Flock is under the weather!

[peafowl_Lover]

Hi, most of my flock are molting they were fine one morning and when I got back from work they were balding! They are feeling very pitiful, I started giving them growers pellets and suet balls aswell as layers pellets. Last week my cream legbar cross hen Lavender was sick I didn't know what was wrong with her I suspected a crop issue so i treated her with mycostatin but it didn't help, she passed away yesterday. She was nearly 2 and a half. My other hen Olivia looked a bit off today, she was drinking and eating but her face was gone pale. Tonight when I put them in to bed she was in in the nestbox instead of roosting. Could it be the same thing Lavender got. Also I wormed the flock with albendazole last week, could that have caused an issue? There's no problem with my ducks who also got wormed. I'll get a pic of Olivia tomorrow.
Thanks

 

[Bawkbok]

Hard to say what afflicted Lavender without knowing other symptoms. I'm sorry for your loss.

If they are molting, they will probably stop laying all together as all effort goes into feather production. I suggest stopping with the layer feed and switching to a higher protein all flock blend (for various ages). You may want to provide additional sources of protein a couple of times a week during the molt. There is a great article on this site about the molting process (under the brown articles tab at the top).

Are they all eating and drinking as normal? Poop looks ok? What made you worm them?

Check Olivia's crop first thing when coming off of roost and tell us what it feels like, hard, squishy, soft, doughy, etc.

I don't think worming them would make them sick but I'm not a worming expert so hopefully someone with more expertise will come along and be of better help.

Have you introduced any new birds recently?

 

[Eggcessive]

If you have Olivia’s body, you could keep it cold in a cooler, and take it to hour state vet tomorrow for a necropsy. Crop problems can be difficult to treat, and many times there is an underlying problem, such as reproductive infection or something else. I would offer scrambled egg and watery chicken feed to get them eating. Molting is very hard on some hens. Albendazole is fairly safe when given at a dosage of 0.5 ml.