Recent research from multiple labs suggests some of the most expensive stressors cows experience are the ones we don’t see.

We often don’t realize that like the football team, the microbes in the rumen have their own “positions” and responsibilities. The success of the ruminant digestive system is dependent on each microbial team member performing its function.

Hemorrhagic bowel syndrome (HBS) is a silent, confounding killer in dairy herds. It’s particularly stressful because the exact cause of HBS is unknown. There are few symptoms, it often impacts older high-producing cows, and it’s nearly always fatal. Often you don’t know a cow has HBS until it’s too late.

Effective probiotics cost pennies per day and provide significant benefits throughout the entire life cycle of an animal.

The body has several physical barriers to “outside” threats, the skin, the respiratory linings and the digestive tract. Of these three, the digestive tract faces the most potential threats, not only from what is ingested but also from what develops in situ, through the growth of microorganisms, the toxins some produce and even the remnants of those that die within the tract. Pathogenic bacteria normally exist within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Common ones include species of Salmonella and E. coli. Both these bacteria are gram-negative (G-), meaning they have cell walls that will not accept that stain. These bacteria can lyse, and their cell walls are broken into segments that contain “endotoxin” made of lipopolysaccharides (LPS).

If cows could just tell us when they get an upset tummy, maybe we could help them get through the episode without a hitch. Before we can discuss rumen dysfunction, we need to understand what normal rumen function looks like.