[Penninehillbilly]

24hrs before, this was just a small pale 'wart' in tne corner of her mouth, she isnt eating very well, and has been quite lethargic,  had her inside and eating willow, but she hasn't touched chopped grass in a bucket, eating tup and lamb mix. She seemed brighter and pickingup so turned her out with her mum, then today saw this.

[SallyintNorth]

Yup, that's orf. 

[Penninehillbilly]

 
Thanks Sally.
Any advice?
Ive read that pain will stop her eating, can we give pain relief?
Anything I can put on it?
I realise it's a virus, so no ABs unless secondary infection, but how do I know if she does need anything?
Tempted to bring her back inside, but she will only eat willow, I brought her mum up to the little field, but twin got left behind, too busy playing with other lambs.(13wk old)

[SallyintNorth]

So far that is unlikely to stop her eating.  Being separated from the others is more likely to make it go off its feed! 

Give it a wash (our vet recommended a strong solution of Daz - not Ariel or Bold, gotta be Daz - and I found that as good as using purple or blue spray.  Blue spray not much use unless it's infected anyway, as you point out.) 

There is orf about on your land, clearly, so the best things you can do now are:

- keep the lambs away from anywhere that has thorns or thistles or anything that will pierce skim : that's how it gets in
- watch ewes with orfy lambs, and look for signs that any lambs are hungry and pestering a ewe, because orf can spread to - and from - the udder, and if the lambs are sucking hard because she doesn't have much milk, that can break the skin on the teats.  Feed ewes if the lambs are pestering them, to reduce the risk of broken skin and orf
- consider vaccinating all your lambs.  Scabivax is a live vaccine, easy to apply (but do read the instructions and follow them), very effective.  Because it is a live vaccine, you shouldn't use it unless you are sure you have orf on your land - but you clearly do so it is an option for you.

[SallyintNorth]

And the usual warnings about it being highly contagious, to humans as well, can be carried on clothes, and can cause truly nasty infections in some humans.  (Especially if getting in near a joint, apparently.)

[Penninehillbilly]

Thanks Sally, got some Daz, should I use cotton wool? How strong a solution?
Problem with sheep is I let them into the woodland back in April, there is lots of good grass, but  lots of thistles, not as much grass in their small field now. Looks like I'd better get on with sorting those thistles, been meaning to for years, but this is the first year the sheep have been in.
Previously found her a few times just curled up away from the others, which was why she was inside anyway, so I think something else going on, wormed her, seems she's up and about more now.
 

[SallyintNorth]

I make it up really strong, so it's blue and feels slippery, and then either dunk their nose momentarily or slosh the solution very liberally over the infected part or parts.  Leave a few moments and repeat to make sure some stays on after the first slosh / dunk washed any loose dirt and / or crust away.

[Penninehillbilly]

Thanks Sally, she got through the fence today, had to catch her to get her back, feels to putting weight on already.

[Bywaters]

We have had good results with "Frobut" tubbies. Basically a vitamen bucket lick/nibble

Denis Brinicombe down Devon way

[Penninehillbilly]

I know it's been a while, but thought I'd give an update.
Orf was spreading along her lip, but cleared up really quickly, once I started putting Daz on. had a plastic glove on and got the Daz on by scooping some up and dabbing/rubbing affected areas, not had any problems with the mum or rest of flock.
But little lamb has always been poor, kept thinking she must have died then I'd find her on her own somewhere. Storm Arwen I thought had finished her off, but 2 days later finally found her, she's been in the barn since,, cheeky bolshy little thing. Called Kanika, in 2 different languages it means small or black.

[mab]

Hi, just resurrecting this thread as I've got lambs with orf for the 1st time this year, and was looking for tips on managing it - the vets said there's not much but let it run its course.


Regarding the Daz treatment - looking around town today there were Daz tabs and Daz powder - can i use either of these?


For some reason, the affected lambs seem to have it quite bad whilst others are fine. I don't have many thistles but there's a lot of gorse and it's flowered spectacularly this year.

[Penninehillbilly]

We used the powder, mixed to a thick gunge so it could coat affected areas.

[twizzel]

Just let it run it’s course, keep an eye on the ewes udders though. Brinnicombe Frobut buckets are very good for controlling it within the lambs.

[mab]

Thanks very much - the affected lambs are quite bad - to the point of bleeding in two cases and I've been using the antibiotic spray, but for the ones that aren't yet bleeding i just wanted to be sure before applying chemicals (daz) to their sore faces.


I was looking into the frobut recommendation - but not aware or its being available locally so may have to get it mail order.

[twizzel]

Brinnicombe have stockists around the country so you’ll probably have one locally, might be worth emailing to find out.


Failing that Himalayan rock salt dries the sores up.


Blue spray will dry the sores up too


My lambs get a touch of orf every year but it’s controlled with buckets. It did go through a group of homebred shearlings after tupping once, they obviously didn’t have any immunity to it and they looked terrible. The worst ones got sprayed once and given Alamycin and metacam if I could catch them without too much of a fight in the field (didn’t want to stress them too much affecting embryo implantation, and wanted to keep them away from buildings). Within about a month they’d all recovered, even the really nasty ones.