Up until this year, 2026, I had only heard of ORF. This year I noticed scabs on my “bottle baby.” At first I didn’t think much of it until it started to cover almost her entire nose. I immediately thought ORF from the sheep books I had read but wanted a second opinion. I took my bottle baby and another ewe lamb with a couple scabs on her nose to the vet.

The lambs didn’t even leave the truck. The vet came out and took one look at them and said “sore mouth” aka ORF. She basically told me to watch out for complications and to let it run its course. My main concern at the time was getting it on any of my ewes’ udders. She told me if that happened to keep an eye on them and possibly give them something for pain so they continue to allow lambs to nurse.

A couple days later blisters appeared on my two of my ewes’ udders. At first it wasn’t too bad but as it progressed one became engorged with milk. I gave her stuff for the pain and tied her a couple times so her lambs could nurse. I thought about trying to hand milk her however her teats felt awful and it was extremely difficult. I think my hands caused her more pain than the lambs. After a few days it started clearing up.