Have you had an experience with your chickens that made you sick? ...

[Kalthia]

I was not sure where to put this post - and so this seemed the best place. Not sure of even the response I expect, but a conversation about it would help.

A week or so ago, I found one of my girls was sick, very sick. She somehow got injured, and was infested with maggots. I had to put her down within hours of finding out - it was labor day and no vets were open that we could travel to, so my husband managed to do it, I tried, but could not.

Every time I think about eating eggs right now turns my stomach. I was hesitant to feed my dogs a hard boiled egg today because I could not determine if the smell was 'bad' meaning the egg was actually bad or was it just from what I had gone through, and the smell that accompanied that event.

I'm conflicted and considering trashing all the eggs I currently have, afraid they are from this sick chicken and somehow affected by what happened to her.

This is my first flock, and they are less than a year old. This is the first one I have lost (other than a chick the day after they arrived). And certainly the first animal we have had to 'take care of' in this way.

I am struggling with this - and wondering wth I was thinking getting chickens...
Anyone else have an issue like this, did you get over it?

Thanks for reading...

 

[DLA]

That's a tough thing to go through! If she was injured then got flystrike it's unlikely she was still laying so the eggs you have are likely from your healthy girls. It's completely understandable that you'd be put off eggs or anything food related to chickens after seeing flystrike first hand. Not pleasant and probably in my opinion one of the worst things to have to deal with. Maggots are gross. It may just take time for the bad memory to fade. Try to forget about it and maybe get some spearmint or peppermint or some other nice smell before eating/cooking eggs so you can associate the eggs with something pleasant and fresh. I often strew mint leaves around my coop and run to keep it fresh too. Ginger candy or tea can help with the upset stomach till you get past associating this bad event with the eggs.

 

[Kalthia]

That's a tough thing to go through! If she was injured then got flystrike it's unlikely she was still laying so the eggs you have are likely from your healthy girls. It's completely understandable that you'd be put off eggs or anything food related to chickens after seeing flystrike first hand. Not pleasant and probably in my opinion one of the worst things to have to deal with. Maggots are gross. It may just take time for the bad memory to fade. Try to forget about it and maybe get some spearmint or peppermint or some other nice smell before eating/cooking eggs so you can associate the eggs with something pleasant and fresh. I often strew mint leaves around my coop and run to keep it fresh too. Ginger candy or tea can help with the upset stomach till you get past associating this bad event with the eggs.

Thanks, I will go get some mint tea right now. Maybe that will help...

 

[The Moonshiner]

Toss all the eggs you have now.
I doubt there's any issues with them but do it just for peace of mind.
They're just eggs. You'll get some more tomorrow.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

So sorry for the loss of your hen. I had a hen get flystrike due to some internal stuff she was dealing with, and I had to put her down myself, which was extremely hard for me to do. She was separated from my main flock, though she was staying in a coop with my broody bantam at the time I discovered her flystrike. (The bantam had gone broody behind a cage, so there was nothing getting to her, not even me.) I never stopped eating any of the eggs around that time, and nobody got sick. (The broody also hatched healthy chicks.) The only time I suggest throwing out eggs are cracked ones, old ones, ones that had been on the floor that could be old or spoiled, eggs that had been sitting in the heat for too long, or the eggs of chickens being dewormed. When I crack open an egg, if it doesn't look right, I typically throw it out. When I get a cracked egg from my coop, I often feed it raw to my dog who loves it and doesn't get sick (he has a sensitive stomach, so if he's not getting sick, then that is good).

As a previous poster suggested, having the mint around can help you with the smell. Eggs really shouldn't be a bother when it comes to smell (unless you are pregnant and maybe don't know that yet?) so I would just try getting used to it again. You can try scrambling them or cooking them with bacon grease to make your eggs look or taste different too. My mom likes putting spinach in hers, I like potatoes, sausage, and cheese in mine.

 

[Kalthia]

Toss all the eggs you have now.
I doubt there's any issues with them but do it just for peace of mind.
They're just eggs. You'll get some more tomorrow.

I am leaning this way - but it seems so wasteful to toss 3-4 dozen eggs...

 

[gtaus]

Very personal posting you made. Thank you for sharing your concerns. Here are some of my thoughts, for whatever help they may offer...

A week or so ago, I found one of my girls was sick, very sick. She somehow got injured, and was infested with maggots. I had to put her down within hours of finding out - it was labor day and no vets were open that we could travel to, so my husband managed to do it, I tried, but could not.

I grew up with small animals, and in many cases learned how to butcher them before I ever learned how to care for them. We had no vets to consult, so we had to learn to care for our animals at home, the best we could, but also were taught when to put a sick or injured animal down and prevent it from suffering. With my background, I have no problem with culling animals for their sake, and the health of the remaining animals.

Raising small animals has lots of rewards and is mostly very enjoyable. Occasionally, you have to deal with sick and injured animals, and you might have to put them down. That is the responsibility of the livestock owner.

A few years ago, I had a chicken that got sick. I watched her for a number of days trying to see if there was anything I could do to help. There was not. She did not get better on her own. Then, one day, I noticed some maggots in her vent area. So, I trapped her down, picked her up, and she smelled terrible. Just like you mentioned. Without hesitation, I wrung her neck and threw her lifeless body out into the tall grass far away from the other chickens.

