Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Pottage]

Has anyone had much experience with their chooks having this?

 

As some of you will know, my little Lola has been very poorly lately. It turns out she has been suffering from raging E. coli

 

My vet is a nightmare to get hold of on the phone, and I'm not seeing him until next Tuesday so I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this. Vet put Lola on Amoxicillin on Monday (before we knew what was making her ill) which is doing the trick and she's rapidly getting better now thank God.

 

My main questions are:

 

Should I worry about the other hens picking it up from her poo? As I’m sure you all know, they poo everywhere, all the time lol! No matter how clean their bedroom is when they trundle off to sleep, it is still always covered in poo first thing in the morning when I let them out. None of them perch, they just sleep in a huddle on the floor so are all in close proximity to whatever is coming out of their sisters bottoms :-/

 

How concerned should I be that I could get it? I am the primary poop cleaner and always wear latex gloves and use a trowel to pick up the poo from their run/the garden etc but I don’t wash my hands after every single time I have stroked or picked up one of the girls, for example. Lola doesn't lay so I don't need to worry about getting it from her eggs.

 

The other thing is I thought commercial chickens were all immunised against E. Coli from a young age, so I am confused as to how she has got such a bad case. I’ve also read that all chooks have it to an extent and it can get out of control when they are sick, which is such conflicting information!

[Daphne]

I don't have personal experience of this, and I don't suppose many people do on this site either, its not commonly reported and doesn't seem to be discussed on many forums. I've just spent some time on the internet and everything is extremely medical (lots of autopsy pictures) and not very helpful for a backyard keeper! From what I've read it would seem to me that any number of 'unexplained' deaths could actually be down to e-coli, or at least e-coli triggering something else or being triggered by the something else.

 

In any case, as e-coli is obviously a very serious disease when the pathogens get out of hand, I think I'd concentrate my efforts on getting to speak to the vet. At our surgery you can leave a message for a vet. I would think, given the gravity of the e-coli situation in humans right now, if you say to the nurse what it is you are enquiring about and keep to one or two most pressing questions, then you should get some feedback before Tuesday.