Silkies Breathing Strangely

[YelleBean]

Hello! I've got a conundrum here. We have our newer chickens in their own run/brooder/roosting area that we got in late April and were about to start integrating them with our flock of 3 years. The other day, I went outside to find our Black Copper Maran boy, Mavrick dead. He was young and I was heartbroken. No signs of anything and nothing in his mouth we could see. Just dead. All the others seemed fine....until yesterday. I noticed that our Wellsummer roo has a sort of crackly breathing sound? Then I noticed our 3 silkies sort of lethargic, 2 worse than the other and doing open mouth breaths. Not the same as the open mouth breathing when it's hot. We're in Texas and it's HOT and humid, but this is different, like they can't breath through their nose. No foaming or discharge I can really see, but I would say MAYBE their noses have some congestion. Every now and then, their breath is loud almost like an "ahhhhh" sound, but taking breaths from the mouth deeply and stretching neck. I haven't noticed sneezing.

Thoughts? I thought Gapeworm, but again not sure. Then, I thought respiratory infection? I'm at a loss of do I worm or do I give a sub q injection of Florfenicol? Is it safe to put wormer in the water and treat for respiratory? Should I try some vetrx on the nostrils? Of the 3 years of chickens, only ever had to treat for bumble foot and coccidiosis and never this kind of thing. I don't want to lose them! A friend of mine said not to worm them in this heat so I am at a loss.

About a week and a half ago, my husband had to kill a skunk that got inside their run, but I wasn't sure if any of that had anything to do with this. I just want to keep these guys healthy and get them well again! Help!

 

[Eggcessive]

Where did the newer chickens come from? Video of breathing uploaded to YouTube with a link here may help. Crackles with breathing could be rales from a respiratory infection or crop contents coming back up into the throat and airway. Gapeworm is a rare worm, but using SafeGuard liquid goat wormer or horse paste 1/4 ml per pound orally for 5 days in a row will treat it. If you lose another, please keep the body cold and send it to your state vet where they can do a necropsy and help identify what is going on. Call ahead before you need one for details. Heat stress can be bad now in summer.
State vet labs:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

 

[nuthatched]

Vet rx is just vicks for chickens but it might alleviate symptoms.
The new chickens were quarantined since April? That's good.
Has it been dusty or any chance they could have gotten into something moldy?
Sorry you lost your boy.

 

[YelleBean]

Where did the newer chickens come from? Video of breathing uploaded to YouTube with a link here may help. Crackles with breathing could be rales from a respiratory infection or crop contents coming back up into the throat and airway. Gapeworm is a rare worm, but using SafeGuard liquid goat wormer or horse paste 1/4 ml per pound orally for 5 days in a row will treat it. If you lose another, please keep the body cold and send it to your state vet where they can do a necropsy and help identify what is going on. Call ahead before you need one for details. Heat stress can be bad now in summer.
State vet labs:
https://www.metzerfarms.com/poultry-labs.html

I'll see if I can upload a video. They're just lethergic and I notice now a little bit of sneezing. I'm thinking I should go ahead and give them a dose of Nuflor. Any ideas on dosing? We got them from the same person we always get our chicks from and usually have no issues!

 

[YelleBean]

Vet rx is just vicks for chickens but it might alleviate symptoms.
The new chickens were quarantined since April? That's good.
Has it been dusty or any chance they could have gotten into something moldy?
Sorry you lost your boy.

Right, I was thinking maybe it just might give them a little bit of comfort with what's going on. It's hot here, but definetely not really windy or dusty and the coop was just cleaned well a few days ago. I will be cleaning out their little area in just a moment and putting fresh shavings down just in case. I'm thinking I might go ahead and dose with Nuflor, but I'm at a loss as to how to dose them since I have a couple silkies and a standard breed, but none are full grown.