14 DAY TRIAL // A farm in western Pennsylvania, US, is now home to a 6-week-old bull calf that, although perfectly normal at first glance, actually has a potentially life-threatening deformity.
According to owner Tom Leech, the calf, shown in the photo accompanying this article, has its heart not in its chest, as one might expect, but in its neck.
Despite its abnormal anatomy, the calf appears to be in good health condition. It started feeding shortly after birth and doesn't have any serious trouble going about its daily routine of eating and napping.
It was the calf's owner that discovered the deformity
The calf, named Cardio Brisket, was born back on March 7. Owner Tom Leech says that he found it lying on the ground, and looking to warm its feeble body, he wrapped it in an electric blanket.
While doing his best to get the calf all nice and cozy in the electric blanket, the Pennsylvania farmer felt something pulsating in an orderly fashion deep inside its neck.
At first, Tom Leech assumed that the animal was shivering or that something was lodged inside its throat. Soon enough, he figured out that the thing pulsating in its neck was its heart.
“I noticed something pumping in his brisket area and figured it was an artery, or that he was still cold, or maybe something was stuck in his throat,” the farmer said in an interview.
“Once you grabbed it, you could tell it was his heart; you could feel it and see it moving back and forth,” Tom Leech went on to detail the experience, as cited by The Bullvine.
As mentioned, young Cardio Brisket appears to be doing just fine health-wise. True, the calf has a heart murmur and isn't growing quite as fast as other young bulls do, but other than that, it seems OK.
For the time being, Tom Leech has no intention to put the 6-week-old bull to sleep or anything of the sorts. Instead, the Pennsylvania farmer wants to keep it as a barn animal.
Should Cardio Brisket develop serious health complication and die as a result, Tom Leech is ready and willing to let vets cut its body open and have a closer look at the deformity.
Cardio Brisket is not the first calf affected by this condition
Talking to the press, farmer Tom Leech explained that, following the calf's birth, he took the time to search for other such deformities documented over the years.
So far, the man has only managed to confirm a couple of other cases of calves born with their hearts in their neck, of which one was reported in Turkey, and the other closer to home, in Kentucky.
Word has it that one other such calf was born about 14 or 15 years ago in Ohio but that the animal died shortly after delivery because vets decided to cut it open to better examine its anatomy.