How can I clean his eyes!?

I am looking for advice on how I am supposed to clean Kosmo's eyes out. His eyes are typically large and bugy and I don't know of a way to effectively clean them. Sometimes he gets small hairs stuck in them. I know if I leave it there it will eventually work itself out, but I've had a few eyelashes in my eyes throughout my life and I can just imagine how that feels for him! Not to mention looking through small strands of hair.. it would drive me nuts. I am scared that by leaving them there to work themselves out that he's going to eventually develope some kind of eye infection. Thank you in advance!!

Both of mine occasionally get a hair or something across their eye but it's never caused a problem. Shelby has buggy eyes too. I wipe a warm wet cloth down and across her eye. This way she closes her eye and I can wipe the whole eye without poking her in the eye

I used to wipe Bailey's eyes with a damp cloth really gently when he was a puppy but as he has gotten older he now wipes his owns eyes on his leg and wipes all of the sleep out too - he then licks his leg like no tomorrow!!

He obviously likes the salty taste of the gunk - eew!!

I'm sure many will find this dangerous, so be aware I'm not a vet or a groomer or anyone with any sort of respectability when it comes to this subject. However, I AM a contacts wearer. I know what it feels like to touch an eyeball on a regular basis, and I know what it feels like to have my eyeball touched.

If Cedar get a noticable hair on her eyes that seems to linger for a peroid of time, I will first open and close the dog's eye lid several times. If that doesnt do anything, I use the pad of my finger to move the hair to the side of the eye where I can pull it out. I've never scratched my dogs eye (or my own) by doing this, though I'm sure it's a risk I'm taking. Cedar is used to the treatment, and she holds very still. Willow hasnt had too many instances when I've had to do this yet. I have to hold her head just to wipe her eyes to get out the morning "eye snot", so it will be a while before I attempt touch her eyeball!!

I just use a round cotton wool thing soaked in water and wipe over the eye or if we are out we just use their own ears to wipe across the eye and that normally works. :roll:

I do the same with the cotton wool early in the morning before they wipe and rub their eyes on my jeans :roll:

I use Irivist -drops for irritated eyes (if necessary).They are herbal and can be used every day...

on this subject, my dog gets tear stain all aroudn her eyes constantly, we've bought those show eyes pads they sell but they don't seem to work the best what do you guys do to wipe their faces?

Hi kabooki19,

here is a fairly recent thread about tear staining:

http://www.cavaliertalk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2686

I found that Karlin's post in this thread was especially helpful!

Here's another thread about eyes tearing:

http://www.cavaliertalk.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2474

thanks guys for all of your comments!! I posted this thread umm.. a month ago!! lol I've been reading through the library and archives since then. It's just hard sometimes because Cavaliers have huge vulnerable eyes so things are bound to get in them sometimes, you know?

Also thank you Cathy Moon for the threads leading back.

Hi Sara,

Actually, kabooki19, who is a newbie member, posted on to your old thread last night looking for some advice. So I just looked up those old threads and posted them for kabooki19! I should have hit the quote button first! :sl*p:

Not sure if you can get it in the US - I find Shaw's Pretty Eyes good for cleaning the tear stains - being a black and tan you can just see it in the tan markings - it is also good for getting the crusty fur clean from the tears.