healthy hens

One of our key objectives this year is to improve the quality of veterinary support for pet hens. We want to feel confident that the care they need is there for them when they need it.

There’s no doubt it’s a challenge for pet hen keepers to find vets who understand the needs of our hens. Vets are not trained on the diagnostics and treatment options for pet poultry as students, and spend only a little time learning how to treat a commercial flock of thousands.

This is why we are taking a multipronged approach to improving pet hen health.

Firstly we are proud to be working with the University of Nottingham to produce a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). The course content will cover all aspects of poultry, so a bit of history about the commercial and hobby sectors, some guidance on husbandry and lots of veterinary specific information on anatomy, infectious and non-infectious diseases: as well as legislation.

This free course will run for 5 weeks and give under-graduate vet students, as well as qualified vets, the opportunity to learn so much about poultry. We hope to launch later this year; sooner were it not for Covid-19.

Secondly, we are working with pharmaceutical specialists and organisations to explore and politely challenge the current lack of treatment options available to pet hens; this work is complex and will undoubtedly take time to achieve positive results, but we feel it’s vital to push forwards for improvements.

Thirdly, we are collaborating with a US organisation to build an online poultry facility which can be accessed by vets in the UK, and beyond, to help them diagnose and understand what they can and cannot do. Some UK vets are becoming increasingly knowledgeable and our own charity vet is leading the way. The online facility will enable us to share her insights with those keen to learn more.

Finally, we want to build closer links with vet practices in the UK so we can increase the number of registered vets willing to help our hens; this work should be completed later this year.