On March 25, DAVIDSON—Guinness World Records and Ripley’s Believe It or Not visited Davidson to confirm the birth of a three-headed calf. At Gordon Willner’s farm west of Davidson, the three-headed red Angus calf was born at 2 a.m. and weighed 113 pounds. Before the momentous incident occurred, it was just another day on the farm during breeding season. The cow is being watched because she is about to give birth at any moment. As her due date approached, it became clear that the birth was not going as planned. Willner reached inside the cow, looking nervous, and felt one head, then a second head. He requested aid because he thought it was a pair of twins.
The plea for assistance was answered by Dr. Olaf Lipro, a large animal veterinary specialist at the University of Saskatchewan. He went to the residence and made an investigation, concluding that there were two heads there. He chose to do the ᴇᴍᴇʀɢᴇɴᴄʏ ᴄᴇsᴀʀᴇᴀɴ part after the delivery did not progress. This is the first time Lipro performed ᴇᴍᴇʀɢᴇɴᴄʏ C-sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ on a cow. He said he did one about three weeks ago on a pug that couldn’t give birth to his pug/Rottweiler puppies. “Everything went really well,” Lipro continued, “so I think getting these twins off Gord’s cow will be a piece of cake.”
After giving the cow local anesthesia, Lipro performed the surgery as described in its textbook. He grabbed the second hind leg and hooked it onto a chain before pulling it out with a sharp pull. The calf refused to move. He was shocked at how difficult it was to get the calf out. He commented that pug/Rottweiler dogs came out easily. With time running out and the cow’s life at stake, they need to move quickly to get the calf out safely. Lipro yanked the shackles as hard as he could. The calf finally ʙʀᴏᴋᴇ came loose. He was surprised to see that what he believed to be the first calf of a set of twins was actually a three-headed calf when he took it out of the ᴜᴛᴇʀᴜ.
“I was completely stunned,” Lipro explains. He affirmed that he had heard of two-headed calves being born before, but never of three-headed calves. His initial reaction, he added, was to take out his iPhone and post it on social media. Then he remembered he needed to get back to work. He checks the calf’s airways, all three airways, to make sure it can breathe. One of the heads, the middle one, appears to be in ᴅɪsᴛʀᴇss. Lipro said he had to clean the amniotic fluid out of the animal’s nose. Some others used a straw, but Lipro claims he learned a new technique. He claims that he sucked the troublesome liquid out of his nostrils using a straw from a Tim Hortons Iced Capp.
Other cattle farmers may wish to use this strategy on their dairy farms, he added. In a pinch, he added, a Twisted Sisters milkshake straw might be enough. Farmers should be wary of this, as Twisted Sisters remains closed for the season. He turned his attention to the cow as the calf breathed. He patched up her wound after cleaning it. Lipro quickly injected colostrum into the calf’s left head because it was lying on the ground and having difficulty bottle-feeding. “Then I realized I would never get another chance so I cut off the right end as well to see if I could do it.”
The calf begins to nurse on its own after 48 hours of struggling, but it needs to be bottle-fed for the first 48 hours as it struggles to stand. It was able to stand on the third day. Nursing becomes difficult due to all three heads bumping into each other as they try to hang on. According to Lipro, the calf’s prognosis is not good. Three-headed calves rarely live more than a few days, while two-headed calves rarely live more than a few days. “Only time will tell,” Lipro said. Although one was born in Illinois in 1893, it was most likely the first three-headed calf in history.
The following item appeared in the Mattoon Gazette on January 13, 1893, from Mattoon, Coles County, Illinois: “As we were going to print, a farmer in Lafayette reported that a three-headed calf had been born in the immediate vicinity southeast and slightly north of the Monroe School Building.” He asked that his identity be kept private so that the guilty can be brought to justice.” …whatever it entails.
According to Lipro, Guinness World Records and Ripley’s were flying to Davidson when Lipro posted a photo on Instagram. He apologized for drawing so much attention to Willner’s estate. Lipro says, “I let my ego get the best of me.” The author said: “As soon as I realized it was a three-headed calf, I started thinking about how I could use He did his doctoral thesis under the supervision of Dr. Newt Scamander at the College of Large and Unusual Animals in Veterinary Medicine.
