[Sydmurph]

Hi everyone; I'm having awful luck with my herd. I'm new to goats and am dealing with just about every illness and problem you could think of. To top it off, I have a sweet doeling who was lovely enough to share her ORF with me. (The vet confirmed that's what it was). Now I've read all the clinical findings about the disease but very little from people who have had it. My finger HURTS! Lol. They don't really mention that part. Any suggestions for relief or at least what to expect would be awesome.

I'm totally regretting this 'need' for goats...btw my barn is brand new and cleaned often. Promise it's not neglect/ lack of cleanliness that's causing problems. Any insight into your personal experience with ORF on YOU and not the goats would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[Used2bmimi]

Oh my goodness! No, I have no experience with orf, but I just wanted to say I am sorry you are having to deal with this. And, hang in there, the goats are worth the trouble!

 

[Tenacross]

A little google searching and I came to the conclusion she is talking about sore mouth.

 

[WarPony]

CDC has a page about it, not sure how helpful it will be:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/orf_virus/

 

[loggyacreslivestock]

You can use campho-phenique on it. Some people have severe reactions to it. A local guy got it this spring and both his arms swelled to about 4 times their normal size. Almost had to have them amputated.

You will need to keep it covered so you don't spread it to other parts of your own body. You can also get a secondary bacterial infection from it, so it is good to go to your doctor and get antibiotics for it. Make sure to tell them ahead of time you have orf so if they aren't familiar, they can do research on treatment before you get there. A lot of doctors aren't familiar with it. It will take time to go away, and will be very sore and swollen.

 

[Sydmurph]

Yes Tenacross, exactly. Soremouth = ORF = contagious ecthyma. In any terminology it sounds ominous!!

 

[happybleats]

UGH not fun at all..Im sorry. You might be able to treat it as they would with Hand foot and mouth disease?? As with Goats, Im sure this will need to run its course and secondary infection is a concern...
For cold sores we use Tea tree oil blendied with sweet almond oil (or any oil you have) sooth it as it heals...
also peppermint, lemon or lavender can help sooth and dry them....these are all Essencial Oils..
Camphor will help as well..

 

[Sydmurph]

So happybleats, are those meant to be antivirals? Or just to speed healing?

 

[happybleats]

A bit of both , plus should sooth them : )

 

[Sydmurph]

Went to the doc this aft; prescribed clindamycin and topical fucithalmic ointment, both to circumvent secondary infection. Clearly if neither of these work my self-diagnosis of ORF is most likely correct. In which case if anyone wants I'd be happy to post a very detailed pic of my lovely manicured thumb. LOL. Good thing because nail polish remover would REALLY sting.

Just kidding. But serious about the pic if anyone wants to see.

 

[happybleats]

Yes, Post your picture...we are all about learning here... hope your treatment works fast!!

 

[simeo]

Hope the treatment works for you.

I understand your pain with "everything that can go wrong will go wrong" Now a few months later we're finally starting to even out and we had everything under the sun going wrong!

Annnnnnnd..... one of our goats had soremouth. I couldn't believe it but she did. It started spreading all over her lips and I was worried it would get on me or my family. We were extra careful about handling her so we didn't get it on us but I'll imagine you still need to treat the goat before she spreads soremouth to everybody else....

As to treatment to the goat it didn't seem to go away on her until we put some Tomorrow mastitis tube on the soremouth directly. It took about 3 days for it to dry and clear up and cost $2. We continued treatment on her for another 3 days and it spread to nobody else. We just used enough to lightly cost her lips each time. Whatever you do don't pick it off her and don't let it come in contact with any other cuts on you!