Chicken Little alarm 🐣. Is it real?

[Ladies of the Forest]

Good morning, everybody . I hope you’re all safe and happy. I’m writing to get an opinion. I’ve never heard of any eye diseases that can be caused by being around chickens, but my sister said that when she worked in an optometrist’s office, they had a patient who had a “horrible eye infection” that was caused by being around her chickens. My sister is a bit of a Chicken Little, herself, so I took the story with a grain of salt. Any comments?

 

[sourland]

Perhaps the patient had their eye pecked by a chicken. It happens.

 

[333113]

Anyone who works in a garden or barnyard and rubs their eyes with a dirty hand can have all sorts of eye trouble. Also, feed dust, dander, and, for me, the timothy in some hay mixes can cause allergies that might make a person rub their eyes.

I have never heard of any eye disease specific to raising chickens.

 

[Chicalina]

She might be referring to psittacosis which is primarily a respiratory disease but can also cause conjunctivitis.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psittacosis

 

[Ladies of the Forest]

Thanks so much for your sensible replies. She said that it was a really bad infection that took forever to go away. I’ll bet the scenario of working in the chicken coop and rubbing her eyes is why it happened. I told her that I had only heard of a lung disease that could be caused from working in a chicken coop, not eye diseases. I wear glasses, so I have that extra layer of protection, along with my mask, when I clean in the chicken areas. But my grandchildren are in and out of there, too, so I wanted to make sure. I knew I could count on this backyard chickens Community to give me the right info. Thank you all! Happy Labor Day weekend! Stay safe

 

[Chicalina]

I've kept chickens for years and also ducks and parrots in the past. And in my house. Never had this disease. I think it is pretty rare.

 

[Betzz]

There will always be an alarmist around to worry about whatever you are doing. The good thing about this is it does remind us to take care about things like cleanliness in our coops, rubbing our eyes while dusting with diamotaceous earth... Perhaps there ARE worrisome dangers, I’ve never run into them, but if we are all vigilant, we can protect not just ourselves, but our chickens from most anything.

 

[Ladies of the Forest]

Truer words......
If you don’t want to have chickens, don’t have chickens. It’s that easy! You don’t have to start spreading rumors about how dangerous it is to have them. Just don’t have them.

 

[Betzz]

Truer words......
If you don’t want to have chickens, don’t have chickens. It’s that easy! You don’t have to start spreading rumors about how dangerous it is to have them. Just don’t have them.

Why must some people always find the dark side to what others are doing, anyway? Maybe the best thing is to take them a dozen of your beautiful home eggs and if nothing else makes them understand why you have hens, that alone will... especially if they are bakers!

 

[Ladies of the Forest]

Amen