Personal hygiene when owning chickens and other animals

[TRALALARA1]

I have chicken yard shoes and boots that stay outdoors on the screen porch.
I never wear those shoes anywhere else.
I wash may hands with soap everytime I go inside and I wash them outside too, if I need to.
I wear certain clothes in the chicken yard and I only wear them for one day before washing.
I don't eat in the chicken yard. They attack for food and death by chicken doesn't sound pleasant.

Mine are so spoiled that if I carry ANYTHING in my hands when I’m outside they are following me everywhere. I can’t even enjoy a cup of coffee outside without them all up in my space!

 

[SourRoses]

I have these boots - Ariat Terrain Waterproof Boots
When I get to the back porch I hose the chicken poo off the soles, wipe on mat, and wear them in, to the shoe rack where I change into my house flip-flops.
Multiple jetted hosings a day and I've had them 6 months, they're still waterproof and still comfortable.
My mom has "chicken shoes" she leaves on the back porch. Both methods work.
The important thing to us is not smelling chicken poo in the house.
Our house is messy enough without adding that problem

All the chicken tools stay out in chicken land. The porch is a general dump zone of all things chicken related. Not half as organized as I'd like to be.

And of course I always wash my hands, every time. But then, I'm a diagnosed germaphobe (better than I used to be!) so it goes without saying.
Mom doesn't always "remember" to wash unless she's going to be doing food prep or something, but that's why she has me to remind her (and threaten to put soap in a squirt gun, then she would have to rinse and rub her hands together to get it off)

 

[Isadora]

I have a Homestead with lots of different kinds of animals, not to mention 4 children and house pets.
I have a set of tools for cleaning out animal pens but I use them all over the property, not segregated into different types of animals. I have a pair of muck boots and those stay in the mudroom by the door. I also don't like shoes in the house because of mud and animal crap. I wash my hands after doing the animals but that's it.

 

[Sussex19]

I have a different pair of jeans to wear outside, and boots get taken off before coming inside.
Apart from that, it is just hand washing when coming inside.
Of cause, if I think an animal is sick, then I will be a bit more cautious.

 

[SourRoses]

Be at one with your environment.

A guy I know says his grandmother used to send him outside to find a big glob of chicken poop. She told him it had to have the white stuff (uric acid) on it. Then, she would eat it. Nobody knows for sure, but it is thought to have been used for constipation.

My mom tells of when she was growing up in Australia, in the years before air conditioning. At dinner time her mother would set out all the food in a nice display, and then grab her trusty bottle of fly spray and mist all the food and dishes and the kids with it "so everyone can eat in peace". Mom and all her brothers would be coughing at the spray, Nana would tell them to hush.
... It was DDT.
They survived. Does that mean it didn't impact their health? Should everyone bathe in it?


What I've observed through the course of my struggle, is just how oblivious people are and want to be about the spread of bacteria.
If you share a bathroom, there are other people's feces on your toothbrush (mythbusters proved it, btw).
If you go to the beach, there is aerosolized sewage in the ocean breeze.
Every time you touch a public door handle, you are spreading stuff on your skin you'd never touch if you could see it with the naked eye.

So, the myth of being "too sterile" just because one is not slathering themselves in bacteria is not something I believe. No matter what, they're going to get on you. Live on you, poop and breed on you, and eat you alive.
But what causes illness is dealing with too many at once. Sanitation keeps the numbers down so our immune systems can compensate.
We're already contaminated with Salmonella. When it's at the end of our digestive process it's fine. When we eat a bunch of it at once, that can mean a whole lot of toilet misery and possibly much worse.
* Forgive me if I'm too enthusiastic on the topic, but honestly I can't find it in me to hush.
Also, you're in Hawaii. You have every reason to believe the environment is a pleasant thing that wants you to live.
You can go wash your hair in some Shampoo Ginger, while I stare at the pots with dormant bulbs that should be making some for me. Stupid Florida winter!

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

Hand washing has been planted deep in my brain (studying a course about animals/animal care combined with my work), I actually get really frustrated if I can't wash my hands (with soap and preferably not freezing water ) immediately after coming in from caring for any of my animals.
I am currently not super fussy with my shoes, though I am aware I should be, and the only thing in regards to them is that I never wear my shoes into my quail aviary. I am not particularly worried about bringing something out of their aviary as I am accidently taking something in.

 

[Acre4Me]

Wash hands. Wear coveralls and half face respirator when cleaning out the coop fully or tossing the bedding around.

We all have outdoor/chicken shoes. Keeps the poop outdoors.

 

[janiedoe]

My mom tells of when she was growing up in Australia, in the years before air conditioning. At dinner time her mother would set out all the food in a nice display, and then grab her trusty bottle of fly spray and mist all the food and dishes and the kids with it "so everyone can eat in peace". Mom and all her brothers would be coughing at the spray, Nana would tell them to hush.
... It was DDT.
They survived. Does that mean it didn't impact their health? Should everyone bathe in it?


What I've observed through the course of my struggle, is just how oblivious people are and want to be about the spread of bacteria.
If you share a bathroom, there are other people's feces on your toothbrush (mythbusters proved it, btw).
If you go to the beach, there is aerosolized sewage in the ocean breeze.
Every time you touch a public door handle, you are spreading stuff on your skin you'd never touch if you could see it with the naked eye.

So, the myth of being "too sterile" just because one is not slathering themselves in bacteria is not something I believe. No matter what, they're going to get on you. Live on you, poop and breed on you, and eat you alive.
But what causes illness is dealing with too many at once. Sanitation keeps the numbers down so our immune systems can compensate.
We're already contaminated with Salmonella. When it's at the end of our digestive process it's fine. When we eat a bunch of it at once, that can mean a whole lot of toilet misery and possibly much worse.
* Forgive me if I'm too enthusiastic on the topic, but honestly I can't find it in me to hush.
Also, you're in Hawaii. You have every reason to believe the environment is a pleasant thing that wants you to live.
You can go wash your hair in some Shampoo Ginger, while I stare at the pots with dormant bulbs that should be making some for me. Stupid Florida winter!

Oh my goodness. I want to be oblivious too!
My dad was cast-iron. He would cook fish, set in the oven, rather than the refrigerator, and eat it two days later. He worked outdoors, carried a handkerchief, that he blew his nose on, wiped his sweat with, and "loaned out" as needed. He'd pet every animal that came along and pick up every snotty nose kid. He lived to be 84 with no major illnesses.

 

[janiedoe]

Be at one with your environment.

A guy I know says his grandmother used to send him outside to find a big glob of chicken poop. She told him it had to have the white stuff (uric acid) on it. Then, she would eat it. Nobody knows for sure, but it is thought to have been used for constipation.

 

[3KillerBs]

half face respirator when cleaning out the coop

I forgot to mention that I wear a mask when shoveling bedding/litter.