[1.12] updating spawnEntity rotation not working

I've been trying to get this to work for a while, looked through the ItemMonsterPlacer and EntityEgg classes. I have an item that when used (right clicked) on a passive mob (EntityCow) will transform it into a new entity. The method was cobbled together using the code from shears as a template. The transformation seems to be working correctly but when the new entity is spawned it is not facing the same direction as the previous (pre-transformed) entity. I am wondering if it is related to a client/server communication difficulty but I am still quite new at modding so uncertain how to reconcile. Code listed below and greatly appreciate if anyone has any input!

    @Override

    public boolean itemInteractionForEntity(ItemStack stack, EntityPlayer playerIn, EntityLivingBase target, EnumHand hand)

    {

        if (target instanceof EntityCow)

        {

              if(!target.world.isRemote)

              {          

                     EntityEntry EntID = net.minecraftforge.fml.common.registry.EntityRegistry.getEntry(CustomEntity.class);

                     ResourceLocation CustomEntityResource= ForgeRegistries.ENTITIES.getKey(EntID);  

                     Entity testCustomEntity = EntityList.createEntityByIDFromName(CustomEntityResource, target.world);         

                     if (testCustomEntity instanceof CustomEntity)

                     {

                           CustomEntity createdEntity = (CustomEntity)testCustomEntity;

                           createdEntity.setLocationAndAngles(target.posX, target.posY, target.posZ, target.rotationYaw, target.rotationPitch);

                           createdEntity.rotationYawHead = target.rotationYawHead;

                           createdEntity.renderYawOffset = target.renderYawOffset;

                           createdEntity.onInitialSpawn(target.world.getDifficultyForLocation(new BlockPos(createdEntity)), (IEntityLivingData)null);

                           target.world.spawnEntity(testCustomEntity);

                           createdEntity.playLivingSound();                                      

                     }

                     target.world.removeEntity(target);

                     target.setDead();

                     stack.shrink(1);

                     return true;

              }

              else

              {

                     return false;

              }

        }

        else

        {

              return false;

        }

}