If you ask Dr. Paige Schmidt-Rios about bovine respiratory disease, she doesn’t start by talking about antibiotics or vaccines.
She starts by talking about complexity.
“BRD, bovine respiratory disease, is kind of a blanket term for any type of pneumonia we’re seeing in cattle, primarily in feedlot or confined feeding settings,” Schmidt-Rios says. “It’s a really challenging disease because it incorporates so many different bacteria and viruses. All of these bacteria and viruses are already in the environment or the upper respiratory tract, but it takes environmental factors, host factors and pathogen changes for them to overcome the immune system and cause disease.”
That distinction is more than semantics. Throughout our conversation, Schmidt-Rios repeatedly returned to the idea that BRD isn’t a single disease with a predictable course. It’s a syndrome shaped by the interaction of pathogens, the calf’s immune system and the environment surrounding it. Two animals standing side by side may both be diagnosed with BRD, yet arrive there through very different pathways. Understanding that complexity, she says, is the starting point for making good clinical decisions.
Why Early BRD Detection Is So Challenging
If BRD is complicated biologically, detecting it can be just as challenging.
One idea surfaced several times during our conversation: Finding the right calf early enough to intervene may be one of the hardest parts of managing respiratory disease.
That challenge begins with the animal itself.
“At the end of the day, cattle are prey animals, and they see us, when we enter the pen, as predators. They’re going to try to hide those signs, and that can get really tricky when it comes to teaching pen riders and other personnel to detect them,” Schmidt-Rios explains.
It’s a reminder that veterinarians aren’t simply looking for disease. They’re looking for an animal actively trying not to appear sick.
BRD Detection Depends on People
For all the advances in diagnostics and therapeutics, Schmidt-Rios believes successful BRD management still depends on people.
As our discussion turned toward day-to-day feedlot management, she repeatedly emphasized veterinarians can’t be everywhere. Instead, they rely on the people who know the cattle best.
“As veterinarians, we have to rely on the individuals who are there every single day monitoring those animals. Then we can use our scientific knowledge and our understanding of the immune system to better help treat those cattle and improve outcomes,” Schmidt-Rios says.
It’s a perspective that reinforces the collaborative nature of feedlot medicine. Pen riders, animal health crews, managers and veterinarians all observe different pieces of the same puzzle.
Experienced pen riders often notice changes that are difficult to describe. A calf may separate slightly from the group, become less attentive or simply seem “not quite right.” Those subtle behavioral changes often provide the earliest opportunity to intervene, making observation one of the most valuable diagnostic tools available on a feedlot.
When those observations are combined with veterinary expertise, they’re more likely to result in earlier diagnosis and better outcomes than either could achieve alone.
How Veterinarians Make BRD Treatment Decisions
One of the most revealing moments in our conversation came when Schmidt-Rios described how much information veterinarians simply don’t have.
“Some of it depends on where they were before. Have they received vaccines? Have they received antibiotics or treatments prior to arrival at the feedyard? Unfortunately, with our current technology and feeding system, we don’t always have that information, so we’re kind of just guessing,” Schmidt-Rios explains.
Those details could influence treatment decisions. Unfortunately, they often aren’t available.
The comment isn’t an admission that veterinarians are guessing blindly. Instead, it’s an acknowledgment of the realities of feedlot medicine. Clinical decisions are made using the best information available, but every unanswered question introduces another layer of uncertainty.
Listening to Schmidt-Rios describe those challenges, it became increasingly clear that standardized treatment protocols don’t exist because veterinarians want every calf treated the same. They exist because, in many situations, they’re the best approach when individual animal histories are incomplete.
The Future of BRD Treatment
When the conversation turned to the future, Schmidt-Rios didn’t talk about revolutionary new drugs or replacing veterinarians with technology. She talked about better information.
“Right now, for the most part, we use standardized treatment protocols for all cattle that are pulled for respiratory disease. In the next 10 years, I’d really like to see treatment become much more individualized based on severity, timing of disease or even bacterial loads. I know that will take a lot of diagnostics and research, but I hope we can implement that during my career,” Schmidt-Rios says.
It’s a vision rooted in precision rather than standardization. Better diagnostics could help veterinarians determine not only whether an animal needs treatment, but which treatment is most appropriate based on the characteristics of that individual case.
Throughout our conversation, Schmidt-Rios returned to the same idea again and again: BRD isn’t difficult because veterinarians lack treatment options. It’s difficult because every case comes with unanswered questions.
Her hope is that future diagnostics won’t eliminate the complexity of BRD. Instead, they’ll reduce some of today’s uncertainty, giving veterinarians clearer information while leaving clinical judgment exactly where she believes it belongs — at the center of good cattle medicine.
To hear more from Dr. Paige Schmidt-Rios on her approach to BRD, and to learn about the CalfHealth system that is striving for early BRD detection in calves, check out the latest episode of “The Bovine Vet Podcast":
