Susan, I answered this on the other forum, but in case you check here first, look at page 16 of this pdf:

http://www.organicagcentre.ca/DOCs/Vermiculture_FarmersManual_gm.pdf

It looks like your worms may have something called "Sour Crop," caused by overfeeding and a buildup of protein in the bedding. They recommend treating with massive doses of an antibiotic such as farmers give to chickens.

If they were ok a week ago when you got them you would have to have a terrible bed condition for that to happen so fast. What did you put in the bed and what is it's history? Worms might not even eat for a while after changing to another bed from where you got them. Sounds like you have something bad like lime in your bed or something.

wow! novemberguest I checked out that pdf and it is pretty darn fine! That is a lot of good information in one place. Does look like the sour crop bacteria infection but he only had the worms a week. Either they had it when he got them (but he said they looked good) or there has to be a history of problems in that bed that he is using.

I thought the worms were pregnant when I got them, but I think they were already in distress. I have lost most of the adults. I have removed most of the distressed worms (they went in my outdoor bins), and have made new bins. I have raised worms for years and have neve seen this before. When going through the bins today, I found cocoons and many young/babies, which I relocated to the new bins.
Thank you all for replies. All information is helpful.

Have you contacted the people you got them from. I am sure they are expecting your call because when yours died theirs died also. Unless you have had trouble in this bed before. I have no experience with this problem but you may have infected your outside beds also when you put the worms into them. Need to watch them closely if you have a lot of worms in them. I have heard that you can apply a little powered sulfer on the bed to help with infections. You can get it at eckerd drugs.

sqh1,
where did you get your worms? mine seem to have sour crop too and i'm not sure if i'm to blame (i did overfeed) or if they came infected. i ordered mine off an ebay guy about 3 weeks ago.