Tear Staining

Ruxie asks:

I'm interested to learn how everyone has handled tear staining. I have heard so many different methods, but none are working for us. Please let me know your tips and tricks. Maybe there is one I can find that will work for us.

My Bichon is a few months shy of 3 years old. Her purebred name is Chloe Brooke Ruxpin, but we call her Ruxie. She does all the antics listed and is the most loving dog.

Tammy - British Columbia, Canada
Dreamed of owning Bichon since I was 8 years old,
now I'm 30ish with a dream come true.

Sophie2 responds:

My 20 month old Bichon has no tear stains, but we are very careful to make sure she eats or drinks nothing with food dye or chemicals that stain. She drinks distilled water because our local water supply has something in it that causes staining--probably iron. When I give her cheese as a treat, I use only cheese without food dye--for example, muenster cheese has dye in it--Swiss, does not.If I slip up and give her something with dye in it, the stains come back.

GidgetLpM responds:

I also found my Bichon rarely has tear stains, but in the summer he was drinking lake water, and he had some stains then.
I absolutely agree that they should only get distilled or filtered water (for this problem), and no chemicals in the food they eat (or colouring).
Good luck with your little one...keep us posted.
Lori

Callie responds:

I agree that you should only give your Bichon distilled water.
However, we've also found that putting in a pinch of chopped parsley with their kibble in the morning.
We feed Callie (our Bichon) about 1/2 cup of kibble with a pinch of dried, chopped, parsley each morning and she rarely has any more tear stains. You can buy this bottled parsley in the spice section of your grocery store.
Good Luck
Sue and Rich

GidgetLpM responds:
Thanks for the advice on Parsley! By the way...is 1/2 a cup of Kibble Callie's meal for the whole day?

Callie responds:

We give Callie 1/2 cup of kibble with parsley each morning and another 1/2 cup of kibble without parsley each evening. The parsley seems to really control the tear stains.
Rich and Sue

Sophie2 comments:

Eliminating food dyes is very important, I think. The issue of food dye is complicated--it's just not red dye #1 or yellow dye #2--it also includes things like annatto, which is also a red dye, but is not called a dye. So anything that isn't familiar to you needs to be checked.

MY2Bichons responds:

Hi!
Molly's groomer suggested giving her acidophylus for tear stains.
There is a pill you can give them or, since Molly is still so small, some yogurts have it too.
I give her 1/4 teaspoon of Dannon Plain Fat Free every day and it seems to be helping.
It hasn't affected her digestive system.
They said that I could give her up to a whole teaspoon when she gets bigger. Has anyone heard of this?

BijousMom responds:

My vet also has recommended that I give my dogs yogurt everyday -about a tablespoon- because it has probiotics in it-acidophillus- and will aid in digestion by adding the good bacteria back to their tummies. I haven't heard of it helping with tear staining but I know it helps with bad breath because many times the odors in their mouth come from their digestive system. It is especially important to give your dogs yogurt if they are on antibiotics because antibiotics kill off all the bacteria in their stomach including the good bacteria so feeding them yogurt adds back the good bacteria.

One thing that may help with the tear staining is adding vitamin supplements to their diet if you aren't already doing so. The breeder we got our puppy from shows Bichons and recommended to us to feed our dog a premium dog food-no by products, corn, bha or bht preservatives, along with supplements to help support their immune system to help them fight off allergies which often cause tear staining. I feed my bichons these supplements everyday in addition to their food and yogurt- 5 drops of vitamin e oil, 1/8 tsp of vitamin c, 3 brewer's yeast tablets (this is for flea and tick prev- do not give your bichon any flea and tick prev as it is very hard on their sensitive systems), and 1 tsp of Missing Link Plus.
www.puritan.com is a good site to buy vitamin e and c or do a search on the internet.

Tuscany0911 responds:

Hi Ruxie
Regarding tear stains; Most people try different foods, treats etc., but the largest contributor to this problem is water. Distilled water is the only water you should allow. It is free of iron which is the chemical that discolours the tear ducts thus causing the stains to occur around the eyes and mouth.

My Mikko has been stain free since I switched to distilled water.

Good Luck. Maggie

Agentdoggett88 writes:

I've SO done my homework on the tear staining. Everything that I've read on these replies I've been told as well--however nothing has worked. The staining has nothing to do with the food, water, etc---the staining is caused by a bacteria that most dogs have. I found all sorts of remedies on the Internet---all of which were useless. Finally I called my vet and spoke to a technician who used to show Poodles and told me that they would give their dogs a PINCH of Tetracycline over their food every morning. Your vet has to prescribe the Tetracycline (Riley gets 500 mg). It comes in a capsule so I just open the capsule and pour the contents into a mini Tupperware container. A pinch is literally a pinch--I take my thumb and pointer and grap a tiny pinch and sprinkle it over Riley's food. He has never noticed it because he's never turned the food away.

Does it work you ask? ABSOLUTELY. Riley has ZERO staining ---not even a hint of it and prior to using the Tetracycline he had began to have the tear staining AND the staining around his mouth. I'm telling you--this is your miracle !!!! I spent way too much money on Riley to have his precious little face stained, hence my search to find a cure and not just a *band-aid for it. I shared my good news with everyone where Riley is groomed and everyone was thrilled (well, except for one of the guys who worked there who was trying to push their product that was supposed to *clean the tearing). So, everyone call your Vets and ask for the prescription.

I'm sure some of you are wondering if there are any side effects or if taking this long term could be harmful to your babies. Riley hasn't had any side effects and you're giving them such a tiny amount every day --any long term effects are unlikely. The technician said none of her dogs suffered from any side effects and they took the Tetracycline all their lives.

I'm so excited to share this with all of you. You're tear staining problems are now over. I promise you. Share your success stories because --trust me, you WILL have success with this method.

CALL THE VET NOW!

Cheers!
Angelia and Riley

GidgetLpM responds:

Hi again.
I just want to also thank Agentdoggett88 for her advice on tear staining... I have yet to have a big problem with Bailey,but lately (winter with salt on roads)... I notice just a little starting ( one eye worse than the other). He has never had it before and he is so cute... I would hate to see it start now.

I will ask the vet about Tetracycline.
Lori and Bailey