How do I cure orf?

gatepost

Member
Location
Cotswolds
Its a virus so a fortnight if you treat it with anything or a fortnight if you don't , the salt or spray has the effect of keeping any secondary infections at bay which is important, once you have got it then join the club, vac the lambs at turnout or when you madly run around the field after them to catch them in the modern way, then walk away and forget orf
 

johnb5555

Member
Location
Co Durham
Are there different strains of orf. As mentioned above had it in lambs legs, now some ewes have it in other fields. Couple were bought in and been told theyd been scabivaxed at birth.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Are there different strains of orf. As mentioned above had it in lambs legs, now some ewes have it in other fields. Couple were bought in and been told theyd been scabivaxed at birth.

The vaccinal cover from Scabivax is quite short lived compared to natural exposure, something like 6 months IIRC. They might well have encountered a new strain when they arrived at your place, to what they had received exposure to previously anyway.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Its a virus so a fortnight if you treat it with anything or a fortnight if you don't , the salt or spray has the effect of keeping any secondary infections at bay which is important, once you have got it then join the club, vac the lambs at turnout or when you madly run around the field after them to catch them in the modern way, then walk away and forget orf

A more 'modern way' still might be to chuck some buckets about, treating cocci & orf at the same time, whilst letting them get mild exposure to both and develop a long lasting, natural immunity.;)

I scratch my pedigree ewes to keep orf off their udders, everything else is allowed to get a controlled exposure and treated with buckets. Never been a problem since I've been doing that (20+ years). I hated scratching lambs, an awful, time consuming job when you've got plenty you should be doing.
 

gatepost

Member
Location
Cotswolds
Are there different strains of orf. As mentioned above had it in lambs legs, now some ewes have it in other fields. Couple were bought in and been told theyd been scabivaxed at birth.
Are you convinced it is Orf, or is it possibly something else equally horrible, we had an outbreak of staph/dermatitis last year on ewes legs around pasterns mostly, usually on heads of trough feeders, or may be even mites, Chorioptis ovis, might(not a pun)give you a mild looking orf type symptom.
 

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
I have had sporadic outbreaks of Orf in housed early born lambs despite spraying the whole shed regularly with Vircon S, however I have not had Orf in my lambs since I burnt the old wooden troughs the ewes were fed in and replaced them with plastic troughs. My policy with Orf infected lambs was to spray blue foot spray around the lesions and give a jab of Alamycin L.A. to the lamb and it's dam in the hope of preventing lesions forming on her teats. It may be overkill but with my few pedigree sheep Alamycin is far cheaper than discarding an other wise viable ewe because Orf has knackered her teats.
 

tinsheet

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Somerset
Old boy at market the other day bought some lambs, one I noticed had a small patch of orf so I told him he said that's ok I'll just put some creosote on it:eek:
Anyone heard of that cure before?:scratchhead:
 

bovine

Member
Location
North
Orf is a viral infection. There is no cure, all you can do is control secondary infections. They get better by themselves so even homoeopathy will seem to work.......

Prevented by vaccination of lambs AND ewes. Control can fall down when you don't do both.

Can survive in the environment for a long time (years).

The virus cannot penetrate intact skin so thistles are a risk factor, as are lambs with sharp teeth suckling mothers. You see it quite commonly in lambs mouthes as the teeth erupting allow the infection in.

I wear gloves pretty much every time I handle sheep.
 

JD-Kid

Member
gorse ,thisles etc etc all trigger it

we scrach all our lambs at tailing never done ewes last few years been seeing less of it 10 years ago used to get some outbreaks from hell with it ..
maybe good thing was any thing that got it got checked hard and did not get in to the flock now any lambs with it at tailing get marked as a cull think out of 4000 lambs maybe 5 ewe lambs kicked out with it

like people and coldsores some people get them others don't so it's a gean thing putting them more at risk of getting it
 

JD-Kid

Member
Anyone use anything other than scratch in nz @JD-Kid
not that i know of seems to be a bit hit and miss to befair been a few cases this year of it not working and a few years back there was a recall we got some and by chance opened a packet the tube was clear thought ummm strange most times blue that lot was a recall ..don't know if others used it clear and did not question it
the prongs on the scrach are totaly forken useless might as well use the flat side of my willy mate of mine is just started in the co that makes it so i'll have a yarn with ..
 

beynon

New Member
I once heard you can make your own supply of vaccine from the orf scabs (from previous outbreak?). Has anyone the details?
 
I seem to remember someone treating a group of store lambs with orf on their noses, with a rag & a bucket of formalin. Nobody told him to wear gloves though.:eek:

He seemed to lose interest in sheep soon after.

Good enough for him, he was willing to put the lamb through the ordeal, only fair he knows what it's like.

Is these salt blocks orf buckets a bit like homeopathics as in don't really work.
Or is there science behind them working?

No, homeopathics IMO just don't work. We (Dad) used something called Orf-M for ages, SFA use if you ask me, ovaloids fall intot he same useless category for me also.

Salt seems to mostly prevent orf by promoting healthy skin, and it also aids healing. The orf virus needs broken skin as an entry point into the animal.

My experience with salt blocks has been great. The first year I remember taking out the blocks to give to Dad and orf returned to my farm? Next year I left the salt in and no issues. Always had orf on this farm but now my response to it is pretty much labour and hassle free. In the two or three years I've been using salt, the orf outbreaks have been tiny and very very moderate to non issue in seriousness.
 

JD-Kid

Member
I once heard you can make your own supply of vaccine from the orf scabs (from previous outbreak?). Has anyone the details?
don't know how long it would last if the vax only lasts for a number of months in the animal
just checked vax in fridge and it's quite short life span being live longer than toxo tho so must be kinda stable
 

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