Thesis on injuries or strains caused by poo picking fields

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SharonBirt

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Hi my nephew is designing a new more sympathetically designed poo picker and fork and is very keen to hear any personal experiences of injuries strains caused by mucking out, using a wheelbarrow, and field poo picking, what you used and how it happened.
These can be back ache, arms, hands, shoulders etc
It's for his university thesis. Thanks very much
 
In winter I end up with persistent lower back pain, in summer wrist pain (from the poo picking fork thing)
 
The killer for me are those awful scoops with long handled rake things ie. these...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/manure-scoop
They soon cause strain and pain in my wrist particularly. ps. Its the raking with it that causes me the problem. I now push poos into the scoop with my wellie if I do use it.

I also find repetitive throwing into a high sided trailer causes back and shoulder pain and or stiffness. .

I like my orange plastic B&Q barrows but I have to remember not to over fill it now I am old and crumbly!
 
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Do you think that if the rake were somehow fitted to your arm like the crutch handle it would cause less pain on the wrist?
Have any of you had to have surgical help or otherwise? And is the repetitive strain long term?
Have also heard the height of the barrow contributes to the injuries as you have to lift a heavy weight higher .thanks
 
SharonBirt said:
Do you think that if the rake were somehow fitted to your arm like the crutch handle it would cause less pain on the wrist?
Have any of you had to have surgical help or otherwise? And is the repetitive strain long term?
Have also heard the height of the barrow contributes to the injuries as you have to lift a heavy weight higher .thanks
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I don't think that would help because when I have persisted my elbow, back and shoulder start to ache. So its partly also having to bend, as well as the angle I have to pull it back and the force on my arm etc. that causes. I haven't had any treatment as I rarely use the scoop and rake (because of effects), so no long term problems from that.
I find throwing up high is partly about weight but also about twisting and lifting to shoulder level or higher is a problem even with a plastic shavings fork. Those scoops are especially difficult as they are unwieldy, unbalanced and hard to aim.

I use plastic shavings forks and a normal barrow where I can, they are light and long handled so no bending. I also have two metal shavings forks, one has wide apart tines but I try not to use the as they are heavy.

My feeling is there is little point trying to modify those rakes and scoops for regular mucking out or poo picking, they're fine for the odd poo but not for work.
 
Thank you very much for that, he was also going to make the length adaptabtable so that you wouldn't have to bend. Thinking about it, if the fork itself was a dated to be easier and more appropriate than the shavings fork ( wider and angled or adaptation on the tilt) you wouldn't need a scoop just empty in a barrow.
Sorry thinking aloud here!
Thanks very much for your input :-)
 
I use a barrow and a Speed Skip. The little hand rake that comes with it is amazing at getting even slightly broken down poo into the skip, and this then gets tipped into the barrow. Because the skip has a handle, I lean on it when bending down to rake the poo into the skip part, and it takes a lot of strain off my back :)

In terms of injuries, before using this, I used to scoop poo out of long grass clumps using my hands (in rubber gloves ;) ) and managed to detach the extensor tendon from the end of my finger scooping poo up... finger had to be splinted for 6 weeks which made poo picking a challenge!
 
I have knackered elbows from poo picking and wheeling the wheelbarrow....i have tennis elbow in them and have steriod injections in them every year....think its the repetitive action rather than the product itself
 
How about designing a rechargeable power-assisted all-terrain wheelbarrow? It's pushing the wheelbarrow over rutted or boggy ground that does me in, not actually picking up the poo, for which I use a lightweight shavings fork.
 
Blisters are my problems. I get them on my palms, fingers and thumb. So something that is a little softer on my poor hands :D
 
I use a wheelbarrow and a beet fork

link to photo as it is rather large :http://www.timelesstools.co.uk/images/1795 beet fork.JPG

Its rather old, so quite heavy. The advantage is that it isn't flimsy! Great for getting through long and short grass. The tines are close enough together that they pick up most of the mini pony's poos, and the whole thing is wide enough that it can get most large horse poos all in one go.


