[Devineflock]

Hello all,

This may be a silly question and I am sure it has been asked before but is there a time of year when ORF is most likely to appear on sheep? I currently have some sheep on a bit of ground where sheep have been in the past and they had a bit of trouble with ORF. There are no signs of it yet on my sheep but I am just wondering if there is a time of year when it may become more prolific?

Any help / advice will be very much appreciated.

Thanks

[twizzel]

Would you be able to vaccinate with scabivax just to be on the safe side?

[ScotsGirl]

I would appreciate some advice on this also.  I bought some BWM in Nov/Jan from same flock. Within a week one was covered in scabs, within a few weeks one of others had developed it and not sure if a third has it.


I m not amused as never had anything like this and don't want rest of my flock to get it. I have no idea what I should do but want to put my main flock in that field and eventually mix both flocks.

[SteveHants]

Orf is annoying. I don't see it all that often, which is nice. It is viral, and scratching has some effecacy, but is far from 100%


Lick buckets are good - the ones specially formulated for orf have big salt crystals in, the idea being that the salt gets in the scabs and clears up the orf, but actually (I managed to pin a salesman down on this once), since they all contain salts, they should all help treat orf as long as the sheep pushes its face in (and lets face it, they do). i have found that it pretty much goes away fairly quickly and so don't worry, but I know some people get it fairly badly. 

[Crofterloon]

My Vet told me that the ORF vaccine works by giving the animals a mild dose of ORF.
But your sheep do not have ORF at present, so you could vaccinate if you want.
When I had an outbreak a few yeas ago in some shetland chevioy ewes and lambs I applied terymicin to the sores by spraying on the scabs round the mouth and antibiotic injected into the ewes it cleared up quick.
Remember ORF is contagious even to humans.

[Herdygirl]

if you catch it quick enough on little lambs, germoline works well, not as scary as sprays, just make sure our hands are clean and you wash them afterwards

[Fleecewife]

My Vet told me that the ORF vaccine works by giving the animals a mild dose of ORF.
But your sheep do not have ORF at present, so you could vaccinate if you want.
When I had an outbreak a few yeas ago in some shetland chevioy ewes and lambs I applied terymicin to the sores by spraying on the scabs round the mouth and antibiotic injected into the ewes it cleared up quick.
Remember ORF is contagious even to humans.

As Orf is caused by a virus, antibiotics don't cure it.  The antiBs are given to deal with any secondary infection which has got in through the sores. If there are no complications, Orf usually clears up on its own.        Yes, bad news to catch it yourself.   Ewes can also get a dose in their udders from the mouths of their infected lambs, with the possibility of a poor result all round.
 
I think that sheep vaccinated against Orf can pass the disease on to untreated sheep, so once you start vaccinating you have to carry on, and warn others who buy your stock that they have been vaccinated and can pass on the didease to the new owner's whole flock if they haven't also been vaccinated.

[SallyintNorth]

As Fleecewife says.  Plus, your vaccinated sheep can infect your neighbours' unvaccinated sheep... 

To answer the OP's original question...  Orf is most likely to appear in the summer when the lambs start experimenting with eating foliage and the thistles are there with their prickles ready to break the skin on questing young noses...  But it can appear pretty much anytime, and will do if the sheep are struggling.  If this 'orrid weather continues and ewes struggle to produce enough milk, that would be the ingredients for a horrid outbreak...

We discuss orf every year; here's a post in which I listed some other posts and threads you may want to read.

Last year we vaccinated most of our lambs, having had an increasing problem with orf over the previous few years.  We had no cases of orf in the batches we vaccinated.  Mind, we only had a very little orf in the unvaccinated lambs last year too.  If you do vaccinate, please tell your neighbours beforehand.  And the trick is to make very very certain that the skin is broken and the vaccine enters the subcutaneous tissues through the broken skin.  We find that the trick is to make a cross.  We find the inside of the thigh to be a good spot.  You have to press very hard, sometimes the skin will break on the first scratch and sometimes not.  If you then draw the prongs back across the first scratch, again pressing very hard, to make an 'X', then you are pretty certain to break the skin at the point where you two scratches meet, and the second scratch drags the vaccine into the small wound so created.

[Crofterloon]

My Vet told me that the ORF vaccine works by giving the animals a mild dose of ORF.
But your sheep do not have ORF at present, so you could vaccinate if you want.
When I had an outbreak a few yeas ago in some shetland chevioy ewes and lambs I applied terymicin to the sores by spraying on the scabs round the mouth and antibiotic injected into the ewes it cleared up quick.
Remember ORF is contagious even to humans.

As Orf is caused by a virus, antibiotics don't cure it.  The antiBs are given to deal with any secondary infection which has got in through the sores. If there are no complications, Orf usually clears up on its own.        Yes, bad news to catch it yourself.   Ewes can also get a dose in their udders from the mouths of their infected lambs, with the possibility of a poor result all round.
 
I think that sheep vaccinated against Orf can pass the disease on to untreated sheep, so once you start vaccinating you have to carry on, and warn others who buy your stock that they have been vaccinated and can pass on the didease to the new owner's whole flock if they haven't also been vaccinated.

You are probably correct but my animals cleared up quite quickly, I do not want to split hairs with you but my way worked. Its the only time I have had animals with ORF.

[colliewoman]

Perhaps I am mean but the few cases I have had I left to clear up on their own   Only took a week to heal up, but then they have licky buckets so I guess they were self treating really. I try not to use ABX if I really don't need to as I was told this increases the resistance to them.
Theonly time I have ever seen it cause real nasty problems is with suckling lambs infecting their mothers teats. Now that was nasty

[MKay]

Was noses and tears in neat hibiscrub you won't get any cross contamination then.