Mysterious 50-pound mass falls out of a cow as she gives birth in Texas. What is it?

Veterinarians in Texas had quite the mystery to solve after a cow gave birth to more than just a calf last month.

South Texas Large Animal Mobile Veterinary Services in Victoria shared the bewildering story to Facebook on Jan. 28.

Initially, veterinarians suspected a female cow was suffering from a uterine prolapse — then they discovered a calf’s visible foot as well as a tumor “hanging out of her back end,” the post said.

Soon, the tumor fell off, the doctors wrote. The cow gave birth to a healthy calf not long after.

“We got her restrained and delivered a live heifer calf that was almost the same size as this mass!” they wrote.

Doctors hypothesized that the mass — which weighed a whopping 50 pounds — was a cervical leiomyoma (a benign tumor), but commenters suspected something else:

A mummified calf.

“I had a thing like that some years ago. I cut it open and inside was a mummified small calf,” one user commented.

“Saw the same thing at a dairy farm I worked at, the cow went into labor, passed something similar to this mass, cut it open and it was a mummified calf,” wrote another. “The vet figured the calf had been in there about 2 years.”

Mummified calves are made when a fetus dies in utero and amniotic and allantoic fluids are resorbed causing the fetus’ tissues and membranes to be dehydrated, according to veterinarians at That’s Farming.

Doctors dissected the mass — which they described as solid and meaty — and sent samples off for testing at Texas A&M. The results showed exactly what they’d suspected: It was not a mummified calf, but a leiomyoma.

Despite the calf’s exciting entrance into the world, doctors say the mama cow and her new calf are both doing well.

“Hopefully this cow will rebreed and keep producing,” the doctors wrote on Facebook. “The owner says she’s milking good and the calf is a happy camper!”

This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 9:17 AM with the headline "Mysterious 50-pound mass falls out of a cow as she gives birth in Texas. What is it?."