Following recent sales off verm x ( discuss)

[thatsmygirl]

I noticed in my local tack shop that the verm x is disapearing off the shelves pretty well, I find this quite worrying as from what I believe there is no proff this stuff works?
Also are owners thinking this is a wormer? I noticed that they have now put the stuff in a tube which looks very much like a wormer but call it intestrial health (spelling sorry)
I'm interested to hear peoples views on this stuff, do u use it? If not why? What do u know about it?
My owns views are it's a waste off money and I personally wouldn't use it.
Interested on this one

 

[Paint Me Proud]

i use it, but only on my chickens, wouldnt use it on my horse!

 

[thatsmygirl]

Why wouldn't you?

 

[Paint Me Proud]

Why wouldn't you?

because i dont think it is fully tested and there are far more effective reliable products available so not worth taking the chance on it IMO.

 

[maisie06]

i use it, but only on my chickens, wouldnt use it on my horse!

Why not use Flubenvet - much more effective and reliable, you can eat the eggs while they are being treated too.

 

[Paint Me Proud]

Why not use Flubenvet - much more effective and reliable, you can eat the eggs while they are being treated too.

you can eat the eggs with verm-x too. I never said it didnt work on my chickens, works great for them, just wouldnt use it for my horse.

 

[mulledwhine]

Never heard of it ... Excuse my ignorance, what is it?

 

[Business]

Had a old horse that was very prone to colic. He couldn't be wormed conventionally because the wormers were too harsh for his ageing gut. Kept on top of the situation with worm counts, blood tests and daily poo picking. This worked for the best part of a decade. Anyhow, to cut a long story short eventually I had to worm him and tried Verm X first. I asked for scientific proof it would work and was quoted a load of anecdotal stories - but I was desperate to lower the risk of a colic so had to give it a go. - USLESS!

Wormed properly in the end Pan. EQ. Guard -the mildest that would do the job - thankfully he was OK but on vet advice he was on bute for a few days before the wormer to several days after.

So from actual experience which involved pre and post comparative worm counts - don't bother - it did not work on my horse.

 

[Business]

Never heard of it ... Excuse my ignorance, what is it?

It's marketed as a herbal wormer - no chemicals

 

[thatsmygirl]

That's interesting business, it would be nice to hear from somebody who has used verm x for a while with worm counts in place to see how it went

 

[thatsmygirl]

It's not marketed as a wormer anymore, use to be " repell internal parasites" but now there isn't 1 part on the box that mentions worms at all just intestrial health!!! What do they mean by that??

 

[scrunchie]

It's not marketed as a wormer anymore, use to be " repell internal parasites" but now there isn't 1 part on the box that mentions worms at all just intestrial health!!! What do they mean by that??

They might not be allowed to call themselves a wormer by law. I know there's been a big shake up in human herbal medicine recently not sure about animal medicine though.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

I think this complaint/adjudication by the Advertising standards people may have influenced their decision to amend their advertising.

http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Ad...ddocks-Farm-Partnership-Ltd/TF_ADJ_46136.aspx

 

[Business]

They sold it to me as a herbal wormer but that was back in 2009/early 2010

 

[mulledwhine]

Could this be the reason my vet used to do a free worm count but now have decided to charge?

 

[thatsmygirl]

Interesting, so has anybody on here used it along side worm counts?
Bump

 

[vhf]

Interesting, so has anybody on here used it along side worm counts?
Bump

Can only speak for my own experience.
Horse in question on regular worm/worm-count regime. Normally zero/low summer count. Last summer, count was low-moderate, so gave the verm-ex exactly as per instructions. (I won it, figured I had nothing to lose). Three weeks later, did another worm count. Count now high Felt guilty, returned to normal worm programme!
However, was DEFINITELY less bothered by flies while on the Verm-Ex, very noticable. Even the "fly-cloud-round-the-head" was absent on a group hack where everyone else was being pestered.

 

[spaniel]

I have been using Verm X for YEARS on both horses dogs and now on my chickens. My experience is that it DOES work as a parasite repellent which I can back up with results of worm counts both faecal and bloods. I too used it on a horse who could not tolerate chemical worming and alongside poo picking (which you should be doing no matter which regime you use) I never had a count that went above <50epg no eggs seen.

I have a spaniel who will vomit using any chemical wormer and she has Verm X biscuits daily to repel internal parasites. She too is free of worms. My chickens have been on Verm X liquid for 2 years, they too are clean inside.

