Wormers

[Tempi]

I know its not comp riders, but is for competition horse?!

Does anyone use herbal wormers and if so which one? Have been looking in to Verm-X which you feed every 3 months, it works out at around £30 a time for my 3 horses (so £10 a horse). I am on a DIY yard with no worming programme in place (you worm your own horse) - my mare can't have chemical wormers due to them flaring up her stomach ulcers. But I want to give them something and would rather they all had a herbal one.

 

[Tnavas]

VermX was banned in NZ as they were unable to prove their product actually worked.

Personally I'd want to worm a competition horse with the best possible wormer - if you want the best out of a horse then it needs to be as parasite free as possible.

 

[Tempi]

Ok thanx for that.

 

[niamh]

I think garlic is the only natural decent wormicide...but worms nowadays are so tough that you probably would need industrial quantities. Worth looking into if you're not going to use a proper wormer though

 

[Miss L Toe]

Ask the vet about alternatives to the standard wormers, I think my foal got Panacur which is mild, have heard of people using natural herbs but ending up with worm induced colice. Certainly worm count regularly.

 

[Sneedy]

Why don't you get some worm egg counts done to see what you need to worm for......you may be lucky and not need to do anything til tapeworm time? Even then you could have them blood tested for tapeworm, although I'm not 100% sure how accurate it is. Speak to your vet, or a company like Intelligent Worming (my yard use them and they're very good)

 

[lizness]

You cannot test for encysted redworm, except post mortem! So it would be recommended to test for this once a year (equest pramox/5 day Panacur). Panacur may be mild but has widespread resistance

 

[Jesstickle]

Do you worm egg count and take blood for tapeworm ELISA? If not I would do that. You might be able to avoid worming altogether.

Your vet probably offers the service or you could use someone like intelligent worming


oops. Sneedy said literally everything I said already!

 

[Tempi]

Great thank you for the advice - I've got my vet coming out in a couple of weeks so i'll talk to him then about it all

 

[Miss L Toe]

You cannot test for encysted redworm, except post mortem! So it would be recommended to test for this once a year (equest pramox/5 day Panacur). Panacur may be mild but has widespread resistance

Not sure how one can test for encysted redworm?

 

[Verm-XAdvice]

Hello Tempi, I am new to the Horse & Hound Forum (just signed up infact!) I work for Verm-X and would love to help answer your questions.

As mentioned by others - a worm count is a great place to start. This will give you a good indication on how to proceed (whatever the product.) I would also add that if your horse is grazed with any others it would be worth getting these horses worm counted at the same time.

For us, Verm-X is not about replacing chemicals - we are all animal owners here and have all used chemicals very successfully in the past. What we do want to do though is offer people an effective alternative which does not contain man-made chemicals. This is an important choice for many as like yourself they may have animals which struggle to tolerate pharmaceuticals, they may be organic or they may well just want to reduce their chemical usage.

Verm-X is very gentle on an animals gut and digestive system. It does work over a longer period than conventional products but this what is able to also benefit the gut health as it does not have a purging effect. For this reason the Veteran Horse Society use Verm-X on all their older horses very successfully.

If I can offer you any help or you would like to try a sample of our product please feel free to email me your address to ellie@verm-x.com, I would be very happy to do so.

I would like to add that Verm-X is not banned in New Zealand. We are currently working to be able to export our products into New Zealand in the future and are very much looking forward to introducing it there. Verm-X has been through, and continues to go through, rigours testing to ensure its efficiency. Frustratingly, we are unable to share these findings as our product does not contain man-made chemicals and therefore is not classed as a medicine. These rules upon natural products are something we are keen to abide by.

Thank you Tempi for your interest in our product

 

[ihatework]

Frustratingly, we are unable to share these findings as our product does not contain man-made chemicals and therefore is not classed as a medicine. These rules upon natural products are something we are keen to abide by.

Well you learn something new every day

I wasn't aware a company was unable to publish data from a randomised, controlled, double blind study just because one of the arms wasn't and IMP/NCE

 

[Tnavas]

I would like to add that Verm-X is not banned in New Zealand. We are currently working to be able to export our products into New Zealand in the future and are very much looking forward to introducing it there. Verm-X has been through, and continues to go through, rigours testing to ensure its efficiency.

This comment is not correct!

VermX WAS available in New Zealand (introduced in 2004 through Healthy on line) but has been banned here in NZ since 2009.

A friend of mine used to use it.

http://horsetalk.co.nz/news/2009/12/126.shtml

 

[Verm-XAdvice]

ihatework - thank you for your comment. This is something we have always had to work with but we work closely with our customers to ensure their confidence in out products and are happy with their results on their own horses. We would never want to force our product on anyone but if people are looking for something more natural we are confident in what we do.

Tnavas - thank you for this link. This Verm-X was not exported directly by us. When exporting to new countries we are always keen to ensure we are certified for free sale into the country so we can ensure the product will not be held up by authorities. This is what we are working towards at the moment with New Zealand and Australia - it is a long process

This link is a great example of what happens if someone tries to sell a product where it is not authorised by the authorities. This was not a case that Verm-X did not prove it worked as the case was not against us - just that this particular company did not have the paper work requested making it uncompliant - effective or non effective.

 

[Tnavas]

Thanks Verm-XAdvice - I did wonder if this might be the case. Good luck with the application for NZ our officials are a tough lot to convince but whenthey do we know the product will do what t says it does.

 

[Verm-XAdvice]

Thank you Tnavas - it is a long process but I quite respect how strict they are with what goes into the country. It is quite commendable indeed.