Therapeutic management of contagious ecthyma (ORF) in an Assam hill goat

Abstract

Contagious ecthyma also known as orf is an acute, highly contagious and economically important viral disease of small ruminants. Clinically managing orf in animals is challenging due to the lack of a specific antiviral treatment for the infection. A female goat of 1.5 years presented with the history of inappetence, dull and depressed, nasal exudates, and proliferative skin lesions around the oral cavity and muzzle region. On clinical and physical examination, the characteristic lesions observed are suggestive of contagious ecthyma. The animal was treated with enrofloxacin (10mg/kg, IM), meloxicam (0.5mg/kg, IM) for 3 days and chlorpheniramine maleate (0.5 mg/kg, IM) for 3 days. The lesions were cleaned with a potassium permanganate solution and subsequently dressed with boroglyceride ointment topically. The animal showed improvement in its clinical condition, with complete recovery from the oral lesions after 11 days of treatment.