Rash from chickens?

Hi. I've had my 2 chickens a year, so I am sure I am not allergic to them. Recently, in the last two weeks, I've been carrying them twice a day from their run to a portable coop I built so that they could graze in different areas of the yard. I carry one under my right arm, put in coop and go back for the other. No problems. Recently they have become so tame I can scoop them both up and once and carry one under each arm. When I did this, I noticed something not right with my Speckled Sussex. She had something hard on her. Upon closer inspection, she had a ball of poop affixed to her bottom this size if a baseball! I keep my coop and run fairly clean, so I don't know how this happened, and she is brown, so that is why I didn't notice right away, although I will say the smell should have alerted me, but as a fairly new chicken owner, i wasn't sure how badly they were supposed to stink on a regular basis. My son helped me by holding the chicken while I clipped off the poop and threw it away -- quick and easy. But I noticed the next day, although she was much improved, she still wasn't what I would call "clean." So I gave her a bath in a plastic tub of warm water. She wasn't liking it too much -- I had to hold her in there the whole time and swish her butt back and forth. Some stubborn poop still clung to some feathers, so I kept splashing and rubbing that area until she was clean, then I dried her off and put her out in the sun. My other chicken is white and not that dirty, but she has some mud on her feathers and a little poop on her behind, so I figured why not give her a bath too. She didn't like it much better. I washed her all over and brought her out. Now, two days later, i have a rash up and down my forearms that looks like poison ivy. I have gone out and clipped some azaleas for bouquets lately, so I could see maybe getting poison ivy on my legs, but on my forearms?! Could the rash have anything to do with the chickens or the poop?
Thanks so much!

Did you use flea and tick shampoo?

Maybe you are allergic to the shampoo you used to wash her?

No, I just used some Ivory bar soap that I had melted with water to use for washing hands. I just took them out now, the way I always do, and the rash spread up both my inner biceps, so I'm going to have to assume it's them. The only other thing I can think of that was different was my son was mowing the lawn at the time and joked that the white chicken might turn green from lying on the cut grass (she didn't), but I don't ever remember being allergic to grass either.
Such a mystery!

I would see a doctor about it! Sounds awful!

How are you doing now?

Thanks for asking. I went to the doctor that day, by which point it had spread all over my body, and she said it looked like hives -- so itchy! But I said no, I never had hives and I'm not allergic to anything. She said maybe it was stress (should have guessed) but definitely not chickens (my stress RELIEVER). Am on Prednisone and noticeably better already.

Aahh Prednisone.....the drug that will save your life but make you wish you were dead...gotta love that stuff! Good thing is, short term it's wonderful and makes you feel better almost instantly!

Glad you're doing better. That's puzzling, I know sometimes one can develop a contact dermatitis from something they've not been allergic to in the past. But the whole body thing says something bigger and stress is usually the winner there! So, did she prescribe MORE time with the chickens? That would be cool!

Why will Prednisone make me wish I was dead? (worried eyebrows)

Did the doctor say it might be a food allergy also? I am glad you are feeling better!

chickenlady12 said:

Why will Prednisone make me wish I was dead? (worried eyebrows)

Click to expand...

Sorry, probably shouldn't have said that! I worked for a lung doctor for years and pretty much all the patients were on prednisone, but that was long term use. Short term bursts like you're on have very minimal side effects, so you're all good. My long term patients used to joke just picking the bottle up from the pharmacy made them gain 15lbs