A Galway suckler farmer and his family have been left stunned after a calf was born with Schistosomus Reflux – essentially with its organs inside out – last week.

“It was the most horrific experience,” the farmer told the Irish Farmers Journal.

Schistosomus Reflux - the calf born inside out on Galway farm.

The calf was born to a purebred 13-year-old Limousin cow who had been AI-ed with a Belgian Blue straw.

She had always calved by herself, but last Friday the farmer noticed she was struggling at about 10pm.

It was an awful shock

“I put my hand in to handle her and I could feel the calf’s ribs and heart beating in my hand.

“It was an awful shock.”

The farmer called his vet who handled the cow and confirmed the farmer’s suspicions and told him it was the rare condition Schistosomus Reflux.

“I’d never heard of it and my father who is 87 years old had never heard anything like it either.”

The vet performed a caesarean and the calf was born alive, with the farmer describing how he could see the calf’s heart beating on the outside of its body.

However, the calf died a short time later.

The farmer said the cow was doing fine, but the shock of the experience would live with them.