Please bear in mind that to have publishable clinical trials to back up claims costs tens/hundreds of thousands of pounds which some companies just dont have. The ingredients in verm X have been used for centuries to keep people and animal insides clean so theres really no reason to believe they have stopped working!

 

[touchstone]

If it works as a repellant then I'd imagine that used alongside worm counts it would be fine. I think there is a danger that it would be relied on to kill parasites in a horse with an established worm burden, in which case I'd think there could well be problems if it isn't as effective as the chemical wormers.

 

[JessandCharlie]

I have used it, and was never made to feel like it'd kill parasites! The company told me to worm with a chemical wormer before using their product, and worm for tape worms as well as giving the stuff. I never had any problems with worms when I was giving it, but then, I wasn't trying to use it to kill parasites, just to prevent them coming back after I'd zapped them with chemicals in fact, I might just give it another whirl with ozz (current yard does regular worm counts) and let you know how it goes I'm wary of using chemical workers on him in case it upsets his feet (barefoot) I know a lot of horses can't deal with them

J&C

 

[spaniel]

I think this is the key.....use the chemical wormer to start off with and then prevent reinfestation with verm X.

 

[alsiola]

I think this is the key.....use the chemical wormer to start off with and then prevent reinfestation with verm X.

How do you think herbal products work (making the fairly large assumption that they do)? Because of the chemicals they contain.

 

[thatsmygirl]

So worth useing as a fly repellent than |0|

 

[moana]

I would not use Verm x - because I know HOW it was tested. It may work, but I would not trust it, unless they did better research and testing.

 

[WelshieMare]

I am a Verm-ex user and it has done wonders for my ex-racer. Who came to me with a high count. I had a similar situation to yours vhf, worm counted and called Verm-ex about it. They (quite rightly) explained Verm-X cannot GIVE my horse worms (in hindsight I think he picked them up from my friends little mare he was grazed with before), I spoke to their vet and used another dose of the product, worm counted and my worm counts had gone from 800epg to >50epg – I was a convert! Been using it about 18 months now on 4 horses and have not had any other problems so far.
I find it interesting that if using herbal products we are so keen to doubt it and worm count to ensure it works yet we never doubt whether chemicals will work or not and check these

 

[thatsmygirl]

Welshiemare I take it u still use chemical wormer for tape and encysted?

 

[flyingfeet]

I bought it when they were doing an offer with a box and 2 free worm counts

It does work, as it lowers the egg count. However in my case it didn't get it below the acceptable level (but was starting from a high-ish burden)

However I also had pin worms, which are devils to shift and had to use 5 day panacur guard anyway

For worming horses that aren't feed hard feed in a herd, its a pain to do over 5 days. So I would probably stick to chemical wormers out of ease.

 

[WelshieMare]

Welshiemare I take it u still use chemical wormer for tape and encysted?

Hello thatsmygirl, I use it for tape (was told it covers with a double dose) but still use a chemical for encysted. I got a new mare about 6 months ago and did a combination of Verm-ex and a chemical to be sure and that vet explained Verm-ex is good for the tummy after a strong chemical, anyhoo my mares last worm count was low so I was a happy lady

 

[ester]

given some of my concerns with regards to obtaining accurate egg counts I would not take a one off reduction in FEC as an indication that the product had worked. Longitudinally, more like spaniels case, would be better evidence however it might also be that spaniel has other good worm management practices in place, with a stable herd, all/most of which are mature horses and quite possibly with a good level of resiliance/resistance in place.

Using my current scheme it would only reduce the amount of 'chemical' my horses get by one dose a year.

eta welshiemare have you had your horse blood tested for tape?

 

[YasandCrystal]

I used to use a herbal wormer. I thought this was a great idea as I have a whole massive colony of those black dung beetles at my paddocks and I thought herbal wormer would not kill them.

Anyway to cut to the point I had worm counts done as usual and one pony (who had been away for a while) had a count of around 200. Not much I know but as my counts are usually all <50 this was unusual. I had a long discussion with the laboratory technician who assured me that these 'herbal' wormers are not at all gentle and I suppose it's obvious that they need to be quite toxic to expel and kill worms and larvae/eggs.
So he said not only are they actually unproven, they are infact not gentle and kind as one would imagine so in his professional opinion it's better to use worm counts and a chemical wormer as and when necessary. Good advice which I now follow.