Raising Chickens While Pregnant

I would reiterate checking with your OB/GYN office. One very well-known disease, Toxoplasmosis, is most often connected with cats rather than chickens, but I would double-check to make sure. (This disease is why women are warned against changing kitty litter or handling cats a lot when they are pregnant.)

One of my older brothers has been legally blind since birth due to toxoplasmosis. It caused scar-tissue on his retina in utero so that he has peripheral vision but no tunnel vision.

Back in the 50s when my mom was pregnant with him, several of her friends had cats in the neighborhood, although she never owned one. She also liked to pop a little raw hamburger into her mouth when she was preparing supper. (The latter totally grosses me out!) Who knows exactly what the cause was, but she didn't even know she had it. It tends to manifest itself as just flu-like symptoms.

When my brother was born, the doctor thought he was totally blind but my mom was pretty sure he was responding to some visual cues. He cannot get a driver's license and has to hold books very close to read them, but he has enough sight to play baseball and other sports. (He gets bonked on the head sometimes because his depth perception is affected, but he handles it pretty well, having grown up with it.) His eyes compensate for the missing information by scanning left and right involuntarily, a condition called nystagmus.

The parasite can remain in the body for many years. For instance, during college, my brother had a cyst that flared up with all of the reading he was doing. He started getting books on tape and that helped a lot.

If you google it, you'll be able to learn a lot more about it. Meanwhile, I would double-check with your doctor.

If I were you I would speak to your OB to see what he/she thinks. Other than that, they did it back in the day so I am sure it couldn't be too bad but I would certainly check in with my doctor.

I can only speak for myself but when I was pregnant I had my own pets to care for: indoor cat, 3 dogs, chickens, and a frog; plus I worked part time doing kennel cleaning... My pregnancy went smoothly, and my baby was born perfectly healthy.

Hi J.:

Quite honestly, I am not familiar with the pregnancy part. However, chickens are clean animals. As long as they are provided a clean area, being raised without the use of chemicals - so like using filtered water, organic straw for their nesting and quality (organic best) grain foods and other types of scrap foods…,I suspect their should not be an issue.

To be on the safe side however, the ammonia in their urine can be quite strong. I would not take on the task of cleaning their area while pregnant. Maybe someone else could.......

I would however, discontinue using that hand sanitizing if you are, cause I am sure you are aware that the skin is the larger organ and that sanitizer is a chemical.

Here is one website that I found that might help.

http://www.freewebs.com/professorchickensdiseases/

P.S. Keep in mind that most of the information out there on the Net is for situations where chickens are being raised in massive amounts. Sounds like you have one or maybe a couple? Anyhow, Good luck! Chickens are fun....

J. Gauthier

I was pregnant with our 42 chickens, and didn't have any problems... like you we washed our hands alot and my son would gather eggs for me (the nesting boxes were sometimes a bit messy). I spread sawdust, etc. but didnt do any of the mucking out of the coop.