• Question: What is the strangest sickness or disease you have ever found in a cow or calf?

    Asked by anon-39758 to Sarah on 8 Nov 2022.
    • Photo: Sarah McPherson

      Sarah McPherson answered on 8 Nov 2022: last edited 8 Nov 2022 3:14 pm


      The strangest thing that I’ve seen is a calf that was born with a heritable defect (something that an animal is born with, caused by it’s genes), called schistosomus reflexus. This is a rare disorder where the stomach of the calf is inside out. All of the internal organs (so the stomach, the intestines, the lungs, etc.) are on the outside of the body, the spine is not formed correctly, and everything that we have on the outside (arms, legs, head) are inside. Only go look for pictures if you have a strong stomach!

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