A two-headed Holstein calf was born live last week at Byland Animal Hospital in Loudonville.

Veterinarian Dr. Jeff Byers delivered the calf from Idylwild Farm by Cesarean section. However, the calf only survived for 20 minutes before it died on Friday.

"I'm surprised, I'd never seen that before," said Paul Weber, owner of Idylwild Farm of Loudonville. "I was surprised it lived."


Though Byers was not certain of the cause of the two-headed birth, the condition of polycephaly — being born with more than one head — can be caused by an incomplete separation of a single embryo or an incomplete fusion of two embryos.

Twin calves are not uncommon in cattle, with roughly 2 to 4 percent of all cattle giving birth to twins, according to Byers. Coincidentally, another cow at Idylwild Farm gave birth to normal twin calves the day after the two-headed calf was born.

"I see a lot of malformations over the years, different combinations of things, and they're always dead when they're born," Byers said. "Mostly because when they have a malformation they can't come out the normal way and it's a prolonged labor and results in a death."

An Idylwild employee initially suspected the anomaly while examining the mother. After Byers arrived and conducted his own examination, he felt two heads and two necks but no separation at the chest. So the cow was transported to the animal hospital for delivery.

The calf weighed 96 pounds and had two separate heads, necks, hearts and spines, but the spines converged above the hip. Byers was surprised when he found the calf only had a single pair of lungs and other organs.

Both heads on the calf attempted to breathe but were unable to sustain life, possibly due to the single set of lungs.

"To me, (the lungs) felt smaller than normal, and I think that's why the calf just couldn't stay alive," Byers said. "It had two hearts and they were smaller than normal ... almost half of normal size."

Byland Animal Hospital posted pictures of Byers and the calf on its Facebook page Saturday. So far, the post has been viewed 1.2 million times and been shared over 8,000 times, with people from around the world commenting on the pictures.

According to Haley Barnett, a receptionist at the animal hospital, people from the United Kingdom and Pakistan commented on the post, and the number of comments continues to increase. The individual from Pakistan even inquired if there was a possibility for an externship at the animal hospital.

Though not the first case recorded case of a two-headed cow, the calf was the first two-headed animal Byers had encountered in his career.

"It was pretty cool for me," he said. "Some people hunt and they get their trophy buck ... well in my little world, this was kind of like my trophy buck."

(View image here)