Can YOU get sick from handling chickens?

[cookinmom]

AMEN!

 

[silkiechicken]

I agree, all this kill this kill that germ thing is overrated. I say play in the dirt! Go figure that the children with the most allergies are ones from homes that are constantly cleaned and disinfected. Gotta build up that immune system.

I end up with chicken all over me and have yet to get sick from not washing my hands.... *knock on wood*

 

[bantymum]

I have an eight year old boy who also plays in the dirt and grass. however I rake up the chook droppings when I can but the germs will stay there anyway. I guess the immune system will build up.

I have to say that dust from the chicken coop is supposed to be really dangerous and I use a dustmask if its windy.
I caught clamydia pnumonia once and the doctor blamed my chooks.
I would not let the kids clean out the coop, thats mum's job lol.
Helen

 

[Spydrworks]

Anyone can get sick from any animal. The focus here needs to be the basics of simple hygene in care of the animals such as cleaning the poop regularly, having proper ventilation, changing water every day and making sure the animals are away from substances that can harm them. Hand washing is also a simple hygene approach to keeping the risk of getting ill from a pet to a minimum. If anything washing hands will help prevent spreading mites and coming down with salmonella.

A dirty enclosure/environment is a primary cause of illness from animals more so than from the animals themselves. Look at bird flu for example. Those getting sick from infected birds are those who keep their birds in filthy conditions. Though there is such a thing as being too clean as well. Here is a link to an article about a very interesting study comparing the immune systems of lab rats with street rats.

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2006/06/16/rats-hygiene.html

However...

When dealing with children, especially in an age of antibiotic resistant bacteria, there is a liability you must consider.

Keep with the hand sanitizers and refrain from allowing young children to enter a coop (handle chickens outside the coop only) until they are older and their immune systems more mature. You only want to introduce such types of germs to children so they can build a natural immunity, but you also want to refrain from overwhelming their still growing biological systems, which can have an adversed affect and make them terribly ill. Children do get sick more often than adults and the fact they're still growing is why.

Just be reasonable and simply keep up with the basic care of your pets.

 

[4H kids and mom]

Thank you all. I dont want you to think that I'm one of those moms that carries hand sanatizer with me to the parks! I believe in dirt and letting children get dirty. But, as Spydrworks mentioned, children are more susceptable to certain things, and can get things worse than adults due to their immature immune systems. I dont want to worry or freak out, I just want to be cautious and aware. I dont panic when my son rides his bike without knee pads and scrapes himself up pretty good. I didnt freak out when my daughter was barely a year old and decided to eat a mouthful of sand at the playground, though I caught the ridicule of other mothers there that day. I dont worry when my children cross the streets, or run down the fields until I cant see them anymore. BUT, I do worry about serious illnesses and diseases. Something that really make them sick or worse...now that scares the crap outta me. Those of you here who are also moms know what I'm talking about. As long as I know that decent hygiene and normal animal husbandry will keep them safe, that's good enough for me.

 

[chikken lover]

is it true can you get sick from handling chickins because if not i want one i want to know what kind of sickness they have if they have one .. i love chickens , lol

 

[chikken lover]

soo... pretty much is you can have any kind of animal and wont get sick as long as you clean there poop ?? :|

 

[silkiechicken]

This thread is 5 years old.

 

[Rolls]

This thread may be 5 years old, but it's an oldie but a goodie!

My daughter use to be in love with a banty rooster I have named "Chicken Little", (or CL as he lets me call him). CL has the greatest personality you could ever find. She even took him to my grandson's show and tell when he was in preschool, (my grandson, not CL). Now she has a friend telling her about all of these germs my grandsons could get from CL and now she has done away with their normal weekly spend the night at grandpa's house.

She has gone as far as to blame our contact with our chickens for my wife getting a urinary track infection. I guess things have just gotten so politically correct that we have strayed away from common sense. It has been less than two hundred years since people would bring in their livestock to keep them from freezing, (not that I envy those people). I'm in my 50s now and remember going to visit my grand aunt and uncle on their farm in Missouri. No running water, so going to the bathroom at night required a flash lite or lantern. Taking a bath consisted of draining water from a water storage tank on top of a shed into a galvanized tub.

Not once did anyone worry about becoming sick. For some reason it seems that instead of relying on history, we fall for the latest study or what someone tells a friend. Just think about how many people died during the dark ages. People started dying in mass so they blamed it on cats. However, it was the fleas on rats and without the cats to catch and kill the rats, (and the spread of fleas) they lost half of Europe's population. I'm sure that if our great, great grandparents saw us now they would be wondering what the heck was a matter with us.

I miss having my grandsons spending the night once a week, but it's my daughter making that decision. She claims I am choosing my chickens over my family, but I'm not choosing anything except to run my life and household the way I always have. I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones because I have never got sick from one of my chickens. However, I did get an infection at a hospital while being there for a surgery.

COMMON SENSE, we need more of it!

 

[frankliey]

ok there was a sick chicken in my yard and i keep oon getting it out now i can feel my skin crawing and it burns going to doctors