Orf in lambs

Dickie10

Down the field today feeding ewes and noticed orf appearing on 12-15 lambs about a months old, I want to nip this in the bud, as it sets them back a good bit . does anyone have any advice or suggestions on what to use to treat this , as usual its around their nose/mouth area. any preventative measure would be greatly appreciated too thanks

rancher

Dickie10 wrote: »

Down the field today feeding ewes and noticed orf appearing on 12-15 lambs about a months old, I want to nip this in the bud, as it sets them back a good bit . does anyone have any advice or suggestions on what to use to treat this , as usual its around their nose/mouth area. any preventative measure would be greatly appreciated too thanks

Usually ignore it here, never got it in suckling lambs though and it can be bad in that case,
I've heard that scabivax can be used in an outbreak and it helps or salt licks keeps the mouths clean on lambs, English farmers use a special lick, don't know whether its available in Ireland or not.
Its a virus, and it'll just take its course, but if it gets infected, you have to treat the infection.

Just after finding this and its in Oldcastle, Co Meath so I'm sure you'd get it elsewhere too
http://pedigreecattle.ie/sheep-1/sheep-lick-buckets/tubby-frobut

Conmaicne Mara

Dickie10 wrote: »

Down the field today feeding ewes and noticed orf appearing on 12-15 lambs about a months old, I want to nip this in the bud, as it sets them back a good bit . does anyone have any advice or suggestions on what to use to treat this , as usual its around their nose/mouth area. any preventative measure would be greatly appreciated too thanks

Himalayan rock salt, last place I got it was Colemans of Sandyford in Dublin. Place the blocks where the lambs congregate/play to give maximum exposure. Have used them the past two years.

rancher

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

Himalayan rock salt, last place I got it was Colemans of Sandyford in Dublin. Place the blocks where the lambs congregate/play to give maximum exposure. Have used them the past two years.

Was thinking you'd be in with a ''cure''

Conmaicne Mara

rancher wrote: »

Was thinking you'd be in with a ''cure''

rancher

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

No offence but the salt lick would be a traditional solution to the problem like the Stockholm tar and foxes...old ones are always the best.

Never heard of Himalaylan etc

Conmaicne Mara

rancher wrote: »

No offence but the salt lick would be a traditional solution to the problem like the Stockholm tar and foxes...old ones are always the best.

Never heard of Himalaylan etc

It's just pink rock salt, couldn't find ag rock salt/licks, no co-ops here. There's always been orf on my farm, and at times it has been fairly bad. Been through the mill with different treatments and snake oils which haven't worked.

I have found this stuff helps the lambs that contract orf, so they never get as bad as they used to, maybe just one or two little lumps instead. Also I no longer separate infected lambs from non infected. I believe there's something in the salt which helps the lambs skin, while orf is a virus, it does need an entry point into the animal.

The tubbies work in a similar way, they promote skin health etc.

Getting rid of thistles/furze is another step in combatting it.

razor8

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

It's just pink rock salt, couldn't find ag rock salt/licks, no co-ops here. There's always been orf on my farm, and at times it has been fairly bad. Been through the mill with different treatments and snake oils which haven't worked.

I have found this stuff helps the lambs that contract orf, so they never get as bad as they used to, maybe just one or two little lumps instead. Also I no longer separate infected lambs from non infected. I believe there's something in the salt which helps the lambs skin, while orf is a virus, it does need an entry point into the animal.

The tubbies work in a similar way, they promote skin health etc.

Getting rid of thistles/furze is another step in combatting it.

Haven't used buckets myself but if some lambs had orf would it not be a great way of spreading it?

Use scabivax here as orf is in the land, neighbour never has an issue with orf so ever farm differs. Finding scabivax was a god send here, using it now for 5 or 6 years and never an issue

rancher

razor8 wrote: »

Haven't used buckets myself but if some lambs had orf would it not be a great way of spreading it?

Use scabivax here as orf is in the land, neighbour never has an issue with orf so ever farm differs. Finding scabivax was a god send here, using it now for 5 or 6 years and never an issue

I think salt has antiseptic properties, so it wouldn't spread it, often used salty water on a bad cut on an animal as its supposed to aid healing, whereas Dettol etc inhibits healing.
Scabivax is supposed to help, even to use it in the face of an outbreak

Conmaicne Mara

razor8 wrote: »

Haven't used buckets myself but if some lambs had orf would it not be a great way of spreading it?

Use scabivax here as orf is in the land, neighbour never has an issue with orf so ever farm differs. Finding scabivax was a god send here, using it now for 5 or 6 years and never an issue

@salt, what Rancher said. The benefit of the blocks is they're labour free, while scabivax requires a fair amount of labour. I'm not knocking it in any way, let people who wish to use it do so for sure. Two years now I am using the salt, separated lambs the first year, didn't the second, found it no problem regarding to spread at all.