Did I feel bad for her? Yes. She had been a great hen and given me 2 years of wonderful eggs. But I would not let her suffer any more and helping her was beyond my skill level. Again, I don't do vets for chickens, not now, not ever. The economics of raising chickens is that I could replace my entire flock of 10 chickens 3X over for the cost of one vet visit. Vets are not an option for me.

Every time I think about eating eggs right now turns my stomach. I was hesitant to feed my dogs a hard boiled egg today because I could not determine if the smell was 'bad' meaning the egg was actually bad or was it just from what I had gone through, and the smell that accompanied that event.

Give yourself some time to overcome all the negative exposure you just received. That's OK. But keep a positive outlook that most of what you currently are feeling may not have concerns in fact.

I am an RN. I have had to experience smells I do not want to talk about. But that does not stop me from wanting to help people. You can overcome this situation, and next time (if ever) it will be easier.

I'm conflicted and considering trashing all the eggs I currently have, afraid they are from this sick chicken and somehow affected by what happened to her.

You know, the other eggs are probably all fine. You have a bad association with the smell and the situation you just went through. If it makes you feel better, maybe you take your existing eggs, if they all look good, and scramble them up and feed them back to your hens. That gives you time to feel confident that your other eggs are clean while at the same time you are not wasting all those eggs.

Chickens love scramble eggs. Every once in a while, I get a broken or soft-shelled egg that breaks when I gather it up. If possible, I will scoop it up and put it into the chicken bucket with other scraps for the hens to eat. I don't leave broken eggs in the nest boxes.

This is my first flock, and they are less than a year old. This is the first one I have lost (other than a chick the day after they arrived). And certainly the first animal we have had to 'take care of' in this way.

I have been raising small animals for over 50 years. Bad things can happen to animals under your care. That comes with the job. Sometimes it was my fault, usually there was nothing I could do to help. You are still learning how to care for your animals and how to cope with loss and disappointments. All I can say is that if you continue to raise small animals, you will find ways that work for you to overcome these feelings. If you stick to it, you will get stronger emotionally and small setbacks and disappointments will be easier to handle.

I am struggling with this - and wondering wth I was thinking getting chickens...
Anyone else have an issue like this, did you get over it?

I suspect all of us with feelings struggle with loss and disappointment when bad things happen to the animals under our care. I remind myself that I do the best I can for my animals, give them a good life for however long they have, and try to learn from my mistakes and not to repeat them.

My chickens are not my pets, so I have already built in some emotional distance in situations like you just experienced. I have no problem dispatching an animal to prevent suffering or culling it to prevent disease from infecting the healthy animals. But I have had 50 years of experience of dealing with small animals. Over the years I have found ways that work for me to deal with loss and disappointments in raising small animals. Mostly, these days, I just refocus my efforts on the remaining animals that need my care and remind myself that most of the time having a flock is very rewarding.

Good luck on your journey. We have all traveled down the same road at some point in our lives, too. You will get stronger with time and experience, so don't be too hard on yourself.

 

[Kalthia]

So sorry for the loss of your hen. I had a hen get flystrike due to some internal stuff she was dealing with, and I had to put her down myself, which was extremely hard for me to do. She was separated from my main flock, though she was staying in a coop with my broody bantam at the time I discovered her flystrike. (The bantam had gone broody behind a cage, so there was nothing getting to her, not even me.) I never stopped eating any of the eggs around that time, and nobody got sick. (The broody also hatched healthy chicks.) The only time I suggest throwing out eggs are cracked ones, old ones, ones that had been on the floor that could be old or spoiled, eggs that had been sitting in the heat for too long, or the eggs of chickens being dewormed. When I crack open an egg, if it doesn't look right, I typically throw it out. When I get a cracked egg from my coop, I often feed it raw to my dog who loves it and doesn't get sick (he has a sensitive stomach, so if he's not getting sick, then that is good).

As a previous poster suggested, having the mint around can help you with the smell. Eggs really shouldn't be a bother when it comes to smell (unless you are pregnant and maybe don't know that yet?) so I would just try getting used to it again. You can try scrambling them or cooking them with bacon grease to make your eggs look or taste different too. My mom likes putting spinach in hers, I like potatoes, sausage, and cheese in mine.

Thanks! I am way past being pregnant... so that is a big ol' NO! LOL

I will consider... I cooked older eggs (way before she had this issue) last night, a dozen for my husband. When I opened it today - the smell was not necessarily 'off' but I kept sniffing because I could not decide. My dogs did not hesitate (but they eat deer poop on occasion so I don't consider them a good test)!

I couldn't eat them today - I just knew that trying some scrambled today would put me over the edge... which kinda is why I wrote this post in the beginning.

I can in my scientific brain know that the eggs are good - how could this incident truly affect even her eggs? They are contained - it isn't like a maggot got into the eggs -I know I might be having an emotional reaction vs. a reaction to a realistic concern for the health of the eggs.

Just trying to work this through...

