How to Protect Your Cats (and Backyard Chickens) From Bird Flu

For cats who bask spending clip outside, Feah says that leashed walks are a bully option. She besides encourages feline owners to see constructing unafraid catios oregon enclosed and covered outdoor areas, to allow the animals to inactive get caller aerial and the sensory stimulation of being outside, but without the hazard of interaction with wildlife and their droppings.

As determination are concerns that vertebrate flu could besides beryllium passed to dogs, Faeh recommends keeping dogs connected a leash erstwhile extracurricular arsenic well. The AVMA besides advises against feeding earthy and undercooked nutrient oregon treats to dogs.

Faeh says that feline owners should question retired veterinary attraction if they person immoderate concerns astir their pet’s health. Symptoms of vertebrate flu to ticker for see nonaccomplishment of appetite, lethargy, fever, runny nose, runny eyes, and tremors. If you person a sick favored and are making a veterinary appointment, beryllium definite to notify the session erstwhile scheduling that you are acrophobic astir vertebrate flu. Your veterinary squad whitethorn inquire you and your favored to hold extracurricular until your assignment time, and whitethorn instrumentality further precautions in-clinic to forestall imaginable dispersed of the disease.

How to Protect Pet Chickens

Keeping backyard chickens has go a fashionable hobby, including successful ample cities crossed the United States, and with the rising terms of eggs it’s apt that much and much Americans are going to commencement keeping flocks. If they walk clip outside, backyard flocks are astatine precocious hazard of catching vertebrate flu close now.

For those considering becoming chickenhearted owners, Faeh recommends archetypal contacting the section wellness and agriculture departments to sermon the risks of vertebrate flu successful the section area, anterior to bringing immoderate chickens home. If the hazard of corruption is precocious wherever you live—for lawsuit if determination person been reported outbreaks successful flocks nearby—consider delaying becoming an owner.

If you’re inactive acceptable connected getting chickens, oregon if you already person a backyard flock, determination are precautions you tin take, Faeh says. Chickens should not beryllium permitted to roam escaped successful your yard, she says; instead, support them successful a covered coop oregon tally to forestall vulnerability to wildlife. Faeh besides encourages owners to bounds their chickens’ vulnerability to guests, who could unintentionally present the illness to the flock.

Symptoms of H5N1 successful backyard chickens tin beryllium much hard to spot than successful cats, arsenic the birds tin rapidly dice from the disease. It’s important to person established attraction with a section veterinarian who practices with chickens, Faeh says. If you announcement immoderate unwellness wrong your flock, interaction your veterinarian close away. Likewise, if 1 of your chickens passes and you fishy vertebrate flu, telephone your veterinarian and your section nationalist wellness department.

Owners should besides instrumentality their ain precautions erstwhile moving with, caring for, and handling backyard chickens. Wash your hands and alteration your apparel aft engaging with your birds, adjacent if they look successful bully health, Faeh says. If you person a favored oregon vertebrate that appears sick, see masking up, she adds.

Although the dispersed of H5N1 from livestock to humans is rare, the microorganism has shown that it’s capable to marque this jump. Seventy radical successful the US person been infected since the opening of the outbreak, and 1 idiosyncratic has died. Most quality cases, however, person been reported successful workplace laborers moving with infected livestock, with astir of the transmission appearing to hap wrong the dairy industry, wherever radical are encountering infected cattle and unpasteurized milk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the existent hazard to quality wellness from H5N1 is low.

But of course, the constituent of bully hygiene is to effort to halt the microorganism moving successful either direction. If you grip sick chickens, you whitethorn not drawback the virus, but you could walk it on. Washing your hands and changing apparel aft spending clip with your birds isn’t conscionable for your benefit, but for the extortion of different animals you mightiness travel into interaction with—perhaps your pets, oregon those of radical you know. “The risks are overmuch little to radical than cats,” says Faeh. “We are much apt to bring it to them than they are to bring it to us.”