Campylobacter in humans....

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Poppy7

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My 4 year old son has been very very poorly. He was admitted to hospital on Thursday where they did tests. The test results confirmed Campylobacter.

Thankfully he is home now and making a full recovery but I am of course paranoid about anything that could have caused it.

We are waiting for a call from Public Health who will want to investigate how it was caused and I know our chickens will be considered as a possible cause.

We only have 2 Pekin bantams. Sadly we lost our Serama a week ago to an impacted crop when she died during the op to empty it.

I know chickens can carry Campylobacter but can tests be done to see if ours have it? If they have it can you treat it?

I'm currently questioning our future with chickens....my dog has just had an op that cost us £1300 after she stole a cob of corn from the chicken's pen. 3 weeks before that we had another £80 vet bill after our dog had a mystery sickness and diarrhoea episode possibly caused by eating the chicken's poo....

The children are very attached to our 2 remaining "girls" but now I'm very worried about more complications that could arise from keeping them.....
 
Hello Poppy7. Sorry to hear that your son has been unwell and pleased he has recovered.

Having skimmed through the internet information it appears that unless you eat your chickens raw there is unlikely to be a problem. Half of commercial chicken (and turkey) for human consumption has it anyway, according to one of the articles I read. It is contagious so he could have contacted someone else with it. Also reported is contact with farm animals -there was a case a few years ago at a pet farm I seem to remember where loads of people were affected. Basically if you wash your hands after contact and cook chicken properly things should be fine. We used to dog sit a Golden Retriever and she used to eat chicken poo without any illness, but I can't see it being good for her system. You can have the chicken poo tested and perhaps the Public Health will do that for you. I've never come across this problem before.

Draining a chickens crop is a high risk operation if you try to do it by turning them upside down. You get 10 -15 seconds I was told before they suffocate. For an impacted crop Olive or Cod Liver oil by syringe -we give 1.0mL per Kg bodyweight -them frequent massaging of the crop. It hasn't failed yet. Some people give them live mealworms to break the material up. Live maggots can carry botulism apparently, so we stopped using them for that.
 
Hi Chris. Thank you very much for your reply. I have also searched the internet for information regarding keeping chickens and campylobacter and there are cases out there but nothing noteable. I will contact my vets this morning regarding a possible test. I just want our chickens taken out of the equation as we are very fond of them and to part with them would upset everyone.

Thanks for the info about the impacted crop. We tried olive oil for a week and nothing budged the blockage. It was very very sad. The op was a last resort as she was very close to dying because of it. Sadly she got very distressed when they opened her crop (a specialist chicken vet performed the procedure) but due to her already weak state from being poorly she didn't make it. We had a little burial in the garden which was so sweet.

Thanks again for the advice.
 
It is a normal process for Public Health to try to identify where the infection stemmed from, particularly in a child of under 5 where they are more likely to suffer more serious symptoms than adults.

Campylobacter is present in the gut of most chickens where is it a perfectly harmless pathogen, and in fact it is unlikely the infection came from your "live" chickens.

As you probably have been informed there are lots of sources where you can unfortunately pick up this bug, school, other children, pets, outside in the garden or eating food - particularly chicken which has not been cooked thoroughly, cooking food until it is piping hold will kill any campylobacter present in the food, and as Chris mentioned, any problem with the processing of chicken can lead to the bug leaking into the meat and therefore becoming a route of infection.

It may be prudent to examine the access your children have to your chickens..ensure the birds have a separate area to roam and not the main garden, washing hands after contact with the birds..which can be a bit of challenge with young ones who permanently seem to have their fingers in their mouths! :D :D
 
Hi Poppy7. That's a big step for sorting an impacted crop. Not the biggest op I have heard of on a hen though -that was for egg peritonitis involving two abdominal drains and two doses of hormone to stop laying! What was in the crop exactly to cause such a major blockage -feathers?
 
Do you know what strain of Campylobacter? I wonder if its the particular strain they're interested in. Seems possible here. I haven't worked with Campylobacter for years, but I keep an eye on whats happening with it, and for things haven't much changed in recent years.

