- Dec 9, 2013
- 36
- 6
- 92
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!
Thanks so much!