will my other hens get sick?

[thechickenhouse]

We just lost our 2 1/2 year old hen, checkers. She went into a hard molt a few weeks ago and exhibited the usual signs of lethargy, feather loss, weight loss, depression. Well, about a week ago we realized that she was looking so thin and we started feeding her foods high in protein, etc. She just became weaker and weaker and more emaciated and died in her sleep in our house in a box. We really did not notice any signs of respiratory infection, or lesion. She did have diarrhea at the end (perhaps longer) After reading these forums we wonder if her illness could have been caused by a parasite or if we should worry about a viral infection Did she eat something. We now have two 2 1/2 year old hens but also 6 new pullets that are about 12 weeks old. The older girls are also molting and aren't very energetic but are normal in appearance and weight. They live in an urban coop, wood chips on the ground, hay in the coop. They have access to our compost pile. They free range for an hour or less a day. The pen is at least 16 by 9 feet Should we worry about the other hens? We have never dewormed them, should we? The closest vet dealing with chickens is about 45 minutes away with a 125.00 charge. Can anyone guess why she became so ill? Thanks so much for any advice.

 

[dlhunicorn]

when a noticibly ill bird is also in molt the very first consideration should be hydration... birds can become dehydrated very quickly >add electrolytes/vit to water... make sure the feed is moist in case of dehydration (just add enough cooked-in-water human oatmeal to the feed to moisten and make it clump together)... look at your petstore for a (pet) bird supplement specially formulated for molting ( it should have METHIONINE in the formulation) and give that in feed. Once you are sure they are drinking sufficiently take them off the electrolytes and then add a good general supplement to the water or feed when you are seeing improvement as to eating and such (I reccommend Avia Charge 2000 > you can order this online from McMurry or Strombergs)