Just step back and have a bit of a breather, you're probably blaming your chickens, yourself, everything around you - and you're feeling pretty damned terrible because your kid is ill. But don't, please. Campylobacter is incredibly common as an enteric infection in humans, and yes, your hens might carry it or any one of a hundred other bacteria on their feathers or feet that could cause an infection - and this is why washing your hands is important.

Campylobacter can survive on cutting boards or knives that aren't properly cleaned or it can get on a mucky dishcloth and spread that way - this makes it hard to track where an individual infection has come from.

Bottom line is that yes, hens may be the source of this. Cooperate with the local health authorities if they want to look - but don't jump to the conclusion that your child wouldn't have got ill without the hens. I don't know what your son is like but if he's like my nephews were at that age then he'll find all sorts of ways of getting disgusting things he ought to leave alone into his gob, and if it wasn't them it may be something else.

So hang tight, your kid will get better and be fine - Campylobacter is very treatable in the developed world. Keep calm and be aware of sources of infection, and good luck!
 
Thank you all for your wonderful words of wisdom. It means a lot.

You're right, I have gone in to panic mode and am scrutinising the cleanliness and hygiene aspect of everything. We don't know what strain of a Campylobacter my son had. We have been to see the doctor today (my 2 year old daughter has now begun being sick....) there have been a few cases in our area. Hopefully Public Health will help to track down the cause.

The chickens do free range the garden. The same garden where the children play etc. It's not ideal I know but I feel bad if they're locked in all the time. The children also cuddle and kiss the birds....something that I have stopped from now onwards. They are young (2 and 4) so theirs hands are always in their mouths. It is so hard to avoid.

Chris....the vet found lots and lots of long grass tightly wound in a ball in my Serama's crop. We were so sad to lose her. I took the vets advice regarding the operation and thought it was the right thing to do. She was so sick and looking so sorry for herself. We miss her very much.

It's been a tough few weeks! Thank you all for your help.
 
Good advice from Cab there Poppy7. I suspect it wasn't just the crop that was full of grass but the gizzard as well. An impacted gizzard is invariably fatal, as my recent post. Did you suddenly give them access to grass as I did?

As you don't let the local area kids into the garden I think the Public Health may find another reason for the 'outbreak'. Sounds like you are having a difficult time there!
 
They always free range Chris but the grass has suddenly sprouted! It's not normally so long but we have been too busy to cut it and the Serama obviously gorged on it! She's so much smaller than our Pekins so I guess they gave handled it better.

Hopefully I'll start having some good luck again soon!
 
Hi Foxy. His temperature was nearly at 40 degrees last night but he was a bit brighter today. My daughter has stopped vomiting
but it still a bit fragile. Thank you so much for asking. I'm hoping they are getting over the worst of it.

I bought the girls an Eglu Go today and am very excited about. They look very easy to keep clean which is a bonus at the moment!
 
Only just picked up this thread.

I contracted Campylobacter several years ago which I think was probably from refilling the wild bird feeders (I didn't have chickens then). It so easy to get your hands near your face when they may have been in contact with bird poo. One of the problems with Campolybacter is that it is virulent and you only need a couple of microbes and within hours they have multiplied almost out of control - it was why starving myself for 24 hours had no effect. The GP told me that, under the circumstances, it was fortunate it was Campylobacter as it was during the Hay Literary Festival and we had a house full of paying guests. Because Campylobacter was apparently not notifiable, I was able to carry on as I was told that my personal and food hygiene would have to be totally non-existent (if you get my meaning) for me to infect someone.

I felt totally washed out with no energy and quite a lot of discomfort so I didn't get to any of the festival events. It was actually a Locum drafted in to deal with the influx of visitors who diagnosed it - I was initially told it was a urinary tract infection being "a lady of a certain age", which I knew was b****cks, so wasn't prescribed the right anitbiotics. The Locum took a flyer on it because of my symptoms while we waited for the test results, which confirmed her diagnosis.

So to answer your question Poppy7, it's more likely that your son picked it up from wild birds than your chickens.
 
Thanks Margaid. Sorry to hear you were so poorly as well. It really is an awful bug to have.

The more I think about the campylobacter the less I feel the girls were responsible. Thanks for backing up my thoughts.

Today we had a letter from public health so their investigation has started! I'll report back if we eventually find the cause!
 
Almost back to their usual bouncy selves! Thanks Margaid :-)17
 
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