[90driver]

I Have been treating my chickens with Vermex for a couple of months, but am a little confused about what it actually does. "intestinal hygiene"..... does that mean is worms the birds ? The website dances around the facts with broad statements and pretty meaningless Phrases. Without mentioning parasites etc.

Does anyone know ?

[HesterF]

According to my vet, your scepticism is correct - while it may help improve the general health of the birds, it doesn't deworm or do anything properly medical. So a healthy bird is in a better position to cope with worms but to actually get rid of worms, you need proper meds (Flubenvet or similar).

H

[90driver]

Hester

Thank you ! The power of advertising ! I assumed that it did the same job as flubenvet, But having read it over and over again it really does not tell you what it does !

[hughesy]

It's a fiddle. It doesn't do anything. It's snake oil. If you need to worm poultry you need Flubenvet which is the only licenced poultry wormer in the UK. Licenced = tested and proven to work.
There's a massive industry that's sprang up to cater for what the poultry keeping public are told they need. Most of it is just plain unnecessary.

[taz08]

there are many ways to worm your hens ,, you dont have to use Flubenvet ..
all naturel !!! not every1 likes using drugs,,
i have over 100 hens never been wormed Flubenvet all fit healthy birds

[suziequeue]

Vermex isn't a wormer. End of........

As Taz08 says - whether you choose to worm your flock or not is personal choice. Personally - I do.

[lachlanandmarcus]

Hester

Thank you ! The power of advertising ! I assumed that it did the same job as flubenvet, But having read it over and over again it really does not tell you what it does !

I've had many interesting 'discussions' with the vet on their ads on the horse and hound forum too. He pops up if anyone mentions verm x in a post! The wording is so vague because they got hauled up before the advertising standards peeps when they used to try and make stronger claims. Strangely he didn't want to disclose how much Verm x were paying him to endorse the product tho he did admit he was paid to do so.


Have no problem with people using it as a health supplement but eg in some species there are worms that absolutely have to be wormed for until a test can be developed as they don't show up on worm counts etc or show symptoms until they emerge en masse which can be fatal eg encysted redworm in horses, so I take issue with Verm xs advertising approach which encourages people to see it as a healthier alternative to chemical wormers

[90driver]

Yes I did kind of guess that vague wording would be deliberate!

[hughesy]

If you are a producer of veterinary medicines the stuff has to be rigorously tested for safety and effectiveness and then licenced for sale. ie it must do what it says on the tin! Vermex have been stopped from using the word "wormer" or making any specific claims because they didn't/wouldn't/couldn't do this.

[ellied]

Yes I was caught out with this one - after  "winning" some free samples and using them on a pony that was hard to worm with syringes but loved the VermX - at the next worm count the rest were under 200epg and many had none seen in the samples, she was something like 2500epg..  They did used to claim it was a legitimate proven healthy herbal nonchemical environmentally friendly worming product until they got hit by not being able to prove anything whatsoever other than  making money off people. 

I use chemicals again now on all the livestock - Marriages flubenvet layers pellets for the chooks, but they then require at least a weeks withdrawal (it may be longer, I'm waiting the latest order to arrive and can't remember) which is a lot of wasted eggs so if anyone ?taz08 has an alternative that actually works, please let me know!

[suziequeue]

The more flummery there is, the less likely a product is to actually work (gross generalisation probably) - but you tend to find in all areas that whatever the subject matter, bullsh1t is strongly correlated to the amount of handwaving that goes on.


I find this is particularly true of the medical and quasi-medical press.

[hughesy]

ellied there's no withdrawal period for eggs with flubenvet you can still eat them.

[taz08]

flubenvet,, only need 14 days if your eating the bird