Why Should You Quarantine New Animals?
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It is always exciting when we bring new animals to the farm. However, it is important to make sure that they are integrated properly. This will prevent any of the animals already on the farm from getting sick. Even animals that appear perfectly healthy at their current homes may start to present with sickness after a move. This is due to the stress and new environment. With chickens, common things that might come up are respiratory illness and coccidia. With goats, things like coccidia or worms. Lice and Mites can also be brought in by new animals.
How Do You Quarantine New Animals?
In order to ensure that the new animals do not bring anything to your existing flock or herd, you should keep them separated. Keeping them separated for 30 days is optimal. However, if that is not possible, any amount of time is better than none. You will want the new animal to be as far away from the existing ones as possible. This is because many respiratory issues travel via air. At minimum, you do not want the new and existing animals to be able to touch one another.
Additionally, you will want to make sure you take care of your existing animals first, then take care of the new animals. Doing this will prevent bringing anything the new animal has over to your existing animals.
If possible, washing clothes and footwear between trips outside and also showering will help cut down further on transporting germs back and forth to the animals. You can try using shoe covers and changing them out between groups also.
Following these few tips for quarantining new animals can help to keep everyone more happy and healthy. Once their quarantine period is over, make sure you know how to integrate them as well!