Tear staining

Sublime, are you thinking of showing your dog? Is the staining causing matting near the eyes? I'm asking because I'm wondering why you want to remove it, other than simple cosmetic reasons. One of my dogs has tear-staining, and after I looked at the ingredients of most of the commercially available products, I decided to leave him alone with it for the most part. I do occasionally take a warm, moist washcloth with a drop or two of glycerin on it, and gently wipe the stains. They are mostly removed by that.

I notice that when I take him to the groomer and I don't tell them not to clean the stains, they do, and it doesn't irritate his eyes too badly. I do notice he paws at them for about an hour after I bring him home.

I looked this up... it is not just cosmetic, but a condition. Have you spoken with your vet about it?


By: The Animal Medical Center
Epiphora is the medical term for tearing or watering of the eyes. It commonly causes staining of the fur under the eyes. There are many causes, but the most common are chronic irritation or inflammation of the eyes and an abnormality in the tear drainage system. Common causes of chronic irritation in dogs include allergies and abnormalities of the eyelashes and eyelids. In cats, viral infection is common, which usually causes the eyes to appear mildly or moderately inflamed.

If your dog or cat seems to be tearing excessively, have him or her checked by a veterinary ophthalmologist to determine whether treatment is needed. Abnormalities of the tear drainage system can be treated by flushing the system and applying medication, but sometimes surgery is required.

The most common cause of epiphora in Poodles, Shih Tzus, and Maltese dogs is excessive hair at the inner corner of the eye. This causes tears to drain onto the face rather than into the tear drainage ducts. Treatment of this problem is complex; manual removal of the hair is not recommended.

My dog also has a tearing problem. The vet said my dog could have an operation or I could just let the goomer shave off the matted hair each time we go in.

I don't want surgery, so I let the groomer do the work.

piffka - i spoke to Bailey's vet about his tear-staining when i first got him. After we watched him for a while we realized that he's quite light-sensitive - his eyes water a bit when it's very sunny out (if only i could get him to wear a hat or sunglasses). The vet said it's nothing to worry about in his case, other than the cosmetic, and cleaning it seems to annoy him more than the look annoys me, so we're a content pack. (can you hear Cleo and Bailey snoring?)

When you take him out in the daytime, why not carry an umbrella?

Walking two dogs on leashes and carrying their supplies is already a chore, New Haven. Bailey's afraid of umbrellas so I'm not sure he'd go for the option, tho I'd consider it otherwise. In the summer, I don't take them for their long walk til it is dark - it helps quite a bit.

Ehbeth, I do show a little, but it is more cosmetic to me. She occasionally paws at her teared area (when there is one, it comes and goes) as if it were uncomfortable.

The vet did look at her eyes, and doesn't see anything unusual. She thought it may be environmental, but so far I haven't seen any patterns to suggest what causes it.

I occasionally get itchy eyes, probably from some allergy, and have a prescription eye drop to relieve that. I wonder if you could get something like that for your dog during the show season.

We recently asked this same question... at an AKC Dog Show... we asked a professional poodle groomer... she recommended diaper rash ointment... we haven't tried it yet... if you try it, let me know how it goes...

actually... our question was more for 'preventative' measures... we're trying to avoid the stains in the future...

Isn't the diaper rash ointment mostly glycerin? I'll have to ask Mrs. Hamburger. She's the wizard on this sort of thing.

My Basset Hound tears incessantly. My vet gave me these wipes a few years ago: tear stain pads, they are gentle, she's never been irritated from them, and there pretty cheap!

Great! I'm on one site getting pasta maker recommendations and then JerryR posts something else to look into purchasing. I wonder if Amazon carries tearwipes? (they've got the pasta maker on special right now - free drying rack and shipping).

(what kind of pasta machine??)

Villaware Imperia Pasta Machine -
from taunton.com cookstalk forum :

i'm almost convinced - and i could use the link here and benefit a2k at the same time. now to explain the largeish package to Setanta (they won't ship this to Canada, and amazon.ca doesn't have this). and and and and i have so many good reasons to try this out (the CT mavens say you have to go manual for this sort of thing - oy!)