Horizon Legacy - Page 1

The subtitle for this post is 'pooped'. Literally.

I am still struggling to find a replacement food for my dogs since they stopped making the Pet Valu house brand I'd been feeding. My bitch won't touch the formula they've replaced it with.

Every time I think I've found the right food, I luck out.

Tried Chicken Soup Large breed. Turns out the closest pet store only stocks the Chicken Soup All Life Stages formula, and Miss Picky doesn't like it.

Tried Canidae All Life Stages, which is what a breeder I know and respect feeds. Then I found out about them fooling with the formula and not telling anyone. Also, the closest pet food store doesn't stock it.

Finally, I thought I'd found the answer. Horizon Legacy is grain free, isn't as expensive as some of the really premium brands like Wellness and Solid Gold, yet it has a 6 star rating from the dog food site I've been using to look up the ratings on different foods.

Great! Bought a bag of it early this week.

Right away, Star started throwing up. I figured she'd eaten something she shouldn't have, as I'd only put a very small amount in her food along with the Canidae.

Then, the other night, Ranger woke me at 4 am to tell me he had to go out. He had diarrhea.

I went more slowly with the change, and things seemed to settled down, until this afternoon.

I left him alone for a couple of hours while I took Star to buy a new wire crate for her. When I got back, I found Ranger had had a HUGE accident in the house. It's taken me several hours of cleaning, and I'm STILL not done! He even splashed poop 5 feet up one of the walls, and decorated the front of the VCR and TV!  There are a couple of throw rugs outside right now that are waiting for the morning for me to hose them down.

Just as I was getting a handle on things, Star came in from outside, took a big drink of water, then promptly threw up what was left of her breakfast all over the rug.... :head;desk;

NOT a happy dog owner right now!  Anyone know the best way to get dried poop off a painted wall without damaging the paint?  And how do you disinfect the buttons on a VCR without ruining the machine?

So, it's back to Canidae, and I'm going to see if they will take the Legacy back. I haven't used very much of it.

FWIW, I have fed Canidae for over 10 years and have not had any problems, even when they recently changed the recipe. 

Sunsilver, I had the same dilemma, I didn't know what to buy! I'm not sure if I should retrust Canidae, or not. My DH bought a bag of Pedigree, (he's cheap_! ) and with all the cornmeal I swear my dog started to shake his ears in discomfort! I went and bought a bag of Sensible Choice made by Royal Canin.  Lamb and Rice. I also mix in a bit of canned food. Seems to like it so far, without breaking the bank.

Also, why do you need Large breed? Even with Canidae don't most folks here recommend All Stages? What could be so different?

Just recently I switch my dogs to Acana Prairie Harvest. They love it! The stool is smaller and they didn't have any problems with a change. 

Wow,   what a day you have had!

Paint on walls:    Do you have back up paint?   Sand off the dried poop, and touch up?   What kind of finish (satin, glossy, flat may make a difference.    Or get creative, and paint a mural of the dog to remember the incident by  (right over the cleaned site!)   You could try dabbing just regular dish soap and water on the new design you got this afternoon.

For the VCR,   take a soft cloth or paper towel and spray it with All purpose Clorox product.     Unplug it and dab away on all the buttons etc.....can also use an old toothbrush and the vaccum hose depending how much you were blessed with!

I use large breed food for my GSD pack as well.

Let us know how this turns out, and take some pictures for you to laugh at later days!    Trish and pack  :)

Use alcohol to clean the VCR buttons......Alcohol will evaporate.

Beetree, in both cases (new formula Performatrin and the Chicken Soup regular formula) the common ingredient was herring meal!  So, my bitch is not a fish-lover!

Yeah, I waas REALLY ticked when she turned up her nose at the Chicken Soup regular, after doing so well on the CS Large Breed!

Xaver, yup, quite the day, and I haven't even told you the WHOLE story!  

I am trying to get new hearing aids right now, and it's very stressful. They tell me I now have only 25% hearing left. Whoopdedoo....Marlee Maitlin, the actress (Children of a Lesser God) has 20%, and she's officially Deaf!

