Vets - was it alive? Graphic pic

[Aaron]

Found calf dead. Surprise calving which leads me to believe there was problems. 92 lbs - no issue for mature cow. No umbilical cord. Cut it open and took a picture of the lungs - they look too dark to me for it to have been breathing. Body cavity had about a quart of blood in it when open it up, suspect it bled internally. Just wondering if it was pre or post calving.

 

[Lucky_P]

Lung visible in that photo is not inflated, so it's evident that the calf did not take a breath.
A look at the internal umbilical blood vessels will give a hint as to whether or not the calf still had a heartbeat at the point in time that the umbilical cord got compressed while passing through the birth canal - if alive, there will be hemorrhages visible in the wall of the internal umbilical arteries.

 

[neocattleman]

what they told us in school was to take a piece of the lung and drop it in water if it floats it took a breath and was alive for at least at little bit if it sinks it never took a breath and therefor was born dead