This year we have a lamb with sore mouth. The photo is one that I took off the internet to show it. We haven’t had it on the farm for about 4 years and it was a bit surprising to see who got it and who didn’t. Here is a site for the technical information
http://animalscience.ag.utk.edu/sheep/soremouth_in_sheep.htm
The first time we saw it, we didn’t really understand how to keep it at bay and Emilie picked it up. It took a while for it to run it’s course. Turns out that one of the new twins has it while her the other twin doesn’t. A little treatment with iodine and glycerin will do the trick. It won’t be able to get rid of the virus, but the treatment might reduce the sore a little sooner. Bit of a bummer, but I would rather have the lamb go through this then have the flock get lice or some other bug.
The only effect that is causes now, besides the little lamb having it, is that I will not let a lamb off the property while there is active infection. It generally runs a couple of weeks and it started about 2 weeks ago, so we are half way there. Once a sheep has sore mouth it generally won’t get it again. It builds up antibodies to it and passes those to it’s offspring. We brought in Ohio Dawn and it is possible that she brought in this strain. There is no real way of knowing. Sore mouth is a pox virus and runs it course. You can vaccinate for it, but in the larger Western states, getting the vaccine has been a real issue. Seems to me, like the Chicken pox, you would be best served by letting it run its course.
