As if we didn't have enough problems this year, yet another one comes along. Two weeks ago I noticed lesions on the mouths of several older ewes and I promptly isolated them. They recovered but now I have about 20 more with varying stages of lesions. It is no longer possible to isolate the individual animals. There are 25 in a separate pasture and they seem okay. No new animals were brought in and we don't take sheep to fairs.So where it came from is a mystery. About 10 years ago we had a few cases that came in on an animal and after, had the barns whitewashed and disinfected. I have too many sheep here now and we've had a lot of rain too. My vet says the virus can linger for years in the soil . Is there any benefit to the vaccine and will it give them immunity or should I just let them all be exposed at this point.Will that give them immunity and will it pass on to future lambs? We don't breed till November and lambs don't arrive till March and April. I have 85 sheep , should only keep 30 through the winter and can't sell any now with this. I'm about ready to shoot them or me at this point. Help!

-- Kate Henderson (sheeplady@catskill.net), August 26, 2000

Answers

Kate,

All this will pass. Best to allow all the sheep be exposed to have herd immunity. To late to vaccinate. Be very cautious with the handling of the critters..We don't want the children or the grown ups infected. (Human of course). This can be a real problem at lambing time, however the sheep should have recovered by then. By spring perhaps we will see $1.20 a pound. JR

-- JR (jr3star@earthlink.net), August 26, 2000.

This must be an awful year for everyone with sheep. I have spent my summer keeping sheep alive (a little bit of an exaggeration) my sheep 's parasites built up an immunity to two classes of wormers and now I have wormed them with tramisol before being told it could cause birth defects so I am trying to keep the ram away which you know is not easy!! Good Luck, had fungus and other stuff but not yet soremouth.

-- Debbie Wolcott (bwolcott@cwis.net), August 26, 2000.

Kate we got soremouth our first outing showing in 1990. We just let it run its course and even infected our bucks with swabs to the mouth. We have never had an outbreak again. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), August 26, 2000.

Soremouth kept me from taking stock to a National Show. None of the lambs had been anywhere except a weighin for the county fair. Then they were on and off and back on the trailer just that fast. My grandpa had hauled other livestock for somebody else in that trailer. I guess thats where they picked up the virus. According to my mom who called Pipestone Vets out of Minnesota-who offer the service of how to handle all sorts sheep problems it takes about 2 weeks for it to show signs. The timing was right. We tried to keep it from spreading but it was at its worst during that show. We didn't go. I hope anyone who has contagious diseases keeps their animals home. Pipestone said to vaccinate all new lambs to prevent this or at least slow it down. THis is done with a scratch technique. You have to be very careful even when feeding to not get orf-the human version. We cleaned and disinfected constantly especcially with the lambs that chewed on everything.

-- Tayler Carver (wool_lite@yahoo.com), November 05, 2000.