Has anyone got Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis (Bird Keepers Lung/Flu)

[Deb ekholm]

I am a physician. I wholeheartedly agree with the recommendation of wearing an N95 mask when doing anything that will stir up dust in the coop. There are very severe chronic lung diseases that can be prevented. However, right now hospitals have a huge shortage of these masks needed to protect the doctors, nurses, therapists and assistants who are caring for patients with Covid-19, and they continue to put themselves at risk in order to care for their patients even without this much needed equipment.

If you do have an extra supply of clean N95 masks, even just a few, consider contacting your local hospital to see if they need donations to help keep your local community as healthy as possible. I know in other countries they have resorted to makeshift masks using paper or cloth stapled to rubber bands--barely even helpful from this airborne virus... Each mask is valuable and appreciated right now!

#FlattenTheCurve #StayHealthyStayHome

 

[Deb ekholm]

I really like the homemade ones but imnot crafty and am using shower caps.. 6 for a dollar and pretty. Great for covering food. Used tp spend substantially more buying same thing from catalog. Lol. I wonder if you have any thoughts about the diseases humans and chickens share. I have been really getting into this. Mareks disease is herpes and now i find out gleet is thrush athletes foot and jock itch. Every year we would get it . Round of nystatin. Now its resistant. Tried everything

 

[Cebarmlds]

@tamdeva thank you for starting this thread, it's very good information. A few weeks ago I had a sinus infection so wanted a mask to not breath in anything while cleaning the poop board which is very dusty work. I had one mask saved away, but needless to say they are hard to find these days and very expensive if you do. A bandana is better than nothing until masks are available again.

 

[HenKat]

Honestly I can't say that I know enough about poultry to make an educated comment about shared ailments, but your observations are really interesting! Certainly reinforces the need for masks, separate outerwear specially for being around the birds, and always handwashing (or showering) after being around the coop and run! There are some commonly known respiratory infections, but bacteria/fungi/viruses set up shop wherever they can... Don't become their new home

 

[Dementra]

Wow! I wish I had found this thread prior to switching up my flock between brooders and swiffer dusting the heat lamps! BLAH. Well, at least I picked up masks several weeks ago before all this hit since I was planning to stain some wood once the weather warmed up. I’m definitely going to exercise a lot more caution with it along with making sure my kids do as well!! Does this also apply to ducks then I assume?

Thanks again!

 

[Cebarmlds]

I believe it applies to all feathered creatures.
As to histoplasmosis, it can also come from bat droppings in the soil, and can sometimes cause blindness years after affecting the lungs.

 

[rosemarythyme]

My chickens are house chickens so I clean their cage (think: huge monstrosity with wood shavings on bottom) quite often. I haven't worn a mask to do it in the past, but I will now. Thanks for the info!

My worry with house chickens is in some ways you're essentially living in their coop with them. So even when you're not cleaning the cage there's little particulates that are kind of floating around all the time, just from the the birds moving around. Am I crazy for wondering about that?

I've had pet birds like parakeets and cockatiels before, but chickens seem like dander factories in comparison to other birds.

 

[Jack Sparrow]

Yeah unfortunately now is a bad time to try and find masks. Do what you can do to in the meantime, and get some when supply comes back in stock.

If you can sew, google face mask pattern. There are many free patterns for face masks there.

 

[Ghosty]

Your poop board will create much more dust if you fill it with PDZ. A LOT more. I got rid of mine for that reason.

Thanks for sharing that. I've thought of using a nonstick type of surface for my poop boards, and leaving them open on the front, so I can just scrape them off. That way I can avoid all the sand and pdz.
I get tired of shoveling out poopy pine chips and buying more, and dealing with huge amounts of poop. My main goal is to keep roost time poops off the floor, so I can clean more often, and breathe far less dust. They free range all day.

 

[Uff Da]

I've been searching for patterns/instructions for making a cloth mask, like ones used in asian countries for years. There are many variations out there, but I found one which allows for insertion of a replaceable filter layer. There is a youtube video which shows detailed sewing. Even though it is in Japanese, there is English on both the video text instructions, and pattern pieces. There is a downloadable pdf file for the pattern pieces on the blog page, as well as embedded youtube video:
https://blog.naver.com/autoyou11/221853586653
During corona virus outbreak, she has made the pattern free.
Also, there is a place to insert bendable wire, so that it form-fits along the bridge of the nose.

I have not made this one, but have downloaded the pattern, since we only have a few masks left.

Note: On webpage, you want to make sure that you click "translate" in your browser when it loads, so that you can read English. The video and pattern has some English text.

--
Mary S.

Thanks for this resource! I do sew, so I can probably throw some of these together without trouble.