RediCare – A Featured Star of the Keys Line with Many Uses

RediCare – Born Out of MetaCare Because of Hurricane Katrina and Hundreds of Uses

by Bob Root – Keys® Scientist and Founder

Often it is good to reflect on history to gauge where we have come from.  RediCare started as a single-use product, and 18 years later, it is a star in our lineup.  RediCare became a Keys® major product just after Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans, Louisiana. At the time, we had an excellent therapeutic lotion named MetaCare that contained Ayurvedic Neem and Karanja oil. What happened next was the creation of a new product called RediCare.

RediCare’s History

We were at a pet trade show outside of Washington, DC. We had a booth there, and early on the first day, a uniformed ranger named Rod came by our booth with his dog, Tye. He had Tye lay down, and his belly was nothing but rashes, open sores, and inflamed. I asked what happened, and he told me that he and Tye were in New Orleans on a search & rescue mission along with a bunch of other dogs and handlers. He asked if we had anything. I grabbed a MetaCare lotion, and Rod smeared it all over Tye’s belly. You could see the relief instantly, and it made me tear up. Luckily, I noticed that Rod’s hands were equally inflamed, and I encouraged him to spread it on his hands. They left, and I was busy with many people interested in Natural products for their dogs, so I did not think much of the incident.  

About an hour later, Rod returned with Tye and flipped him over on the booth carpet. Believe it or not, Tye’s belly was almost healed, and Rod’s hands improved. He wanted to buy the lotion, and I told him that we were not allowed to sell it because it was a tradeshow. I asked for his card and called back to the factory to have a bottle of MetaCare sent—my good deed.

What happened afterward was terrific. Remember, at this time, we did not have a pet line and not marketing to dogs. We decided to do the tradeshow because we were toying with the idea and thought it would be an excellent place to get consumer and dealer feedback. Throughout the afternoon, handlers and their dogs started to show up. One very young search and rescue gal brought her golden by asking if we had some spray that would work for her long-haired dog that would do the same thing as we had done for Tye. You guessed it, RediCare was born as a sprayable version of MetaCare instantly.

The geeky part is that numerous coincidences came together to almost make the product development instantaneous.

• A salesperson showed me a trigger sprayer the week before, saying it would spray oil.
• I had an original formula for MetCare that was too liquid. It had the same amount of Neem and Karanja as MetaCare but came out runny.
• Mike at our label company called to ask if he could double up one of the labels so they could gang a complete run of labels. No, I said, I have a new product to add to the run.
• I had initially thought of putting MetaCare into a 4-ounce bottle with a lotion pump. So, the label I had in development fit the new RedCare bottle, and all I had to do was change the name of the product.
• We had a bunch of dealers from the show that wanted to get going with us but wanted a unique “Go-To” everything product. Yep, RediCare

So, RediCare came together almost overnight, and the first dozen bottle got shipped to the blonde ranger for her and the other long-haired dogs. That story spread quickly, but not as soon as RediCare became a super-multipurpose product. It is a sprayable moisturizer and lotion. It repels 200+ insects. Works for horses. People with diabetes use it because it sprays on sensitive skin. The list goes on.  Over the years since we invented RediCare, we have compiled a list of nearly 100 things people have used RediCare for.  Some were severe things that helped alleviate, and some funny things, including fixing a squeaky door hinge.  Sometimes when a product is so universally successful at doing many things, it makes it hard to define precisely what RediCare does.   So, we created this AD a while back to try to capture the multi-uses and benefits of RediCare.

What started as a product for search and rescue dogs has now grown into a multi-use and multi-purpose do almost everything goto product.  To this day, RediCare remains in our Top 10 products and has as many pet users as people. Its sister product, OmniCare, was what we thought would replace RediCare in the dog market, but dealers stick with the tried and true RediCare.

The last bit of anecdotal thought is that our team refers to RediCare as Windex. Why do you say? There was a famous movie called “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” An older man in the film used Windex on everything from scrapes, cuts, polishing tables, cleaning mirrors, etc. You get the analogy.

Ironically, the one thing we say RediCare will not do is work for cats.  Our Vet advisors are split, with some saying cats cannot tolerate essential oils and others saying there is no real data.  But, to be safe, we err on being cautious with our cat friends.

RediCare is our most versatile product and one of the most beloved. Hang a big star on RediCare

Bob