I'm about to be chickenless...

[TubbyChicken]

I'm meeting a friend in a couple hours with all of my flock. Those of you who have followed Andora's thread know that she found Avian Leukosis in her flock after a necropsy was performed...

My birds came from the same source so I've made the difficult decision to rehome them with someone willing to take on chicken hospice care.

I'm hoping I can get some good ideas about cleaning and disinfecting...

I have day olds coming this week and with my fresh start I'm hoping to keep a clean and healthy closed flock.

Other than cleaning out the coops of shavings what more can be done? I use rabbit waterers in my coops, can they be sterilized and reused?

What about the run?

 

[cluckychick]

I would defiantely use a diluted bleach solution and spray everything down. Some ppl don't advocate using bleach but in this case I would so you can kill whatever is still there. That's just me. Soak waters in bleach solution, lay in the sun do dry or boil them in water.

Good Luck

 

[speckledhen]

With disease a factor, I would spring for some Oxine. Kills many more germs than bleach.

 

[Andora]

I am rehoming all my birds as well along with TubbyChicken's. Oxine is kind of expensive...is there anywhere to buy it in a store rather than online so I avoid paying shipping? Does Southern State or TSC sell it?

How will I be able to get rid of all the disease around my yard? My bird free range and they've pooped in every nook and cranny. Will time take care of it?

 

[Chicken Woman]

It seems like if you live where you get alot of hard freezes this inter that might take care of the yard but I would ask a vet.

 

[TubbyChicken]

I have a diluted bleach solution ready for the cleaning...

I plan on cleaning out all of the shavings and spraying every inch of the coops with the bleach solution and allowing it to air out.

I have several rabbit waterers for my coops and I plan to bleach and then boil them...would bleaching be enough for the metal feeders as well? (They're big feeders so boiling isn't an option)

and I have a brooder to clean also...it's all wire...Bleach every square inch of it? Thus far the only chicks in it weren't sick or exposed to anything that I know of, but I still want to take ever precaution...

Could someone explain why Oxine is better than bleach? Is there anything to clean the run and outside? We have shavings that spilled into the run and in front of the coops that I've raked into the soil...Should I attempts to shovel any and all shavings? (I'm thinking that might be close to impossible)

Thank you all for the help...

I'm feeling a little sad without my chickens. I just talked with their new chicken mommy and she says they're all doing well. We ended up having one escape and make it to a drain pipe...we spent 4 hours trying to get the chicken and eventually called in the fire department to help. Thankfully she's also doing well...

 

[speckledhen]

http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/oxine.htm

Oxine is known to kill every bacteria, virus, and mold it has ever been tested against and is 200 times more effective than chlorine bleach

Liming is the only way I know to purify the dirt in the runs.​

 

[Andora]

I can't lime my entire yard, can I? That would be expensive, and my husband would kill me if it damaged the grass.

This is what I found about disinfecting after ALS:

The causative viruses are rapidly inactivated at ambient temperature and on exposure to most disinfectants.

The virus is not highly contagious compared with other viral agents and is readily inactivated by disinfectants. Transmission can be reduced or eliminated by strict sanitation. After the infection is eradicated, standard disease control and sanitation practices can keep chicken flocks free of the disease.

So if it is inactivated by ambient temperature, does that mean it doesn't survive long at room temp outside of a host? It won't stick around in my yard forever...right?

I think we should be more concerned about the IC. This is what I found about it:

The only way to get rid of the disease is to destroy all chickens on the farm. The carcasses must be disposed of in such a way (deep burial or burning, for example,) that scavengers don’t spread the disease. The buildings and equipment should be cleaned with soap or detergent and disinfected. No more chickens should be brought onto the farm for 2-3 weeks.

fragile and easily destroyed by disinfection. Prevention of the disease is relatively safe and easy with the use of a disinfectant such as Oxine. Fogging the coop on a routine preventive maintenance schedule and treating the community drinking water with 7 drops of Oxine per gallon of water would help discourage the incidence and spread of Coryza. (Oxine is EPA approved for the use in the drinking water of all poultry and livestock.) Although not mentioned often, I have found some reference to the possibility of air-borne introduction of the bacterium into the environment.

All of these things seem to assume that the chickens have been kept in buildings and not free-ranging or in a run...I'll disinfect my coop and garage, that's not an issue. I guess what I need to know is how long the germs can stay alive around the property where the chickens have been and where I can't easily disinfect.