chicken keeping in pregnancy - am i being silly?

[browntrout]

I have had 4 hens for about 6 months now and so far so good. During the week my DP works away and so I am in charge of looking after the girls. I am currently 7 weeks pregnant with DC2 and just wanted to check if there are any chicken health issues in pregnancy about which I am not currently aware. I dont mean not eating runny eggs etc but the actual process of sorting out their food and water and occasionally having a cheeky cuddle. I am just working on straightforward principles of washing hands thoroughly when I come back in and not licking the Eglu but is there anything else I should be aware of. I thought that the lack of threads/info on the net on this was a good sign.... am I right? Thanks in advance

I'm sure if you looked really carefully there are all sorts of things you can pick up from chickens, and someone on MN mentioned earlier in my pregnancy that whatever you can get from cat shit is also transmitted by chickens, but frankly I've not changed anything about the way I deal with ours and so far so good (am 19 weeks).

That's really good to know Duchesse. I wondered about toxy-thingy but given that chicken shit makes excellent compost whereas cat shit is just toxic waste I sort of thought it might not apply. I know there is a risk from lambs as well as cats but havent seen anything re chickens.

Think of all the farmers' wives who've dealt with the poultry whilst pregnant!

I think your handwashing precautions are standard whether pregnant or not but be extra thorougher for the time being.

Congratulations by the way. I hope you have a happy & peaceful pregnancy.

Poultry farmer here who has not caught anything untoward from her hens/ducks/geese/turkeys during the last two pregnancies. I would not have gone near sheep during lambing time though.
Toxoplasmosis is the cat transmitted disease.