weeks, maybe longer. then in the snap of time, they turned brown. He was always at the bottom of the totem pole and his weight gain was pathetic.

Someone here said that it could be Oculocutaneous Albinism.

Here's the info he sent me:

Oculocutaneous Albinism (OCA) is a condition seen in Angus cattle. It affects the black coat color to change it to a coppery red tinged black, but the main effect of this recessive condition is an eye abnormality. The eye looks abnormally white. The animal avoids sun and it is assumed this condition makes it quite uncomfortable to be in the sun. Shade must be available in the form of trees or a shed for such animals.
Preliminary data suggests that this is not a tyrosinase mutant nor a tyrosinase related protein 1 mutant based on examination of genomic coding sequence. OCA exists in at least 3 forms in humans and these two genes are implicated in OCA-1 and OCA-3 or ROCA.

• Schmutz, S. M., T.G. Berryere, B.H. Schmidtz, F.C. Buchanan. Jan. 18, 2002. Oculocutaneous albinism in Angus cattle. Plant and Animal Genome X, San Diego, CA.
• Cole, D, H. W. Leipold, R. Schalles. 1984. Oculocutaneous hypopigmentation of Angus cattle. Bovine Practioner 19:92-99

Source: http://skyway.usask.ca/~schmutz/conditions.html

You can Google it and get more info.

Here he is: