Holding chickens alot/walking around your house

[Carladelida]

I have a question and maybe it's just me being a clean freak but literally how do some of you let your chickens walk around your house?
I am so curious because I was under the impression that like, touching chickens poop, or the chickens step on their poop and it's all over the place, on my hands, on your shirt or pants (if you let them stand on your clothes), etc.
What do you do? Change your clothes every time you're around your chickens?
I have 2 young kids and I worry if I'm going to get one of them sick if I've been around the chickens.
I do wash my hands right away after handling anything chicken related. But I feel kinda bad cause my 3 year old loves to hang out with them as much as I do but I'm so afraid she's gunna get salmonella.
Tbh I'm pretty sure she just got over having salmonella because last week she was throwing up/diarrhea for a whole week.
Just need some home/mama/chicken mama advice. TIA!!

 

[nuthatched]

Your kids are more likely to get salmonella from sitting in a grocery cart or licking a toy at school than handling or being around chickens.
I don't let birds onto my house and I can't think of anyone here who does.
I don't wear my shoes in the house and I wash my hands after I'm done.
That's it.
Your child's symptoms also sound like a stomach flu or food poisoning. Did you have a doctor verify?

 

[Carladelida]

Your kids are more likely to get salmonella from sitting in a grocery cart or licking a toy at school than handling or being around chickens.
I don't let birds onto my house and I can't think of anyone here who does.
I don't wear my shoes in the house and I wash my hands after I'm done.
That's it.
Your child's symptoms also sound like a stomach flu or food poisoning. Did you have a doctor verify?

No our dr just gave her antinausea medicine but right? At first I felt like it was a stomach bug but then I started thinking about the chickens. They were in the house and just transferred outside recently.

 

[WingsysRoost]

I had a temporary house chicken for a couple of months. She was recovering from a health issue, and then her eggs couldn't be eaten for a while due to the antibiotics she had been on, so she was kept inside overnight (in a crate so she couldn't just eat random things all night) to ensure that her egg wouldn't be mixed with the other eggs by accident. There was no effective way to keep her safe but also separate from the others overnight, especially not while we were trying to introduce her back into the flock. If she did poop on the floor, I just cleaned it up.

For me, I have "chicken clothes" that I wear to handle chickens. Usually, this is whatever I am wearing at the time, which then get washed as soon as I am done wearing them. I make sure to wash my hands well after I have been taking care of them or handling them. If I'm wearing clothes that I don't want to have to wash, I just wear a jacket or something over top. Basically, I just use general hygiene practices most of the time.

 

[Carladelida]

I had a temporary house chicken for a couple of months. She was recovering from a health issue, and then her eggs couldn't be eaten for a while due to the antibiotics she had been on, so she was kept inside overnight (in a crate so she couldn't just eat random things all night) to ensure that her egg wouldn't be mixed with the other eggs by accident. There was no effective way to keep her safe but also separate from the others overnight, especially not while we were trying to introduce her back into the flock. If she did poop on the floor, I just cleaned it up.

For me, I have "chicken clothes" that I wear to handle chickens. Usually, this is whatever I am wearing at the time, which then get washed as soon as I am done wearing them. I make sure to wash my hands well after I have been taking care of them or handling them. If I'm wearing clothes that I don't want to have to wash, I just wear a jacket or something over top. Basically, I just use general hygiene practices most of the time.

Thank you. That's my current method, usually l try to tend to them in the morning and then just shower and change out of those clothes. But mid day and end of day, I am less touchy I guess, cause I don't want to change my clothes.
So did you let her just Roam your house if she wasn't in the crate or could she be outside during the day?

 

[WingsysRoost]

Thank you. That's my current method, usually l try to tend to them in the morning and then just shower and change out of those clothes. But mid day and end of day, I am less touchy I guess, cause I don't want to change my clothes.
So did you let her just Roam your house if she wasn't in the crate or could she be outside during the day?

She would roam inside for like a minute or two under supervision if I needed to clean her crate or to give her medication when she was on it. Mostly, she was outside as much as possible - she had a chicken tractor that she would stay in so that the other chickens wouldn't pick on her while she was laying her egg and so I could verify which egg was hers. Once she had either laid her egg or it had reached a certain time of day (when the other eggs would be collected), she could go out and free range, once she had reintegrated more with the others.

Makes sense! I usually just have the same clothes all day, unless I've done something like cleaning out the coop, which I will shower right after. I'm usually not holding my chickens too much, though. Most of mine don't like being held, but I will pet them if they come near me. In that case, though, I can just wash my hands.

 

[Acre4Me]

Although chicks/chickens CAN carry salmonella, not all of them carry it. Yes, there have been outbreaks linked to chicks/chickens (live ones, not meat department), it is not that common.

Separate shoes -or shoes off outside/in garage. Some have certain clothing,. Wash hands -always s good time after handling any animal, even your house cat.

If you want some other birds that could be more kid friendly, but do not carry Salmonella, get some Coturnix Quail. These are the quail that people raise for meat/eggs. We had them when my kid was younger, and she really enjoyed them. She was not a toddler though. You can keep them in a cage or small enclosure too.

 

[Prince and Pavo]

All you need to do in order to avoid getting sick from interacting with chickens is not touch your mouth or face, especially if you have poo on your hands, and wash your hands with soap after handling them.

The more your body comes into contact with germs, the more it boosts your immune system and the stronger your body will be at fighting against the germs. If you’re always worried about avoiding all germs at all times, your body will be “inexperienced” with killing them, making you more susceptible to sickness, or even entirely unable to fight against the invading pathogen, so whenever you do come into contact with the germ, your immune system won’t know how to deal with it.

Remember, “If it doesn’t kill you it’ll only make you stronger.”

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I also have "chicken shoes," boots actually, that I wear when I'm going out to the chicken coop/run. These boots stay on the back porch. I also have a specific bib apron that I wear for collecting eggs, cleaning the hen house, etc., and when cleaning the hen house I wear non-latex gloves and a mask, which I discard in a trash sack that stays out there until it's full and then gets burned. When we have baby chicks in the house, same thing, I wear gloves when handling them or cleaning the brooder, and we burn their bedding.

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

I have a question and maybe it's just me being a clean freak but literally how do some of you let your chickens walk around your house?
I am so curious because I was under the impression that like, touching chickens poop, or the chickens step on their poop and it's all over the place, on my hands, on your shirt or pants (if you let them stand on your clothes), etc.
What do you do? Change your clothes every time you're around your chickens?
I have 2 young kids and I worry if I'm going to get one of them sick if I've been around the chickens.
I do wash my hands right away after handling anything chicken related. But I feel kinda bad cause my 3 year old loves to hang out with them as much as I do but I'm so afraid she's gunna get salmonella.
Tbh I'm pretty sure she just got over having salmonella because last week she was throwing up/diarrhea for a whole week.
Just need some home/mama/chicken mama advice. TIA!!

I know people who have indoor chickens, they have chicken diapers for them and all of their children are fine. She mainly has injured/deformed indoor chickens such as cross beaked, broken winged, disabled leg and so on. Then at night they have a little pen for the chickens, I’d imagine having an indoor chicken without a diaper would be similar to a parrot? Clean up right after and keeping them off carpets. I’d imagine indoor chickens also get bathed at least once a year… as for illness I’m not sure how common that is, we have children outside with my chickens a lot and none of us have gotten any chicken-related illnesses. I’d imagine salmonella from chickens is the same as from eggs, it’ll only happen if the chicken itself has some form of infectious bacteria. Like how only 1 in 20,000 people get salmonella from raw eggs, it all depends on the bacteria.
I wouldn’t take my word for it I could be wrong but these are just things I’ve learned from people who do have indoor chickens and my uncle who used to (yuck) drink raw eggs