Tear Stains

anybody?

bumpies.

The little girl to your left was tearing in one eye that caused the fur below the eye to yellow.  It was medical condition where she had a excess skin around the eyes and the eyelashes would go inward and irrate the eyeball causing tearing.  The vet surgically trimmed off the excess skin and this resulted in no more tearing.  I can see you wanting to do something cosmetically if it was yellowing around the mouth from food and water stains, but with the eye I would check in with a vet. 

I have Shih Tzu's and when they were puppies they had tear stains, they went away after I changed their food. What are you feeding?

someone I know gives her dog a tsp - tbsp of pumpkin every day and it works wonders to get rid of tear stains for her.  Depends on the dogs weight, but you could start with a tsp./day and see how it works if you wanted to try that.

What are you feeding?

And this is the all important question,i was going to ask the same thing. Are you feeding a supermarket brand or a popular big box pet store food?
Also,i have heard replacing tap water with distilled may help.

Is it normal for such a young pup to have tear stains in the first place?

   sorry I haven't gotten back to all of you guys- I've gone this weekend...WOW-there are lots of different suggestions for her tear stains...I feed her science diet (but am looking for a different brand that others have told me about called Innuba), I don't know if that has to do with it. The teaspoon of pumkin sounds interesting, do you mean like canned pumkin from the store? I have been putting on a topical tear-stain remover, but it doesn't really seem to be helping much.
 

Yes, canned pumpkin from the store -BUT - 100% pumpkin, not the spiced stuff.  Here is the post from another dog group I am part of about this:
 
I have a white Boxer who had terrible tear stains. I posted on a White Boxer
Group if anyone had any
solution as the EyeBright stuff I was using didn't work. Several people told me
to add 2-3 T of
plain canned pumpkin to each meal (she's 45 lbs...you could use less w/ a
smaller dog) and in about
a week, the stains were gone. She gets it twice a day. I have no idea how or
why it works but it does! I have before & after pics I
could show you & you'd be amazed. I certainly was. You do have to feed it
every meal though or
they come back and then it takes another week for them to go away. Lola loves
her pumpkin...I stuff her Kongs with it!

 
Just don't overdo it too much since it can make a dog have loose stools or be constipated - somehow pumpkin works either way to help diarhea (sp) or constpation but too much can go the other way... so don't always think more is better.  I give Sammy pumpkin about 3 times a week, perhaps 2-3 tablespoons at a time mixed with kibble and I have never noticed a difference in stool.  But, I guess there's a chance if your pup has a moer sensitive digestive tract......

Also be cautious about allergies.  I was fostering a Bull Mastiff and while I was eating Pumpkin Pie he grabbed a fork full.  Mannn, the hives and bumps that appeared on that dog...it cost me $300 in vet bills.

ORIGINAL: DPU

Also be cautious about allergies.  I was fostering a Bull Mastiff and while I was eating Pumpkin Pie he grabbed a fork full.  Mannn, the hives and bumps that appeared on that dog...it cost me $300 in vet bills.

 
Very true, do be cautious; however, I would think pumpkin pie would have LOADS more things than just pumpkin that could cause allergies - there's eggs and spices and dairy and crust, etc - so do you actually know it was the pumpkin?  It would be interesting if we had a list of everything our dogs were allergic to, as a baseline of what dogs can be allergic to. 
 
That poor dog will learn, however, never to beg for pie again! []

Ok. Confession time.  I am a big pie eater and each of the dogs gets a fork full.  For this Bull Mastiff, and I was told he has no allergies from the owner, had banana, strawberry, lemon, but no chocolate.  I don't share the chocolate.  It was something in the pumpkin pie and Bob did grab it before I was going to give it to him.  Yes, he did look pathetic and it took 1 weeks to clear up.

Try feeding a good dog food. I feed Natural Balance Fish. The kibble and a bit of canned. Good food with out all the junk is great to stop tears.
 
Also, make sure the vet has looked at the eyes.

Some lines are very prone to tear stains. It could be hereditary, but you can help out by feeding a good quality food like Innova, Canidae, or Natural Balance. My aunt just recently started feeding her Maltese Natural Balance and the few tear stains she had have started to clear up

I feed her science diet (but am looking for a different brand that others have told me about called Innuba),

And there you most likely have your culprit! [:'(] Science diet is a crap food [&o] You can use every tear stain remover under the sun,but if the cause is the food, you'll be fighting a losing battle.

Innuba?? It could be innova(excellent food) or eukanuba( on par with science death)

Innovahttp://www.naturapet.com