Children holding chickens

[coffeelady3]

The "s" word....salmonella. (I think)

 

[luvmychicknkids]

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OH MY!!!! those two are CUTE!!!!!!!!!

 

[CritterHill]

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Yeah, I thought salmonella was one concern (but I have always wondered where on earth they would pick it up if they were hand raised by us though?), but also chickens spend a lot of time scratching around in their own poo.

Having said that, my 5 year old is (still) a thumb sucker, handles the chickens all the time, collects their feathers, is immune suppressed, and won't put the hand sanitizer on her thumb (because it then tastes gross when she sucks on it) if I'm not looking. And yet, she has never been ill from the chickens (*knocks on wood*)

So I don't think it is like they all carry the plague or anything.

Still, probably wise to wash your hands after handling them. Maybe someone else will chime in if there was a different concern I am not aware of?

By the way, my daughter was very ill a few months ago, and before we figured out what it was, I very specifically mentioned to her pediatricians and her rheumatologists that we had chickens so that they could take any chicken borne diseases into account and they never batted an eye about the chickies.