 

[Kalthia]

Very personal posting you made. Thank you for sharing your concerns. Here are some of my thoughts, for whatever help they may offer...



I grew up with small animals, and in many cases learned how to butcher them before I ever learned how to care for them. We had no vets to consult, so we had to learn to care for our animals at home, the best we could, but also were taught when to put a sick or injured animal down and prevent it from suffering. With my background, I have no problem with culling animals for their sake, and the health of the remaining animals.

Raising small animals has lots of rewards and is mostly very enjoyable. Occasionally, you have to deal with sick and injured animals, and you might have to put them down. That is the responsibility of the livestock owner.

A few years ago, I had a chicken that got sick. I watched her for a number of days trying to see if there was anything I could do to help. There was not. She did not get better on her own. Then, one day, I noticed some maggots in her vent area. So, I trapped her down, picked her up, and she smelled terrible. Just like you mentioned. Without hesitation, I wrung her neck and threw her lifeless body out into the tall grass far away from the other chickens.

Did I feel bad for her? Yes. She had been a great hen and given me 2 years of wonderful eggs. But I would not let her suffer any more and helping her was beyond my skill level. Again, I don't do vets for chickens, not now, not ever. The economics of raising chickens is that I could replace my entire flock of 10 chickens 3X over for the cost of one vet visit. Vets are not an option for me.



Give yourself some time to overcome all the negative exposure you just received. That's OK. But keep a positive outlook that most of what you currently are feeling may not have concerns in fact.

I am an RN. I have had to experience smells I do not want to talk about. But that does not stop me from wanting to help people. You can overcome this situation, and next time (if ever) it will be easier.



You know, the other eggs are probably all fine. You have a bad association with the smell and the situation you just went through. If it makes you feel better, maybe you take your existing eggs, if they all look good, and scramble them up and feed them back to your hens. That gives you time to feel confident that your other eggs are clean while at the same time you are not wasting all those eggs.

Chickens love scramble eggs. Every once in a while, I get a broken or soft-shelled egg that breaks when I gather it up. If possible, I will scoop it up and put it into the chicken bucket with other scraps for the hens to eat. I don't leave broken eggs in the nest boxes.



I have been raising small animals for over 50 years. Bad things can happen to animals under your care. That comes with the job. Sometimes it was my fault, usually there was nothing I could do to help. You are still learning how to care for your animals and how to cope with loss and disappointments. All I can say is that if you continue to raise small animals, you will find ways that work for you to overcome these feelings. If you stick to it, you will get stronger emotionally and small setbacks and disappointments will be easier to handle.



I suspect all of us with feelings struggle with loss and disappointment when bad things happen to the animals under our care. I remind myself that I do the best I can for my animals, give them a good life for however long they have, and try to learn from my mistakes and not to repeat them.

My chickens are not my pets, so I have already built in some emotional distance in situations like you just experienced. I have no problem dispatching an animal to prevent suffering or culling it to prevent disease from infecting the healthy animals. But I have had 50 years of experience of dealing with small animals. Over the years I have found ways that work for me to deal with loss and disappointments in raising small animals. Mostly, these days, I just refocus my efforts on the remaining animals that need my care and remind myself that most of the time having a flock is very rewarding.

Good luck on your journey. We have all traveled down the same road at some point in our lives, too. You will get stronger with time and experience, so don't be too hard on yourself.

Gtaus,
Thank you for your post.
I was a nurse for 20 years - so I know what you mean about smells. It has been 15 years since I was a nurse. And we have come late to the rural life. I wanted chickens even when I lived in the city - knowing it gave us some food security and autonomy that we could not have in our other circumstances.

I tried to do this myself - I didn't want to burden my husband, I just couldn't bring the axe down. I didn't feel confident I could do the method you mentioned either. My husband wasn't aware until after that, and immediately said I can help, and did. He felt good about helping her although, it was hard for him too. We consider them pet and egg providers - and are emotionally invested, even though we know the birds are fragile and expendable - and are really here to provide. We would not get meat chickens unless we had a butcher to manage that portion - I know my limits.

It is a journey just like you said. Some of this has been hard, but the good parts of moving to the country and digging our hands into the earth to build and sow and grow has so many blessings in it and far outweighs the issues like this. I have to learn how to do this, and will continue... maybe next time I will have the confidence I need to know and feel secure in taking care of the problem.

Now - the smell issue will hopefully fade. I know, from nursing, that this issue will take time.

Thank you for the pep talk

 

[DLA]

Thanks! I am way past being pregnant... so that is a big ol' NO! LOL

I will consider... I cooked older eggs (way before she had this issue) last night, a dozen for my husband. When I opened it today - the smell was not necessarily 'off' but I kept sniffing because I could not decide. My dogs did not hesitate (but they eat deer poop on occasion so I don't consider them a good test)!

I couldn't eat them today - I just knew that trying some scrambled today would put me over the edge... which kinda is why I wrote this post in the beginning.

I can in my scientific brain know that the eggs are good - how could this incident truly affect even her eggs? They are contained - it isn't like a maggot got into the eggs -I know I might be having an emotional reaction vs. a reaction to a realistic concern for the health of the eggs.

Just trying to work this through...