PA Farm Show Illness

JakRat

Songster
10 Years
Apr 22, 2009
1,325
13
171
Dover
SO I went to the PA farm show in Harrisburg tonight and I was soooooooooooo excited about seeing all the show chickens. I practically dragged everyone over there. It started out nice, but then I started to notice illness everywhere!!!! One little bantam Cornish hen had such a bad upper respiratory infection that you could see the bubbles in her eyes from 5 feet away... her eyes just looked like all bubbles and were super crusty... there was drippy, pasty butt everywhere and some rooster had infected combs. Is this normal? I am concerned because I came home and checked on my hens. I did change coats, but now I am worried that I brought disease home. I am going to put some VetRX on them tomorrow just in case, but geez it was ridiculous.

Should I be worried?
 
Maybe a little, just don't spass out.
hugs.gif
It would have been best if you changed clothes, shoes (basically everything you wore), and washed your hands. If you took you birds, it might be safer to keep them in quarantine for a while. I would agree on using some VetRX just in case. If any of your birds show any symptoms I would separate them. If you did not go around handling/touching the infected birds and then go home and handle your birds before 'cleaning up' you should be ok, but precautions are still a good way to go.
 
It is for the exact reasons you illustrated that I avoid all chicken shows and swaps. We have them pretty often in my area, but I stay well away from them. I sometimes think it would be nice to expand my circle of chicken-owning friends by going to these social events, but then I think of the risks... No way. I love the fact that my flock is disease-free, and I want to keep it that way. (I even wear special shoes to go to the feed store; shoes that never enter my poultry yards.)

Vet RX is not going to do anything to help your flock. If it makes you feel better then use it, but it will have no effect on preventing illness. I would bleach the family shoes that were worn to the show and wash all clothing including coats. You probably didn't bring anything home, but in the future be more wary of these events. Now you know what a cesspool of disease they are.

Good luck.
 
It is for the exact reasons you illustrated that I avoid all chicken shows and swaps. We have them pretty often in my area, but I stay well away from them. I sometimes think it would be nice to expand my circle of chicken-owning friends by going to these social events, but then I think of the risks... No way. I love the fact that my flock is disease-free, and I want to keep it that way. (I even wear special shoes to go to the feed store; shoes that never enter my poultry yards.)

Vet RX is not going to do anything to help your flock. If it makes you feel better then use it, but it will have no effect on preventing illness. I would bleach the family shoes that were worn to the show and wash all clothing including coats. You probably didn't bring anything home, but in the future be more wary of these events. Now you know what a cesspool of disease they are.

Good luck.


I know it was really sad!! I didn't touch any birds, I changed my coat; and my shoes did not go into the coop.

I t was just really sad to go and see beautiful birds full of disease... Like why would you even bring that to a show... it was horrible.

Then they had the production station where you could see where your eggs come from (grocery store wise) and they had only a few hens per cage... I was like yeah right... I was pretty close to finding my inner PETA nut job and releasing all the animals (especially the veal calfs).
 
Oh and also it was pretty bad when my two friends and my husband who dont know anything about chicken illness were like "Whats wrong with its eye!"
 
My Daughter took her chickens to the PA Farm Show. We had alota fun. I was alittle worried about letting the Farm Show take care of the birds for a whole week. She did well with showmanship and her exibit. We when down yesterday to get her birds. I was shocked when we walked up to the cages of her birds ..I said whats wrong with her? Her Golden Laced wyndotte pullet had poop all over her butt and she couldnt walk. I knew we would have to keep the birds seperate for biosecurity reasons. We had our birds tested and we vacinatted them as well. I just dont know...

We are hoping that she will be okay. She took 6 birds to the show. Only the one birds has any symptoms at this point. Does anyone know what the sickness maybe? This would be extremely helpful.

Thanks for any input...

Serioulsy thinking of not showing anymore!
 
Come on folks - what do you expect when you go to a place where there are hundreds maybe thousands of chickens all placed close together - your just asking for trouble - that's how diseases get spread around - I would never take my chickens to such a place - at the least they should have a vet or someone knowledgeable about chickens going around daily and checking if any sick chickens are caged - then get rid of them - I keep away from crowds during the winter months to avoid getting sick - the same needs to be done with chickens - only its all year -
 
My Daughter took her chickens to the PA Farm Show. We had alota fun. I was alittle worried about letting the Farm Show take care of the birds for a whole week. She did well with showmanship and her exibit. We when down yesterday to get her birds. I was shocked when we walked up to the cages of her birds ..I said whats wrong with her? Her Golden Laced wyndotte pullet had poop all over her butt and she couldnt walk. I knew we would have to keep the birds seperate for biosecurity reasons. We had our birds tested and we vacinatted them as well. I just dont know...

We are hoping that she will be okay. She took 6 birds to the show. Only the one birds has any symptoms at this point. Does anyone know what the sickness maybe? This would be extremely helpful.

Thanks for any input...

Serioulsy thinking of not showing anymore!

See I thought that they all had to go through a medical check and then you would think that they would monitor the animals... crazy.

If she has a gross behind there are a few things you could try. I saw something on using epsom salt dissolved in water to clean it all out and up. If you do a search on here you should be able to find some stuff about it. I doubt that it would be worms, it might just have been the stress of the show... there are some jerks that go there. Its sad that you cant go to shows with out illness being a massive problem. It was just sad...Maybe if she shows again yall can go and check on them more often.

Did you call the farm show people to complain?? I was going to call but I have no idea who to call.
 
Oh also if you want to post pics of her that would be good. Could she be egg bound???
 
I will post pictures soon. Yes we did call farm show. I dont think a complaint is needed they really did a good job. I mean there is alot of hard work put into these shows. There is alot of risks as well. I am not sure maybe the bird is just stressed. Maybe she just doesnt do well on city water. She did lay her egg today so she is not egg bound. Maybe she doesnt like being on stage, or in a cage. I dont understand why she cant walk though, that is my concern. She may have hurt her leg trying to get out. We would have stayed at Farm Show all week but we live 4+ hrs away and she had to fo to school druning the week. We did have friends check on them through out the week.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom