A FREAK CALF

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 96, 26 August 1942, Page 5

A FREAK CALF

TWO HEADS AND TAILS

BORN AT PUKEKOHE

The Pukekohe veterinarian, Mr E. Bilkey, of Pukekohe Hill, lias had some unique and varied experiences with cattle. Last week he was called to a farm near Tuakau, and the result, of his visit was the birth 6f a freak Jersey heifer calf. The animal, dead when born, had two heads, two necks, two backbones, two tails, four legs and one set of internal organs. The calf was fully developed, and both heads and necks were normal in every respect. Mr Bilkey has on his property a two year old Jersey fteifer which was born with three legs on the farm of Mr Joseph Adams, Belgium Road, Pukekohe. The heifer is avcllgrown and fully developed and despite her disability is able to get about. The fa£t of her being minus a foreleg apparently does not affect her in the least. During Mr Bilkey's long association with cattle and their ailments, he lias had many interesting experiences. He has come across three mummified calves, their respective weights being a quarter of a pound; half a pound and one and threequarter pounds. Mr Bilkey has removed, through operations, from the bodies and limbs of cattle, no less than 10ft of baling wire. A packing needle (J inches in length, was taken from tlie chest of a cow alter the needle had travelled round her body for three months and he has removed a four-inch lengtli of baling wire which was through the heart of a three year old bullock. Apart from the above discoveries, Mr Bilkey once treated! a horse which had suffered a broken jaw. He set the jaw bone, and wired it with silver wire. The horse died at an advanced age from natural causes, 10 years after the operation.