San Diego Chicken meetup and Chat thread

[luvanimals2]

Allison, I will get a pic of roo for you. My friend that takes pics for me has shingles? so I won't allow him over. HA!

The scruffy hens are doing well. I brought out a large Rubbermaid container outside w/ the wheat bran and the mealworms. I did not ventilate it well and it got stinky so I replaced the Wheat Bran. I let the ladies eat what was left in the container. It was so funny to see so many hens inside a rubbermaid looking for mealworms. The RIR was being a pill yesterday. She chased and pecked everyone. She must be PMS'ing.

The BO stayed in the container the longest scratching ever freakin inch of the bran to find mealworms. She cracked me up. Today I went to pick her up and she sat on my lap for the longest time, I think she thought if she was good that mealworms would come her way.

I think they are getting use to their new digs now. They seem to be happy. They have been out sunbathing since early this AM.

You were right. I guess they were ticked off in the beginning and would not eat BOSS. They seem to eat everything I throw their way. Boiled eggs, sardines, tuna, cottage cheese, and sprouts. Their all time favorite is mealworms of course.

Nancy

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Are Shingles communicable to chickens? I know shingles are a form of Chicken pox messin with nerves but I didnt know it was communicable.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Chickenpox or chicken pox is a highly contagious illness caused by primary infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV).[1] It usually starts with vesicular skin rash mainly on the body and head rather than at the periphery and becomes itchy, raw pockmarks, which mostly heal without scarring.
Chickenpox is an airborne disease spread easily through coughing or sneezing of ill individuals or through direct contact with secretions from the rash. A person with chickenpox is infectious from one to five days before the rash appears.[2] The contagious period continues for 4 to 5 days after the appearance of the rash, or until all lesions have crusted over. Immunocompromised patients are probably contagious during the entire period new lesions keep appearing. Crusted lesions are not contagious. [3]
It takes from 10 to 21 days after contact with an infected person for someone to develop chickenpox.
Chickenpox is often heralded by a prodrome of myalgia, nausea, fever, headache, sore throat, pain in both ears, complaints of pressure in head or swollen face, and malaise in adolescents and adults, while in children the first symptom is usually the development of a papular rash, followed by development of malaise, fever (a body temperature of 38 °C (100 °F), but may be as high as 42 °C (108 °F) in rare cases), and anorexia. Typically, the disease is more severe in adults. [4] Chickenpox is rarely fatal, although it is generally more severe in adult males than in adult females or children. Pregnant women and those with a suppressed immune system are at highest risk of serious complications. Chickenpox is believed to be the cause of one third of stroke cases in children.[5] The most common late complication of chickenpox is shingles, caused by reactivation of the varicella zoster virus decades after the initial episode of chickenpox.
Chickenpox has been observed in other primates, including chimpanzees[6] and gorillas.[7]
The disease is not related in any way to chickens; the name uses "chicken" in the sense of "weak" or "cowardly" (i.e., a "wimpier" version of smallpox).[8]​

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:

I was merely asking why the photographer who has Shingles wasn allowed near her chickens.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Probably because it's contagious and Nancy doesn't want them!

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Interesting. I have a cousin that has had shingles just about all his life. Of course I have had chicken pox. I just read up on it and it appears to only be contageous if there is an active liesion. but gosh I thought I had done something wrong I just got jumped on on another thread and am reeling from that.

 

[desertdarlene]

I've had shingles off and on and I've done some research and asked doctors and they have all said that it's not contagious at all. It sure is painful, though.

 

[flower]

Perchie is correct to question why some one with shingles is forbidden to be near anyone else let alone chickens. As the article states the childhood illness which causes the skin outbreak is spread by the respiratory tract. Sneezing and coughing carries the virus to the surface. Three days after the fever has broken, the child is no longer going to infect other. And once you have become well you carry an antibody which most likely will prevent another acute phase of illness related to this virus. However since virus mutate they create new forms and the virus that causes shingles is one of them. When a person immune system is compromised it is easy for the virus to break out on the peripheral (surface) nerve endings. It is common for the elderly, nurses and anyone who is overworked and develops stressful living conditions to have breakout of shingles. Just like any virus such as the herpes virus which again is related to the chicken pox and shingles virus and body fluid contact could be contagious. If you cut yourself and rub that area into an open wound that contains the virus, well you are exposing yourself to that virus. Most of us wear clothes which cover us and besides once the wound is dry and healing then it is not really contagious . But the pain from shingles is sever and lasts for months.

So just as HIV is not contagious unless you share body fluid contacts, IV needles etc. neither is shingles or Herpes. I understand that about 20 % of the sexually active population has contracted Herpes. Oh well once a nurse always a nurse. drat

 

[desertdarlene]

Hmmm, that's not why my doctor says. I haven't had anyone catch chicken pox or shingles from me even when I've had an outbreak. But, I guess you're only contagious if you touch an open sore with another open sore with shingles. Is that what you mean?

Yes, it does hurt for months and it's hard to dull the pain sometimes.

 

[flower]

desertdarlene That is what I am trying to say. Thousands of people are walking around with active or inactive types of virus but they do not spread from person to person easily.