histoplasosis

[erindubb]

Hi - I read a little bit about this "bird poop disease". have any of you had problems with chicken diseases. I have two little kids (3 and 1) and I remind the older one to not put her hands in her mouth about one million times a day. But, she still needs reminding. The baby - i don't let him touch the chicks because he puts everything in his mouth - not just his hands. But he crawls on the grass and so do the chicks. Ahhh. It grosses me out.

 

[teach1rusl]

I pay little attention to all of those germ-related animal stories. I grew up with tons of animals, which we petted and handled all the time, we played in the dirt, etc. and I'm sure other than supper time, never worried about washing our hands. We also never had ear infections, allergies, and all these other childhood sicknesses. I didn't know I was allergic to pennicillin based products until I was almost 40, because I'd never had amoxicillin. Now days, in the days of hand sanitizer everywhere, and washing your hands every 15 seconds, and "don't touch that - it's dirty!" my friends' kids are sick all the time with those very same things. We should just keep amoxicillin on tap it seems, as much as their kids go through it. We've become such a nation of germaphobes, that our kids have no build in tolerances for the basics anymore. Play with those baby chicks, let your kids enjoy them. I'm sure our hands have more germs on them than those chicks will ever have.

 

[BuffaloWings]

Histoplasmosis is caused from a fungus found in soil contaminated with bird droppings. The actual fungus name is Histoplasma Capsulatum. Being in healthcare, I would say overall it is rare in people with normal immune systems. I have taken care of a few patients that have had it. Most peoples symptoms start off with something simple like a cough, etc. The treatment for it can be long and expensive treatments with anti-fungal medications. Usually it is seen in the lungs but can be in other organs as well. Sure you should were a mask when cleaning the coop and the risk of inhalation of the airborne fungal spores is likely, but to be honest I have never done this myself. Certainly I wouldn't let kids around while cleaning the coop without some form of protection. There is a ton of information on the internet, some good, some bad.

 

[jjparke]

Quote:
There is actually a lot of scientific truth to this. My sister had a friend her kept her house absolutely spotless and never let her kids "touch" anything and constantly with the hand sanitizer. Now her kids have the weakest immune systems ever because they were never exposed to anything. Anyway that's my rant. I always make sure the kids wash their hands when they come in from outside.

 

[newchicksnducks]

Quote:

My kids should be the healthiest around!! Seriously though, I run a home day care. The children whose parents are super neat freaks and use sanitizers, etc are the ones who actually seem to have the most colds, and the strangest illnesses. Neatness and healthy cleanliness is good, extreme cleansing is going too far.

 

[Doug the Chicken Man]

It is funny that this came up yesterday. As I was driving to work this morning I heard on the news that there was a medical study released yesterday that indicated that with all the hand sanitizers and overly cleanliness of most city folk that are not exposed to the dirt and girme and germs like in the past. They are indicating exactly what was in the post that the kids need to be exposed to this stuff early on to build imunity to the germs. An example of this was you take the kids from a place like Africa or South West Asia where the cleanliness standards a slightly lower than ours. The kids are exposed and have stronger imunity systems than a lot of North American kids. Yes they get sick but are better able to fight the cold or flu. In North America we are so over clean it is causing things like autoimmune disorder and Allergies wich was explained as the body needing to fight something so it fights what is available. Its Self.