Touching a bird feather

Sounds like your dh has some unresolved trauma to do with bird feathers

Bird flu isn't normally transmissible to people. The link you posted is about protecting chickens from bird flu, not children.

I work in gardens and woodland and bring all sorts home. Part of the house are like a Natural History Museum. There are feathers, bones, skulls, various teeth, an antler, horns, bits of wood, fossils, shells, rocks, seed pods and other bits of plant matter, owl pellets, plus a dried out crayfish I found in a climbing rose and various bits of human made debris picked up out of the soil. None of it has had any effect on my health, except maybe my mental health because picking things up to examine and learn about pleases me very much.

Yep

3 men once said something about bird feathers.

therefore all men think this way.

My ex husband was equally as bat shit over bird feathers.

Oh no, I'm so sorry for your losses. It really is the hardest part of having animal companions 💐

It sounds like you gave them wonderful lives and I'm glad they found their way to you x

His attitude is more disgusting than the feather.

Sadly Gladys died not long after...we have had 4 more rescues since. Milly, Molly, Maggie and Ethel. They all have died Maggie 3 weeks ago. I always shock the vets when it's time for them to be put to sleep...a 6ft 2, 15 stone man crying his eyes out.
We give them old lady names as they remind me of the little old ladies I grew up around, all russley shirts, flapping and settling their false teeth.

We aren't going to have any more for a couple of years as I can't stand it when they go. The caged egg industry is so cruel, but we give them weeks, months and hopefully year's with the rain and the sun, places to scratch and treats to eat.

@CJ0374 - and how many recorded cases of rabies occur in the UK each year, either from contact with bats or from any other source? Yes, of course I am aware of the guidance on the link you posted, but that is cautionary, advisory and not because there is a real or significant risk. As I said before, you are at equal, if not greater, risk of contracting a zoontic illness from domestic pets - cat bites are notoriously likely to become infected and all those who allow dogs to lick their hands, or worse still, their faces, are just inviting nematode infestations!

But, above all, you are far more likely to suffer disease, illness or ill health as a result of contact with other humans than any other living creature or animal derived organic matter or body tissue. Sobering, isn't it?

Having had a bird mite infestation [grim] I am wary of anything to do with birds, but as long as the kids are old enough to know not to put feathers in their mouths etc I think it’s fine - just wash hands afterwards.

On an average trip out we sometimes collect enough to reconstruct a whole bird. No one has died yet.

@Hedgesfullofbirds I'd suggest you educate yourself before giving out false advice! UK bats HAVE been found to have lyssavirus. If you are bitten or have contact with their saliva, you will had a risk assessment and likely need a full course of post-exposure rabies vaccines!

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rabies-risks-from-bat-bites/information-for-individuals-who-have-been-bitten-by-a-bat

If you find a dead bat, cat drags it inside etc its recommended you send the bat off for testing. The UK DO get bats testing positive!
https://www.bats.org.uk/advice/found-a-dead-bat/testing-dead-bats

I think it's a false dichotomy that suggests if you don't pick up feathers you douse in bleach and have a sterile home.

We're "outdoorsy" and the kids grew up on the beach, camping, outdoors etc. We had favourite sticks and favourite stones and knew to wash hands when we came in.

But I wouldn't have liked them picking up feathers or touching dead animals and as above been bird rescue places will say this...

Or did you and Gladys is now typing this with her beak to cover up the true danger of feathers 🐔

Ps: I love your chickens' names!

We’re in an area where avian flu has been found in the wild bird population so I’d avoid touching feathers at the moment. I think his reaction was a bit much though.

My daughter collected feathers as a little girl and made a really nice scrap book out of them. Still remember how absolutely honoured and excited she was when we met a peacock on a day trip and it ruffled it's tail and dropped a feather. Pride of her collection. She's 16 now and still has it! And will still pick up a particularly pretty feather if she finds one. She'd think I was absolutely mental if I tried to stop her on the extraordinarily slim chance she get bird flu.

Very weird world we live in now where everything must be sterile and spotless and stinking of zoflora. Glad I grew up on a farm where getting filthy was heavily encouraged.

We have loads of feathers picked up on walks - magpie, crow, jay, swan, pigeon, woodpecker, pheasant, unidentifiable.... DS knows to keep his hands away from his face and to wash his hands thoroughly when he gets in.

It's not something I worry about, and I'm usually very good at worrying.

@iknke45, not this old moonshine about bats being carriers of rabies - very, very rarely and not in the UK, just stupid scaremonngering put out by those who wish to villify bats and give them a bad press - since most bat species are insectivorous or frugiverous how on earth can they be vectors for rabies? And they do not go around biting humans. Not in real life anyway. You have more chance of contracting bubonic or pneumonic plague from guinea pigs which can and do carry Yersinia pestis bacteria...

Unless it's flying at you at the other end of a pointy stick, you're fine :)

Bats carry rabies, so no thanks. Not a pretty way to die

There's a reason why people fear them.

This

I called to get a bird rescued the other day and they said not to touch the bird and if I already had to go right away to wash hands and arms because avian bird flu is rife at the moment. Even the call waiting before with all the options talked about the bird flu.

does DH know this? I wasnt going to touch the bird anyway, but if I hadn’t know about the recent outbreak I wouldn’t have bothered about a feather but will think differently now but I don’t know if it is still present on random feathers?

I have two feathers in my pocket right now which DD has picked up during a walk and wanted someone responsible to hold her treasure for her. I’ve touched them a couple of times today getting keys, passes out etc, and I’m OK with that, the risk of catching anything from a single moulted feather is minuscule

I once fell in a duck pond, right under the water. Got out, carried on with my day - no after effects whatsoever. I frequently pick up feathers/birds left behind my cats kills, and no, I don't use a paper towel or rush to wash my hands.

Your DH is ridiculous - as are some of the posts on this thread!

We were at the beach last summer where dead birds were dealt with by two people in full hazmat suits and an official taking notes with a clip board.

Bird flu aside, I've seen birds in plenty of unsanitary situations - scavenging in rubbish bins, peking at dead rodents, picking chunks from a puddle of vomit.

I'm with your husband on this.