Alexandre Contreras is living the American dream

It’s a common scenario. A veterinary technician at a clinic cuts a dog nail a little bit too short. The nail bleeds and it’s a frantic rush to get a bottle of styptic open, and a pinch dabbed onto the nail, without contaminating the rest of the powder with blood.  The dog is in pain, the owner is angry, and within a couple of hours a nasty review pops up on your Yelp page.  

Alexandre Contreras, a Miami veterinary technician who regularly handled nail trimming, noticed this problem when he accidentally cut a nail too short. Powder is messy and spills everywhere, and is easy for a dog to knock over. It’s also difficult to measure out enough and get it applied, especially without using the container or lid, which risks blood contamination. He realized that there needed to be a better solution.

This moment inspired the creation of “Klip Trio,” a nail clipper with a single-use cartridge filled with styptic powder. When a dog’s nail is bleeding, the user simply pushes the dogs nail into the cartridge, and the right amount of powder is applied. The single use cartridge makes it more hygienic as well..

Alexandre loves designing products that help make it easier to take care of pets, but that’s not all there is to him. Raised by a single mom, he started doing odd jobs at a young age to help pay the bills.  He always dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, but, money was tight, so veterinary school wasn’t an option.  After high school, instead of going to college, he got a full time job working in a veterinary clinic  to continue to support his family.  Later, he was able to save up money to attend Penn Foster’s veterinary assistant program.  

In 2009, Alexandre ventured into the homeopathy field by completing special training in canine massage and within a year he opened up DogApy,  a mobile practice.  DogApy quickly became a success, especially after he appeared live on Miami Channel 10 news show massaging news anchor Kristi Krueger’s Maltese. 

Now a father of two, he hopes to instill his strong work ethic into his young sons, but he also hopes they decide to follow their father down the entrepreneurship pathway.  You never know what product he may be coming up with next, but the one thing we do know is that it will make pet parents smile!