Possible reaction to Marek's vaccine??

[RacetrackReject]

One of my baby chicks started getting ill on Friday. It looked like a chick with Parkinson's disease basically. Lots of head bobbing, uncontrollable, and labored breathing. On Saturday the chick looked so bad that I thought it was going to die. I kept getting it to drink some water to try and keep it hydrated since it was laying all sprawled out and would not get up. On Saturday night I heard very loud peeping and went to check on the chicks. The sick one was now standing in the smaller box I had put it in within their area and was trying to jump out so I let it out. On Sunday it was getting around much better and by this morning, I couldn't even tell which chick was the sick one.

Yes, I know that I probably should have removed the chick, but I figured if it was something contagious, the others had already been exposed. All of the other chicks seem fine so far.

I was just wondering if maybe this one chick could have had some sort of reaction to the Marek's vaccine they received. I've tried googling chicken diseases, but haven't really found anything that fits yet.

My vet said that he didn't really "do" chickens and didn't know of anyone in the area to call about it.

Any suggestions?

[smilton]

AE fits the description but is usually fatal. They get head tick's and are uncoordinated/neurologic.
Yes they can have reactions to vaccinations. Marek's is a modified live vaccine of Herpes Virus of Turkeys.
(I worked in Poultry virology for awhile.)

[RacetrackReject]

Thanks for the reply! Just wanted to update and say that I can't even tell which chick was the sick one now and everyone else seems to be doing great still. I am really beginning to think it may have been a reaction to the vaccine.

[Granada]

Marek's ussually takes quite a while to show symptoms when birds are challenged (weeks), I wouldn't expect a Marek's vaccine to cause this kind of reaction if it occured soon after the vaccination. I'm not a vet, I just do poultry r&d. Kudos to you for vaccinating your chicks!