So, come home from the audiologist to this horrible mess. Every time I tried one method of cleaning, something got in the way. Tried to hook up the hose to clean rugs...hose bib was still turned off for the winter, and the spray wand wouldn't fit. Vacuum cleaner bag was full. Star puked the first time EXACTLY where I needed to put the hose cart to connect the hose. (She'd been eating grass, but it looked like she vomited most of her breakfast, and this was 4:30 in the afternoon! Something not right there!)  Stepped in a HUGE gob of pine gum while emptying vacuum, and tracked it into the house. When Star upchucked for the second time (and of course, she HAD to have tanked up on water just before doing it!, and it HAD to be on the large area rug in the den!) I ran out of paper towels, and had to go to the store to buy some. After she vomited, I put  the dogs out in the backyard, so they'd be out of the way, and she dug a big hole by the foundation of the house, and got covered in mud. By this point, I was ready to kill her! 

On the way back from the store, I went down to the lake, and sat there in my car for a bit to calm down. Nice to be able to do that to restore my sanity! 

I finally used dilute bleach and water on the VCR, and it seems to have survived. I really should take a tootbrush to the buttons, though, to make sure I got it all.

The poop came off the wall with lots of soaking with water and dish soap. Unfortunately, the water ran down the wall and left streaks. I may have to repaint. We'll see what it looks like in the daylight! How in heaven's name does a dog get poop FIVE FEET off the ground??  That must have been some kick with the hind feet, once he was done!

Edited to add: did I mention I'm supposed to leave for a 3 day service dog conference today? And Ranger, my service dog STILL has the Hershey squirts this morning? 

When my son's GSD mix was alive, he would get explosive diarrhea, it would be on the ceiling, the walls, .....everywhere. OMG did it stink. Had to not only tear out the carpet, but the subfloor underneath....'cause it soaked through. I could have easily killed him! But then he was diagnosed with perianal fistulas, & I felt so badly for him. He would get so hang dog looking, & really looked ashamed of himself when he had these problems, & after all, it wasn't like he could control it. As I said on another thread, I got so I would wake up & take him out at the very first fart! (Funny how it always happened at 3:00am!) But I feel for you, it's no freakin' fun!
Sorry about your hearing, as well, do the HAs work for you? My friend at work wears some, they are so tiny you can barely notice them at all, I probably wouldn't if I didn't know they were there. She can even use a regular stethascope with them.....pretty cool.  My husband has been having difficulties, but he won't admit to it. He can't seem to hear any higher pitched tones, & he refuses to get them checked. I worry about him driving....I took him to the MD, but all he did was clean his ears, no referral to an audiologist. I think the guy covers for him! jh

Please keep an eye on Star.  She is showing symptoms of bloat.  You may want to take her to the vet to be on the safe side but eating grass with excessive drinking and vomiting undigested food hours after eating are warning signs.  Do you feed her dry kibble or do you wet it?  How many times a day do you feed her, hopefully at least twice.  Watch her close until you can get her to the vet but if you are feeding her dry, wet it down and let it set for 10 - 15 minutes and pick up her water for at least 30 minutes after she eats.  If the food is wet enough she should not want to drink after she eats.  Keep her quiet for at least 30 minutes after she eats...that will help too. 

Man do I pity you for all you have been through!!!  Life can be crappy enough without any help from our four legged friends.   Good to hear you didn't just drive your car into the lake and call it quits.  A lesser person might have!  Hang in there, they are soooo worth it.  Good luck with those hearing aids.  You are in my prayers.

Deb 

Deb, Star is doing just fine. No more vomiting. Had someone here working on the dishwasher, and she kept bugging him by offering him her toys to play with!  It was the first chance she'd had to nibble on grass this year, so I guess she couldn't resist! (There was a LOT of grass in her vomit.)

Ranger was to the vet this AM: no fever, but now bloody diarrhea. He's hungry, and behaving normally, so the vet said to fast him for 24-48 hrs. then start him on chicken and boiled rice. He saw no reason to stay home from the conference, so I've got the rice boiling on the stove.

As for the hearing aids, have tried 2 different types of aids, and neither worked any better than my old one. I got a referral to the E.N.T. doctor (just got home from the appointment a short while ago) and he's putting in a referal to a hospital in Toronto so I can be assessed for a cochlear implant.

I may just forget about the expense of the new aids, and wait for the referral to go through. Eventually, it reaches a point whre the hearing aids don't help anymore.