Who We Are
The Dermapaw Story
Our mission is to help your best friend feel better. We know what it's like.
Back in 2007, dog paw licking and dog skin issues in general weren’t well understood, there were few good options for treatment, and we had just moved into a house with a lawn for the first time.
Soon after moving into this house, our dog Godrick, a Shetland sheepdog, started developing some severe skin issues. His skin quickly turned red, he was itching, chewing and scratching constantly, and the hair began to fall out. Although we took him to several excellent vets, he just wasn’t responding to treatments and his skin continued to get worse. When the hair on his face began to fall out, we were worried about the seriousness of his skin condition. We came to the conclusion that this was a grass allergy - but nothing seemed to help.
Pictured Above: Godrick, our Shetland Sheepdog with a severe grass allergic reaction (note the red skin around his eyes, ears and feet)
We began to research every possible treatment and began to try different things on his skin. In our own kitchen, we began to melt concoctions together for Godrick’s skin. Eventually, we came up with a formula that seemed to help. At first, we were just happy that he could sleep at night. Then, we noticed that the skin wasn’t red, and then the hair actually started growing back. Within about six weeks, not only was he sleeping at night and stopped itching, but the hair was actually growing back in - fully. We couldn’t believe it!
Pictured Above: Godrick only 2 months ( 8 weeks ) after we started using Dermapaw Skin & Paw Treatment on him.
We had spoken with a number of dog rescue groups at the time about their dog’s skin issues during our research, and we decided to send them some jars to try with their dogs. Several veterinarian schools had also helped in our initial testing and we sent them the final formula to see what they thought.
Soon, we had so many requests for Dermapaw that we couldn’t afford to give that much away. So we decided to start a little business. If we made a little money, we could give away some free jars to rescue groups. We might even make a car payment.
Within a year, we were able to quit our jobs and we became a real-live business.
Since 2008, somewhere around 250,000 dogs have used Dermapaw Skin & Paw Treatment.