Shea butter and pets?

[Suzanne]

Anyone heard of a shea butter for dogs' paws? I've got a group of ladies asking me about this and I've never heard of it. I'm just starting to do some research to see what I come up with. Anyone have experience with this, I sure could use some pointers. TIA

Suzanne

[dee263]

Hi Suzanne,

I've never heard of it either. Why would anyone want to use shea butter on a dog's paws? A dog's pads should be rather rough to withstand walking on different surfaces. If I put shea butter on my dogs' paws, they would just lick it off Please let me know what you find out.

Denise

From the Garden Soapworks

[SatinDucky]

I've never heard of it before either, but it does kinda make sense. You wouldn't want the pads to be soft, but they can get too hard and dry too, especially after alot of running. It's been a long time ago, but one of mine the paws were so bad that they cracked and bled. I used Neosporin to heal them, but the shea butter might help them get not so bad to begin with. Just an idea

[Lorrie]

Some dogs can have their pads split do to running on snow or hard ground. maybe they are looking at it for healing purposes. Did they give you any other information?

[Suzanne]

Wow! The info I've found so far is amazing. Shea butter is safe for animals and is used for all kinds of things with animals. Not only the paws, but for horse's hoof maintenance, household pet skin infections including foot and other fungal infections, dry skin and coats, and for the care of farm animals. The list goes on and on. Looks like I might have to include a couple pet products in my line up now.

Hey, if people are asking for it, and I can make it, I'll do it. Now, to think about packaging and labeling. The labeling ideas always seem to be the most difficult part for me. arggghh!