Yes the vaccine is a live one and will cause orf in naive unvaccinated sheep, so don’t vaccinate unless you have orf on your farm, and don’t use pens where someone else has vaccinated unless your sheep are immune.
Yes it’s painful, but it’s not the end of the world. It’s a virus so nothing really helps, but you can help prevent / treat secondary infection. Our vet recommended dunking their heads in a strong solution of Diaz (and it has to be Daz, the one that gives the ‘blue white’), and it does seem to help the sores heal without getting infected. I usually use septiclense purple antiseptic spray as well. If they do have infected sores then yes use the blue antibiotic spray.
Yes watch the mothers, if they aren’t immune they can get orf in the udder. Sometimes it’s an indication they don’t have enough milk - the lambs keep pullling on empty teats, sores ensue, orf gets in (it enters through broken skin), now everything gets worse and mastitis often follows.
At this time of year, an outbreak often starts when the lambs puncture their mouths eating thistles, so move them onto pasture without thistles if you can.
It looks awful, I know, but it really isn’t as bad as it seems, provided it’s just the lambs’ faces and not the mums’ udders. Daz and Septiclense, non-spiky pasture, and they’ll recover. Frobut buckets probably do help - but also create an opportunity to spread the infection :/.