Dave
Well-known member
The calf was only a few hours old when I discovered it. The navel was still wet but the calf was dried off and nursing. The area where the tail should be is all grown over with hair. I felt it to see if it had a nub under the skin and felt nothing. This is a birth defect and I think a relatively rare one. I asked a dairyman who milks a lot of cows about it. He said he had only seen it once or twice.
The calf is now 10 days old. She seems healthy and normal other than the missing tail. She is out of a cross bred simi cow I bought a month ago at a bred cow sale. The calf is solid black so I am asuming that the bull was an angus.
The cow was preg checked by the vet at the sale to be 6 months bred. She had a full term calf 3 weeks later. I gave the vet a ration about this. I said that he pinched off the tail when he did the preg check. He said that the lack of a tail is why his preg check off by so much.
The calf will be two months older than the rest of the calves and have no tail so she may not fit into the group of calves next fall. But a healthy calf with no tail is better than no calf at all.
Dave
The calf is now 10 days old. She seems healthy and normal other than the missing tail. She is out of a cross bred simi cow I bought a month ago at a bred cow sale. The calf is solid black so I am asuming that the bull was an angus.
The cow was preg checked by the vet at the sale to be 6 months bred. She had a full term calf 3 weeks later. I gave the vet a ration about this. I said that he pinched off the tail when he did the preg check. He said that the lack of a tail is why his preg check off by so much.
The calf will be two months older than the rest of the calves and have no tail so she may not fit into the group of calves next fall. But a healthy calf with no tail is better than no calf at all.
Dave