From the moment we set eyes on him, we knew that his life wasn’t going to be easy. At only one and a half years of age he came into our lives with a lame back leg, exposed ribs due to deadly malnutrition, two torn knee crutiates, hip dysplasia, scars covering his body, missing part of an ear and of course you couldn’t miss his slit throat. They’d used him for fighting and when he lost, they left him for dead. But, he didn’t die. And so we named him “Phoenix”.

The problems on the outside were easy to treat, the ones on the inside weren’t.

For three months, we worked hard to reacclimatize him to food and worked on having him gain weight. We followed doctors orders and sure enough, he was responding just as expected. Phoenix had filled out, gained confidence and was the dog that he wanted to be. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to end that way.

One day, we noticed that he’d lost weight but had not idea what it was. We tried a few things to no avail. He kept losing weight. And then, we noticed it. Loose and bloody stools. We thought the worst but were happy to receive the diagnosis of colitis. That was until I realized what we were in for.

For one and a half years, I prepared two meals a day for him of fresh lamb or chicken meat with oatmeal, brown rice and vegetables/fruits. Once he was stable, we tried your regular dog food with real food supplements to make sure that he was getting a well balanced diet. When he had flare ups I’d head off in search of another dog food that didn’t include beef and pork. There weren’t many choices.

And then I found Petcurean.

Considering that their “NOW FRESH” product line is the only dry food to use 100% fresh meat and fresh omega oils and none of that other stuff, I was interested to give it a try. Fortunately for me, they have an online food selector so that’s where I started. After answering some questions, they recommended the NOW FRESH™ Grain Free Senior Dog Food Recipe with a moist food supplement.

I couldn’t believe my eyes as the main ingredient was de-boned turkey. I mean, we eat de-boned turkey!? And the recipe they recommended focused on all of his many aliments; balanced proteins and fats to help manage weight, Omega oils to promote skin and coat health, Glucosamine/chondroitin to support hip and joint health, Added L-Carnitine to support heart health/fat burning, Pre + probiotics to support digestion. And in addition, it didn’t contain ingredients such as; grains, gluten, wheat, beef, corn, soy, rendered meats, by-products or artificial preservatives.

The great news is that this was just one of many recipes that Petcurean offers special needs and healthy pets too. And the best part is that they’re constantly coming up with new choices for your pets. Recently they introduced four new recipes to include; venison, red meat, and fish. Those are some lucky dogs.

If you’re new to Petcurean or your cat or dog has developed a special need, head over to their website and get a FREE Trial Bag of NOW FRESH™ or GO!™ premium dog or cat pet food to try out*. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

In case you weren’t aware, Phoenix passed away this past January due to an enlarged heart. You can read more about his loss here.

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Disclosure: The Zoo is proud to be an Ambassador for Petcurean, an independent, Canadian-owned family business that’s been around since 1999. We receive compensation in exchange for sharing our stories. Find them on Facebook and Twitter. Watch for our upcoming Petcurean giveaways and other related posts.