Worst things would be back ache from pushing heavy wheelbarrow.
Also bruised knees from when the wheelbarrow suddenly stops )e.g. getting stuck on something hidden in the grass) and I keep moving forward :o
 
Micky said:
I have knackered elbows from poo picking and wheeling the wheelbarrow....i have tennis elbow in them and have steriod injections in them every year....think its the repetitive action rather than the product itself
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This is my problem too! Though I go for acupuncture every 3 months and wear a support everytime I poo pick..... getting older is rubbish!
 
SharonBirt said:
Hi Skint1
Thanks do you use one hand to rake the poo in or two is it the action of lifting the heavy scoop into the barrow? Thanks for your reply
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]

Sorry for delay in my reply, like amandap its the hand with the rake that ends up hurting, not the one that lifts the scoop into the barrow. Weird huh
 
brightmount said:
How about designing a rechargeable power-assisted all-terrain wheelbarrow? It's pushing the wheelbarrow over rutted or boggy ground that does me in, not actually picking up the poo, for which I use a lightweight shavings fork.
Click to expand...

I agree, I can't poo pick in the winter as it is too difficult to push the barrow in the field. In summer it's no problem with a shavings fork in short grass.
 
Tbh until somone breeds a horse that does not poo there is no easy solution!

I use a scoop and rake but in the summer, due to them being out 24/7, my right elbow really suffers and brings on tennis elbow. As others have mentioned, I think it is more the repetitive action rather than the tools.....
 
L&M said:
Tbh until somone breeds a horse that does not poo there is no easy solution!

I use a scoop and rake but in the summer, due to them being out 24/7, my right elbow really suffers and brings on tennis elbow. As others have mentioned, I think it is more the repetitive action rather than the tools.....
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I'm inclined to echo the above in that i too feel it's more of a 'repetitive straining' that causes all our aches and pains on the various parts of our bodies.

I'm a 'summer' poo picker and i've found that not overloading the barrow and using two hands to fork the poo into the poo picking tub thingy is alot better on my wrists/hands. I change which hand is lower constantly too so one doesn't always do the majority of the heavy scraping work. I also try my best to keep my body/torso straight when scraping into the poo bucket too. I hold the poo bucket on both sides with my feet too, to keep it still while i'm scraping the poo in. I don't have to throw or twist when emptying the poo into the barrow, so i guess that saves on the 'twisting and throwing' poo up into a higher trailer.

Gosh! LOL...it's amazing what i do and how i do it, when i go to poo pick!!
 
We poo pick every day since 1996 into a metal road trailer with the tractor.

There are long handles and short handle ones for shorter people.

I don't suffer any pain from using it in my back or wrist (much) and I have a problem back. I use the long handled one being tall.


What I can see for improvement is:
  • The rake stronger and welded better (one brand new one broke on the first poo)
  • The handle could be a little wider which may be causing hand aches for some as its too narrow for the clenched hand
  • Maybe a separate leaf type rake to rake up the poo when the birds spread it

In the winter we still use the tractor and trailer, but when the ground is water logged, to save the grazing we still use the barrow but empty it more often.

When the snow is here we use a poo bucket with the sledge and the filled bucket is light and glides across the snow.

We use these barrows and they are quite easy to push even fully loaded, when the gate way is muddy we pull the barrow through the mud as apposed to push http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Haemmerli...denEquipment_HandTools_SM&hash=item1c3c5406d4
 
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Yep. Severe tennis elbow caused by the rake and scoop. Three lots of steroid injections into the elbow over one year, only one injection worked .... The first. I had to go on full livery for 11 months to give it time to heal. It's still very fragile and I have to be very very careful to use two hands on rake (injured arm on top, and other one much lower down to do the actual scooping) while securing scoop with my feet and move very slowly now in case it exacerbates the old injury which has never entirely disappeared.
 
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Thanks everyone for your replies, they have been most helpful, it seems that the fork itself needs modifying and I have been trying out a prototype with very good results, when things have moved forward will ask for your opinions. It should eliminate wrist strain, back strain and give arm support! Watch this space :-)
 
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