Dr. Buzby’s ToeGrips for Dogs

 

Guest Contributor - Julie Buzby, DVM, CVA, CAVCA

 

It was love at first sight.  And I’m not talking about my husband of 13
years.  I’m talking about little rubber
cylinders that slide onto dog’s toenails to give senior and special needs dogs
traction on slippery floors. 

 

 

As a doctor of veterinary medicine who
specializes in animal chiropractic and veterinary acupuncture, my patients are
often senior dogs with mobility problems. 
Through conventional and alternative medicine, I could improve mobility
and comfort, but I could never affect slipping. 
Slipping, splaying, and struggling on hard-surface floors was an
age-old, common problem to which I had no solution.  I would simply tell clients to litter their
house with throw rugs, but inevitably, the dogs would still choose to lie on
the cold, hard floors (and have to get up off those floors).  I needed a biomechanical solution to this
biomechanical problem.

 

I’d never been a fan of booties or socks,
because dogs are dogs, not people.  Dogs
use their toenails to gain traction, not their paw pads.  In the wild, dogs will flex their paws and
use their nails like soccer cleats, digging into the earthen terrain.  Unfortunately, our domesticated dogs live on
hardwood, tile and laminate, and when they start to slip and instinctively dig
in their toenails for purchase, their hard nails on hard floors only make
matters worse.

 

Enter ToeGrips.

 

I had no intention of falling in love that
December afternoon.  I was cheerfully
manning my “holistic medicine” table at our hospital’s annual open house, when
a client approached me with a smile. 
“Hello, Julie,” he said.  “Look
what I did for Morgan.”  My hair
stood on end.  He had placed small rubber
rings on his 16-year-old Australian Shepherd’s toenails.  He went on to explain their purpose and her
dramatic improvement, but he didn’t need to. 
He had me at “hello.”

 

 

No one before had ever thought about enabling
traction through the toenails–dog’s natural mechanism for gaining
traction.  I had been longing for this
product my entire career, but I had no idea what it would look like.  But here it was and I was smitten.  ToeGrips made sense.  They were natural, simple, and revolutionary.  As I began incorporating them into my
practice, ToeGrips had such a dramatic impact on the quality of life of my
patients and clients, that I knew we had to make them commercially available
for all dogs.  

 

With the gracious blessing of my client, I
founded Dr. Buzby’s ToeGrips for Dogs. 
After a year and a half of development, ToeGrips are now sold by over
300 veterinarians in 10 countries.  And
like any good relationship, I love ToeGrips more today than the day we met.

 

Learn more at www.toegrips.com or www.facebook.com/toegrips.

 

Writer Bio: Dr. Julie Buzby is a holistic veterinarian
certified by the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association and International
Veterinary Acupuncture Society.

 

Thank you Dr. Buzby for developing ToeGrips and providing this article for my readers.  I really wanted to feature this product, especially given my soft spot for senior and special needs dogs.