Vet’s calving call produces rare Siamese twins – houstonherald.com

When Dr. B.C. "Bernie" Taylor, of Taylor Veterinary Clinic inHouston, headed out to Summersville on Sept. 27 to assist a cowwith a birth, the veteran of 41 years in the business couldn'tpossibly have seen what was coming.

But what seemed to be a routine calving call turned out to beanything but that when Taylor pulled the remains of Siamese twinsout of the mother animal.

While there's no record of such twin calves ever surviving, eventhe occurrence is almost unheard of in the United States.

"I'd never heard of it and I didn't even know it happened,"Taylor said. "My wife looked it up on the Internet, and the lastrecorded Siamese twins were in 1971. It's extremely rare – one inseveral million."

The unusual situation took place at the property of RussellCombs on Highway 106 near Summersville.

When Taylor probed the three-year-old mother animal (who had hada normal birth before), he could tell he was dealing with somethingout of the ordinary. When the "mess" came out, he was amazed.

"I looked at it and I said, ‘my God, what a freak,'" he said."Then I looked again and I said, ‘Russell, that's Siamese twins.I've never seen such a thing.'"

The unlucky siblings were joined at the sternum.

"They were both there, it's just that were joined," Taylor said."That's hands down the strangest thing I've seen in my career – orever will see."

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