WE would like to report an unusual outbreak of ruminal acidosis in freshly calved dairy cows. The affected herd of 200 cows is located in south Ayrshire and experienced four similar cases over a period of 10 days. All four cases had appeared well before calving and had been in a calving pen for a few consecutive nights where a camera allowed for easy observation. The calving pen did not have a water trough although some buckets of water would be brought to this area. During the day these …