cow with quintuplets

Here in Alberta, a cow was pregnant with five identical heifer calves. Having grown up on a cattle ranch, I have never seen a cow have anything more than a pair of twins. Crazy!!
 

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It's a shame that a situation like this happened and more wasn't done to accommodate the pregnant Angus. They are a hardy breed and the females tend to be mild mannered. The Bull's can get very aggressive - as they age but are excellent breeding stock.

I wasn't brought up on a cattle ranch but a dairy farm, surrounded by other farms. By the looks of that photo, she was laying in a couple inches of snow. There's very little information, on background circumstances but where I come from, a pregnant Heifer would never be let out of the barn in that kind of weather. In Spring, Summer and up to late Fall, any pregnant Heifers were placed in a separate pasture, from the rest of the herd and monitored. The regular herd would be let out of the barn, for a few hours, to an upper pasture, if it was cold (35 - 40* F) but NO snow. Once frost hit the ground, the cattle were kept inside the barns until Spring. All the farms around us - did the same and some of them had 500 or more cattle. Each had a separate barn or birthing section where just the pregnant heifers were kept (more like - large horse stalls with the floors covered in straw.) Generally, the farmer's helped with the birthing process. In rare cases, a Veterinarian would be contacted, if there was a possible chance of complications. Everything would be done to save the Mother and the calf.

So, with that experience in mind, knowing the possibility of multiple births, that pregnant Heifer should have been - out of the elements (snow and ice) and accommodated, to preserve the health of the Mother, with expectations of complications if she went into labor - early.
In the event, the complications in labor were extreme, a Vet has several options to help delivery and reduce the pain of the Mother including doing a C-section. I don't know the odds of 5 calves being born alive verses still births? But each of those 5 calves were 40 lbs. each - and if there wasn't any respiratory problems - chances were - they could have been saved and bottle feed. With special care, the Mother could be saved and nursed back to health but be prevented from having another pregnancy.

In the photo, losing an 8 year old Angus and all five offspring - in the middle of a snow covered field - seems heartless and irresponsible.
 

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