Winter molt?

[Funsizeracing]

Can unusually warm weather cause molting this time of year? It's been in the 50's several days recently. Imola hasn't been laying eggs for about a week. She was a once a day layer. There's feathers all over her pen and it seems as though she's not as water resistant as normal. Can the weather cause a strange winter molt?

She is also recovering from vet treated bumblefoot. She's on some antibiotics he prescribed and moving around much more than she was.

 

[teach1rusl]

On the plus side, if she's been on antibiotics, you're generally not supposed to eat the eggs anyhow, so who cares whether she's laying or not?
Depending on her age, she should have molted this past Fall/Winter. So I take it she didn't? If that's the case, then she could just be a really late molter. If you're finding feathers all over the place, molting would be my first thought.
Or perhaps if she's really young, she wasn't going to molt this past year, but somehow the antibiotic treatment brought it on??? I've had a young girl molt in the spring (NOT a typical time to molt) after she stopped being broody - I think her poor nutrition during her broody month brought it on. So maybe different stressors can bring on molting sometimes....

 

[Amiga]

Stress can cause molting, and sometimes ducks just get out of phase.

Right now my Achtie is molting. Silly duck! It's in the 30s F and raining.

I check on her, and so far she's being active and not hunched up or huddling. If I see a duck obviously cold like that, she comes in for warm ups and dry offs.

If your duck is getting a good diet and is in a relatively healthy environment, things should be okay.

 

[Speceider]

Mallard-derived breeds have 2 body molts per year. I doubt there is anything unusual.

Clint

 

[Funsizeracing]

Thanks for the replies. She's almost 9 months old. Doesn't sound like it's anything to be worried about.

 

[azhenhouse]

I have ducks and chickens molting right now. I feel sorry for the chickens because they are going bald, and it is still pretty cold here. The ducks just started, and still have a good bundle of feathers to keep them warm. I never knew they would molt in the winter. I checked for parasites and didn't see any, but treated them anyway.