I have a paralyzed leghorn about 24 weeks old I have been treating with B vitamins she had been vaccinated for Marek's but I found out my 21 week Orpingtons were not.... if it is Marek's they have been exposed will the vaccine help at this point?
1-super b complex vitamin E vitamin D, Calcium.... but she is eating better now and moving her legs.... still cant stand on them she is flapping her wings like she wants to fly and talking to me.... this has been 6 days of dosing. and her tail is moving some.... it had not previously... since I see some improvement does this rule out Mareks? Or is that still on the table...
Has this pullet ever laid any eggs?
Can you please post photos of her and her poop?
How long have you had her?
What do you feed, including treats?
Marek's is a possibility, even if birds are vaccinated. The vaccine may help prevent the formation of tumors, but it does not stop birds from infection from the virus.
I would give her the B-Complex, see that she's eating well. If you wish to give Vitamin E for a week, it shouldn't hurt her. Give 400IU Vitamin E daily.
Are you sure she was not injured somehow? The tail not moving is interesting, but it could still be a symptoms of Marek's, the disease presents in so many different ways.
No one can rule in/out Marek's without testing, if you lose her, having a necropsy through your state lab would give you the best information.
The mareks vaccine is a live vaccine but doesn’t spread to unvaccinated birds. I talked to my vet about this since half of my flock is vaccinated, birds bought offline, and half aren’t, the ones hatched here. The vet said that the vaccine will help lessen the symptoms of mareks in vaccinated birds and can even prolong their life. But the vaccinated ones can’t spread the disease just because they got the vaccine. They still have to be exposed to it from an outside source.
The vaccine can help control the formation of tumors, but it does not prevent infection from the virus. The vaccine may suppress clinical symptoms.
It does not prevent shedding.
There's been a LOT of threads over the years with folks having sick vaccinated birds, necropsy revealed a main cause of decline was Marek's. And to be fair, unvaccinated birds have become sick and died as well.
However, if one already has Marek's within their flock, then vaccinating chicks might be beneficial, but it is crucial that vaccinated chicks not be exposed (need to be completely quarantined) for a minimum of 2wks. This would be hard to do in a backyard setting.
The best thing that anyone can do is research on their own and decide for themselves whether vaccination is the right choice for their flock(s). There are a lot of studies published and available, it just takes a lot of time to wade through them.
Dust or dander from infected chickens is particularly effective in transmission.
Once the virus is introduced into a chicken flock, regardless of vaccination status, infection spreads quickly from bird to bird.
Infected chickens continue to be carriers for long periods and act as sources of infectious virus.
Shedding of infectious virus can be reduced, but not prevented, by prior vaccination.
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/neoplasms/marek-s-disease-in-poultry
All MDV vaccines only prevent clinical symptoms, but
do not prevent virus replication and shedding in the vaccinated host. While reduced shedding from vaccinated birds has been reported [
87,
88], these ‘imperfect’ vaccines still allow virus spread and evolution in the field, and are associated with the emergence of field strains with increased virulence
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7139298/
These results show that currently available Rispens CVI988
vaccine virus is shed in significant quantities from vaccinated chickens and transmits effectively between chickens. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23901761/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17622613/
