Protecting Hens from Japan Fallout!

[gryeyes]

Now that I am fully protected, with my zinc oxide and tinfoil, I wanted to apologize to the OP; I was not - and am not - making fun of you.

I have worked in the Public Safety Communications/9-1-1 world for thirty years or so. I have had to stay in the basements of multi-story buildings answering 9-1-1 calls during and after two major earthquakes (Loma Pirieta in 1989 and Northridge in 1994) and in a flood-surrounded Comm Center in 1995. Had to ride over flood waters in a military deuce-and-a-half to get to work. I've talked to a woman trapped in her burning house and she died there. I could do nothing to get her out, and I tried. The firefighters found her body near her back door... Almost made it. Those are only a few very memorable incidents of those I and my 9-1-1 Brethren & Sistren of the Headset have dealt with as a matter of course.

Horror and fear and despair must be kept at arm's length and out of our minds. Or we couldn't do our jobs to serve the public.

I easily and willingly step into and wallow in the ridiculous. (Quite hard to type inside this tinfoil and you cannot imagine the mess made by the zinc oxide!)

I am honestly sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings. That was not my intent.

I have to go catch about 50 chickens now. I ran out of zinc oxide, but I think I've got enough Reynold's Wrap for the flock.....

 

[Rathbone]

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I think I am about here in my thinking. I am going to admit to being worried about this, worried that they are not telling us the truth so we won't panic. I am even going to admit to trying to figure out how much kelp would be the right amount to dose my chickens with.
In the end, I am going to try not to worry about it.

 

[Dingleberry]

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[AlbionWood]

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My mother was a Depression-baby. I think she was always a little worried something like that might happen again... probably just as well she didn't live to see what's going on now.

Be aware there is a hoax Web page that greatly exaggerates the threat of nuclear fallout:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/fallout.asp

Not sure why people feel the need to increase the levels of fear and anxiety in the world... seems there is plenty already. Chickens are my antidote - how can you be stressed-out when they are making all those cute noises?

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Awww, y'all quit messin' with the new kid. She hasn't been here long enough to know that we are all a little nuts!

OP- Just for the record, I would love to know what all of your measures will do. I don't know enough about vitamins to know what is really useful for my chickens. I never would have thought about beta carotine for instance. Please come back and share your thoughts. I swear we are usually nice people (if a little wacky).

Now, gryeyes... are you using the economy foil or the heavy duty? Do they need little hats or will a saddle do? The only fallout I have ever had to deal with is when I got busted by my parents for something I did wrong.

 

[Pele]

A.) Please do not accuse the people here of being mean. I've never come across a more kind and supportive posting board in my life. They have only the best of intentions for you and your chickens.

B.) Please carefully consider the possible effects of feeding your chickens an unusual diet, or dosing them with high levels of anything not vet-recommended.

C.) I very much wish I had the spare time to worry about something that happened over 3 thousand miles away from me. It would be infinitely better than worrying about a family member of mine who is currently dying, or wether I can keep my home. Consider yourself deeply blessed, I am envious.

 

[HLAC]

All of my relatives from my mom's side of the family live in Japan and at this point, I'm not worried about them getting radiation poisoning and neither are they. I certainly am not worried about getting radiation exposure here.

It's a bad situation but let's not overreact.

 

[chickensbythesea]

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Even with the government's mismanagement of information, (honestly, if people in the States are taking iodine, there's a legitimate argument to be made that we aren't going to react rationally to the truth of the severity), there's more to fear from the tsunami waves making it this far than the short term nuclear effects. The reason the wave made it to that coast is because water's solid, and it can only disperse along the outer edges. Air, including clouds of toxic fumes, has an entire ozone it can dissipate into before it crosses the Pacific.

I don't mean to sound all high and mighty, but I went to school for nuclear medicine, and my DH is in radiology, (and my FIL served as a nuclear/bio/chem medic in the military), and I am the regional champion for over-thinking and worrying, so I'm not talking out my bum when I say: There are no immediate dangers to people in America from this.

It is certainly quite scary, because we only have Chernobyl and hypotheticals to base what may happen on. Honestly, Japan is probably the best equipped nation to handle a nuclear catastrophe of any size though, having had the most substantial experience with radiation sickness. They're concerned, and making seemingly drastic decisions, but you have to view them in perspective, too:

My husband can legally be exposed to 5rem a year at work, he wears a monitor to make sure. (The average citizen in Denver is exposed to 1rem a year because of their altitude.) The Japanese workers are being cut off at 5 times that, which sounds like an insane amount! But it's still not enough to do tissue damage, or anything worse than nausea. It won't even really change the cancer risk in those people. My mom has worse radiation damage from her cancer treatment than they're allowing their most at risk citizens to be exposed to.



More on topic, if you're concerned, and want to do something, if only to make yourself feel better, feed them more snacks of bananas and radishes and beets. They're natural sources of potassium and iodine, which will keep the thyroid too busy to absorb bad stuff.

 

[swearnsue]

My husband thinks I'm overreacting too. I'm one of those people that won't get dental x-rays unless I really really have to. I don't allow any chemicals in the house. I clean with baking soda or vinegar. It's kind of a phobia/OCD/General Anxiety thing. Back in the 70's I marched against the building of nuclear power plants (Seabrook). One thing I know about radiation is that the parts of the body that "grow" fastest are the most vulnerable. I don't know for sure but I think that in a chicken it would be their bones that deplete/replace over and over the most. When they are in lay they get calcium from their bones to make the shells, then replace the bone loss when they can. So, with that in mind I'm giving them more calcium. Since they won't eat more than they need anyway...it wouldn't hurt. The carrots (beta carotene) I'm giving them because they love them and might help their immune systems. I'm cooking carrots for me and my husband anyway so I give some to the girls too. The probiotics are always good for animals, chickens and humans. They are expensive but a little bit goes a long way and will help their immune systems. I don't have the official potassium iodine pills, but I have put some Betadine on the skin on my belly. Again, it doesn't hurt but may help a lot. I haven't put any on the hens because they would probably eat it (poison). Someone mentioned Kelp. That is a good idea! The guy that was kidding about the zinc oxide, I DID put some on one of my girls a few months ago when she got pecked by the Alpha hen (no roosters around). I put some Desitin on the wound. It worked because it didn't taste good to the aggressive hen (named Snookie) so she stopped pecking for a while. Thanks to the people that posted nice and supportive words and I wish the best for everyone in Japan where the real disaster is taking place.

 

[Stacykins]

I think if you are overreacting this much to something that truly isn't a threat, I'd suggest seeking a medical professional. That sort of anxiety isn't at all healthy, and finding a way to cope with that should be a priority. The news isn't even doing any hardcore fear mongering about the issues in Japan, which is far from normal for the media.

Betadine on your skin won't do anything, by the way. Uptake through your skin will be negligible at best. There is no research that proves betadine anywhere on your body, even on the skin over your thyroid, is effective at preventing radioactive iodine uptake by the thyroid. What makes potassium iodide effective is that it essentially floods your system with excess iodine, preventing much uptake of radioactive iodine by your thyroid through competition.

Edit for typo, oye.