Tear stains

[emmaK11]

Emma has been hAving terrible dark and smelly tear stains. The vet put her on a short term antibiotic to get rid of the bacteria growing there, but I'm wondering if there's a specific ingredient in food that causes this? I switched her over to royal canin which has done really well for her otherwise. Any suggestions for topical solutions or diet changes??? Thanks!

[RodRussell]

Forgive my ignorance, but how old is Emma?

[emmaK11]

Emma will be 2 in February, shes always had tear stains, but i dont think they were ever this bad

[RodRussell]

Emma will be 2 in February, shes always had tear stains, but i dont think they were ever this bad

I know that while many puppies teeth, tear stains tend to appear, but disappear once teething ends. Maybe, Emma's problem is related to her teeth or gums. I don't know of any studies which support this, however.

[Kate H]

If it continues, it might be worth taking Emma to see an ophthalomologist for a thorough eye examination. My Aled has always produced a lot of tears and his eyes have looked a bit sore; it turns out, after a thorough examination, that he has keratosis - not the common dry eye sort, but low-grade tears that don't contain enough protein and fat to keep the eyes in good condition. Eye ointment twice a day has dealt with the problem, but only an ophthalmologist could have picked it up.

Kate, Oliver and Aled

[emmaK11]

Ok thanks, im going to try the stuff the vet gave me and i also bought eye envy. im hoping it clears up after a short course of antibiotics, obviously i wouldnt keep her on anything longterm (such as angel eyes). I also heard from someone that wiping with a warm cloth is only going to encourage bacterial growth, so I've been wiping her eyes gently with dry cloths and keeping them as dry to discourage any bacteria. if it doesnt clear up il have to get an appointment with the eye specialist

[Lady Hoop]

Lady suffers constantly with eye issues. She has an underdeveloped eye and due to this has dry eye. At her last Ophthalmologist appointment she had a little conjunctivitis in her 'good' eye (same symptoms as Emma, but not Keratosis). She has a LOT of tear production in that eye and, if you ask me, I think that most of the time it's making up for her lack of tears in the other eye I don't think the general vets know much about the eye. I went SEVERAL (probably 5 or 6 times?) times and saw 3 different docs and they kept saying it was conjunctivitis. She was given every form of eye medicine you can think of to treat infections of the eye. I was extremely tired of the same answers so I demanded the nod to see a specialist. Her [AWESOME] specialist diagnosed her in less then two minutes and knew exactly what was wrong. Unfortunately, while I was getting the run around about her eye she developed a corneal ulcer. Poor baby. She assured me that a general vet knows very little about the eye. Go with your gut instinct and see a specialist if it doesn't improve soon. It's worth every penny and however far you have to drive to find a good one and you're better safe than sorry. Lady, like Emma, is treated with an eye drop 2X a day indefinitely. It's totally manageable and becomes part of your daily routine.

[TomA]

Our Charlie has had tear stains below his eyes ever since we adopted him 9 months ago now. His eyes appear to be OK, so we thought we just needed to clean up the stains. I'll see what our vet says next week.

TomA

[Kate H]

Tears of themselves are not necessarily a problem - simply nature's way of making sure that dust and other impurities are washed away from the eyes. It's only if the eyes look sore, or the tears are discoloured or gungy, or there aren't enough tears being produced, or the dog is squinting in strong light, or any other symptom that something is wrong, that a vet needs to check it out and if necessary refer to an ophthalmologist. So keeping a lookout is good - but we have enough other things to get paranoid about with our Cavaliers! Sensible observation applies to the owners of any dog - Cavaliers don't seem to be more prone to eye problems than any other small breed with fairly prominent eyes, and something like dry eye is very common in a number of breeds of all sizes.

Kate, Oliver and Aled

[Lady Hoop]

My apologies, I was all mixed up. I meant to say Aled, not Emma, in my previous post.