News

Three legged calf born in county

By Heather Milbrath

06/04/2013

Just north of Newburg, only a few miles short of the Canadian border, a local rancher had quite a surprise this calving season. May 14 seemed to be just another day on the farm for Teri Zahn until he found out that one of his new calves was born with only three legs.

This calf, now over a month old, seems to be doing well and healthy despite her handicap. The calf is missing its front right leg. The calf does have the shoulder joint at the top of the missing leg, which moves with the rest of the legs when she walks.

Zahn did not know what to think when he first saw this calf.

“We decided to just see how it went.” Zahn said. “At first we began to bottle feed it, feed it by hand, and help it stand. She could not stand well at first and Zahn had to hold her up under her chest because her one front leg was not strong enough. After some coaxing she found her own way to maneuver around.”

The calf has definitely found its own way of getting around, but does not seem to struggle much. Zahn’s grandson, Quentin, was there coaxing it to walk for pictures and the calf made walking around short a leg pretty easy. Zahn said Quentin can hardly keep up with the 3-legged calf, as he had to chase him around the barn, around the tractor and up to the house.

Zahn says they are just going to see how she does as these first couple of months will be critical.
Although there have been other cases of three legged calves being born, the likelihood of one being born is about one in 10,000.