I believe there's zinc in the buckets too? I think that has some relationship to healthy skin.

rancher wrote: »

I think salt has antiseptic properties, so it wouldn't spread it, often used salty water on a bad cut on an animal as its supposed to aid healing, whereas Dettol etc inhibits healing.
Scabivax is supposed to help, even to use it in the face of an outbreak

Funny you mention the salty water. I was helping a local farmer put in hay one day as he had no help, and we got talking to orf. He swore by "pickle" as he called it, the preservative salty water fishermen use around bait in barrels. I said twas bad enough the lambs smelling like lamb without having the fox think he was getting surf'n'turf with the fish too! But the salt point remains.

For me I find salt is a hell of a lot more benign option than other, shall we say misused, chemical type treatments I have heard bandied about.

Dickie10

what is scabivax ? I had to put out tetany licks with the ewes as the grass they were on is flush and reseeded last autumn, would the licks have any effect to promote orf? I was told from numerous people to rub jeyes fluid into the infected area

rancher

Dickie10 wrote: »

what is scabivax ? I had to put out tetany licks with the ewes as the grass they were on is flush and reseeded last autumn, would the licks have any effect to promote orf? I was told from numerous people to rub jeyes fluid into the infected area

You can vaccinate with scabivax as a prevention every year, its messy but its supposed to work, don't know much about it, as I say you can use it during an outbreak too,
Have heard of the jeyes fluid remedy also heard of guys using burnt oil, and allsorts.....any antiseptic would help and use it often,

Zoo4m8

Orf..horrible thing, let it get too bad and it will spread to the ewes teat in some cases and of course the affected ewe won't let the lamb drink.
We used capsules called Orfoids here for years, absolutely excellent...now they are called Ovaloids, two capsules per lamb, sometimes only one treatment needed, in fact still have some and did a hoggett last week she's almost right now.

I have just Googled them and lots of places have them... Used Scabivax one year only, couldn't get on with it.

J.O. Farmer

Salt is a very good disinfectant and most bacteria cannot survive high salt concentration. I can see how that would help prevent the orf lesions from becoming infected.
As orf is a virus I don't think the disinfectant properties will help prevent the spread of orf. However the salt lick may be providing something that lambs are lacking and in general a healthy lamb with no deficiencies will be less susceptible to picking up infections. Also as Con said the salt might help the skin and aid the healing of prods and nicks that might help provide an entry site. Also reducing thistles is supposed to help. Presumably due to less prods with thorns.

Farrell

What's it called & where do you get it.
Have a Red Energy Lick with them at the moment, have been told they're full of salt (probably wrong type)

J.O. Farmer

Farrell wrote: »

What's it called & where do you get it.
Have a Red Energy Lick with them at the moment, have been told they're full of salt (probably wrong type)

In terms of disinfectant properties a high concentration of any salt will do the job. After that different salts will provide different trace elements so you're lick could be as good as any.

Conmaicne Mara

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

Salt is a very good disinfectant and most bacteria cannot survive high salt concentration. I can see how that would help prevent the orf lesions from becoming infected.
As orf is a virus I don't think the disinfectant properties will help prevent the spread of orf. However the salt lick may be providing something that lambs are lacking and in general a healthy lamb with no deficiencies will be less susceptible to picking up infections. Also as Con said the salt might help the skin and aid the healing of prods and nicks that might help provide an entry site. Also reducing thistles is supposed to help. Presumably due to less prods with thorns.

Reading and Googling about Orf before and I read that the virus needs an entry point into the skin, so it makes sense to me if the farmer denies that point of entry into the lamb as much as possible, the virus will get it a lot harder to spread. Placed in the right part of the field, the salt is practically labour free - a bonus with anything sheep related.

I've contracted orf on my finger before, I don't recommend getting it (tincture of iodine three times a day, think I had to keep it covered but not sure - the UK lads and ladies take it much more seriously though).

Have the furze under control here, do have a couple of gardens with creeping thistle issues and I plan to address them this year. The one weak spot in my strategy is we have so much rock, not just boulders or exposed bedrock but so many stone walls. All this rock is granite which often has sharp quartz through it, nothing I can do about that though.

ganmo

We've used domestos here for a while here now works well, better than that pink orf spray anyway.

Check the ewes elder too, it can have lesions there too

DMAXMAN

we used to have it bad with orf around here .remember the father having to shoot lambs they would get so bad and not be able to cure. we use scabivax every year since that (around 20 years) and we never have any trouble now.we scratch the lambs at the same time as we are putting on the tail rings. we scratch the inside of the lambs legs. the bottle does about 80 lambs and costs 45 euro. father used to say lambs got it on their spine when we used to wring their tales

sea12

Have heard of the jeyes fluid remedy also heard of guys using burnt oil, and allsorts.....any antiseptic would help and use it often,[/quote]

Hope lost covey is not looking in!

ganmo

The 'worst' treatment I've heard for orf is diesel

Farrell

DMAXMAN wrote: »

we used to have it bad with orf around here .remember the father having to shoot lambs they would get so bad and not be able to cure. we use scabivax every year since that (around 20 years) and we never have any trouble now.we scratch the lambs at the same time as we are putting on the tail rings. we scratch the inside of the lambs legs. the bottle does about 80 lambs and costs 45 euro. father used to say lambs got it on their spine when we used to wring their tales

Actually saw it done years ago, went looking today & was told need vet prescription