[trish.farm]

Actually got up close to some of my lambs today which is not often, stunned to see that half a dozen of them have warty growths all round their mouths.  I am assuming this is Orfe???  Have never experienced orfe before.  Have had sheep on the farm for 20 years and never had it.  Havent bought any new sheep in, the only newcomer was the tup i borrowed in sept for a month.  So where did the virus come from? 

Lambs are between 1 and 4 weeks old.  All fit and healthy apart from the few that have nasty faces.  Are they all goinng to get it?  Should i take all licks etc out of the field to stop it spreading???  Panic panic panic!!!!!

And can my cows catch it??

oh and do i need to treat the lambs?  please dont say yes, i really dread having to try and catch them all up!!!!

[Kimbo]

Ive no idea Trish but I feel for you. Ive got my fingers crossed for you and your flock 

[Helen Wiltshire Horn]

I had this last year and the vet didn't seem to regard it as a huge issue.  It cleared up of its own accord and I understand that some sort of immunity if conferred.  We weren't advised to separate affected lambs.  I gather that it can be linked to mastitis in Mum and I had one ewe that did get mastitis where her lambs had orfe.
Helen

[twizzel]

We have 3 tame lambs with orf at the moment. You can get Ovaloids which are sulphur based treatments that help lambs get over the virus from local country stores. Ours have had 2 ovaloids and will have another 2 6 days after. Must wear gloves whilst treating orf as humans can get it too. Ours have had 3 days treatment pen&strep to prevent secondary infection and blue antibiotic spray on the warts to help dry them up. You can get a vaccination called scabivax to prevent it in the future but once you start vaccinating you mustn't stop. I have also read that rough salt licks help clear up the virus.

Cows can't catch it as far as I'm aware it's only sheep goats humans.

[trish.farm]

no sign of mastitis in any of the mums, will have a good check tomorrow.  Is it just the affected lambs that are contagious to humans, obviously havent touched any of the lambs but the ewes all bundle round me at feed time, and are very touchy, feely!! 

[twizzel]

To be honest I would treat any animals that have been in contact with infected lambs with caution, our 3 are in with 4 others and all have been isolated from other lambs and treated as if they could be infectious, you don't know when they could break out in the virus. So always wearing gloves when handling any of them, careful hand washing etc. If there are a lot of ewes/lambs maybe ring your vet and see if you should vaccinate the rest, once your farm has it it is extremely hard to get rid of so may come back next year.

[trish.farm]

how did my lambs get it in the first place? something must have infected them 

[landroverroy]

 It can lie dormant for a long time and may have been brought in by the tup.
Easiest and cheapest treatment is to mix yellow sulphur powder from your local agricultural store, or flowers of sulphur from your chemist, with a roughly equal quantity of salt. Place in a container and the sheep will help themselves. It dries up the scabs and helps stop it spreading any further. It doesn't work immediately, but suddenly, after about 2 weeks you'll find the orf has disappeared.

[Sbom]

Alamycin type spray sorts it out but obviously you'll have to catch them first. It may very well spread to the ewes teats and can cause mastitis....all good fun this lambing lark!

[beagh-suffolks]

i was always told with orf, it will run its course, then go away...

[Crbecky10]

Now some have got it, they'll not be a lot of hope of stopping the rest catching it, i.e. with the licks you mentioned. You'll need to watch out for it catching onto the ewe's teats too. I suggest you give the lambs an antibiotic injection and spray with an engemycin/terramycin spray, to help dry it up. However, as has been said orf does have to run its course, and ovaloids are supposed to help them recover, but I don't think they contain anything medicinal.
I'm not sure if cows get it, but people can!
You could scratch them with scabivax to vaccinate them against orf, but they may still get it as there are a lot of different 'strains' of it.
Hope this helps 

[twizzel]

Ovaloids contain sulphur which is said to help them recover from the virus but aren't medicinal hence not only available from the vet. I gave our 3 2 ovaloids on Tuesday and their orf hasn't spread to anywhere else in their body, the sores are looking a lot less angry (although the alamycin blue spray seems to be working a treat too) and they are well in themselves.
I've done a lot of reading these past few days and pretty certain cows don't get orf. It will run its course within 2 weeks but it's more about minimising the effects of it (can cause reduced growth rates due to the mouth being sore therefore not drinking as much) hence where ovaloids, blue spray and antibiotics come in. They won't make the virus go away but do help lambs cope with it better.

[trish.farm]

 oh lordy be!!  To treat or not to treat, to isolate or not, to vacinate or not?

Ok, first thing i will don my gloves, check over all the ewes for mastitis and ucky teats.

Will get some yellow sulpher powder and salt out into the paddock. 

Will get some ovaloids and try and catch the little critters, and spray their wee mouths at the same time.  I am assuming its safe to spray round their mouths with alamycin?

Going to leave them all together as they have probably caught it already if they are going to 

[MrsJ]

I understand it can lie dormant in the soil for some time.  If you have thistles/ brambles in the field, the lambs scratch their mouths and the infection can get in.  We don't isolate  but do treat.  It's not pretty but it usually clears up quite quickly.

[trish.farm]

Checked all the ewes today and all udders are fine. 

Checked all lambs (not an easy task as they are very full of the joys of spring) only 4 appear to have orfe so far.  Have bought every substance under the sun to treat them, but as yet havent caught one of the little critters!! 

Have removed all licks from the paddock to try and prevent spread    nobody very impressed with this move!!

Salt and sulpher in a feed bucket for them in the paddock.  Nobody very impressed with this either!!

Will get some hurdles out in the paddock later and try and catch the 4 infected specimens!!

Have spent all day washing my hands!  Never had such clean hands in my life!!