The tracks of her tears
November 16, 2018 1:14 PM Subscribe
Our sweet 9 year old girl Tootie has, in the year-plus we've had her, developed significant tear-staining. It's pretty obvious on white fur. I am absolutely flummoxed about how to stop this. Halp?
I might ordinarily let this go since it doesn't seem to bother her, except I think this is a *sign* of something that we need to figure out for her health, happiness, and longevity and then fix it. I'm hoping you folks can point me in the right direction. If you tell me this is a normal part of adjusting to a new home and I should just chill out, that'll work too.
More information: Her two prior homes are in our general area, about 1-2 hours away. This is her first home as an only dog, with all the rights and privileges thereof like a daily walk and sleeping on the bed. She was bullied by one of the other dogs in her most recent situation which was apparently why she was rehomed, although her prior owners have been a little tight-lipped about the specifics and I'm not sure why. She shows every sign of having adjusted to our household, has a good life, and appears very happy with her situation. When I've asked her prior owners for advice, I get mostly shrugs because their dogs haven't had this issue.
With an allergy diagnosis, we have done the following at our vet's recommendation:
- tapered her off her previous kibble (Only Natural Pet fish and beef) and onto Zignature Duck
- discontinued the plain yogurt her prior owner put on top of every meal
- discontinued the organic apple cider vinegar that was added to each meal, although we recently tried adding it back and she really dislikes it now
- gotten her two cytopoint injections, which seem to make a bit of a difference in her allergy symptoms
- added a probiotic to each meal
- switched her from tap water to refrigerator-filtered water
- give her a anti-inflammatory twice a day
Because her tears (or whatever is the fancy name for eye-boogers) have been so dense and gelatinous, I've put artificial tears in her eyes several times over the past few days and it has made the eye-boogers much easier to remove. But she's still secreting porphyrins or whatever is causing the staining. The only other thing I've noticed is that her "skirt" seems to be getting more noticeably urine-stained. My latest hypothesis is that she's drinking too little water but that just occured to me while writing this question so I haven't been able to do anything about it yet.
Can somebody please help? I'm at my wit's end and beginning to think we're just bad dog parents.
And yes, I know if we just had a dark-colored dog we would probably be blissfully unaware of all this. Sigh.
I might ordinarily let this go since it doesn't seem to bother her, except I think this is a *sign* of something that we need to figure out for her health, happiness, and longevity and then fix it. I'm hoping you folks can point me in the right direction. If you tell me this is a normal part of adjusting to a new home and I should just chill out, that'll work too.
More information: Her two prior homes are in our general area, about 1-2 hours away. This is her first home as an only dog, with all the rights and privileges thereof like a daily walk and sleeping on the bed. She was bullied by one of the other dogs in her most recent situation which was apparently why she was rehomed, although her prior owners have been a little tight-lipped about the specifics and I'm not sure why. She shows every sign of having adjusted to our household, has a good life, and appears very happy with her situation. When I've asked her prior owners for advice, I get mostly shrugs because their dogs haven't had this issue.
With an allergy diagnosis, we have done the following at our vet's recommendation:
- tapered her off her previous kibble (Only Natural Pet fish and beef) and onto Zignature Duck
- discontinued the plain yogurt her prior owner put on top of every meal
- discontinued the organic apple cider vinegar that was added to each meal, although we recently tried adding it back and she really dislikes it now
- gotten her two cytopoint injections, which seem to make a bit of a difference in her allergy symptoms
- added a probiotic to each meal
- switched her from tap water to refrigerator-filtered water
- give her a anti-inflammatory twice a day
Because her tears (or whatever is the fancy name for eye-boogers) have been so dense and gelatinous, I've put artificial tears in her eyes several times over the past few days and it has made the eye-boogers much easier to remove. But she's still secreting porphyrins or whatever is causing the staining. The only other thing I've noticed is that her "skirt" seems to be getting more noticeably urine-stained. My latest hypothesis is that she's drinking too little water but that just occured to me while writing this question so I haven't been able to do anything about it yet.
Can somebody please help? I'm at my wit's end and beginning to think we're just bad dog parents.
And yes, I know if we just had a dark-colored dog we would probably be blissfully unaware of all this. Sigh.
Response by poster: She gets a bath, a haircut, and a nail trim every six to seven weeks by the breeder who's been grooming her all her life and was her first home. We give her home baths about every two weeks, sometimes more frequently when she Gets Into Stuff.
posted by DrGail at 1:23 PM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by DrGail at 1:23 PM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
It could be the duck and the beef diet. I found two things were causing tear staining in my dog (and this is after two years of trial and error) one was any treat with sucrose in it - and they almost all have it - and foods rich in iron, ferritin seemed to be creating the rusty coloured stain. So beef kibble definitely was the culprit and it basically went away altogether once we replaced that, in your case it could still be the duck as well. Right now I'm feeding a salmon/fish mix and it's definitely better.
posted by Jubey at 1:30 PM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Jubey at 1:30 PM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Our blonde poodle-cross gets this too. Our vet has told us it's caused by a constriction in the nasal passage: liquid that should run down the nose leaks from her eyes. It looks mucky but it doesn't bother her. She's had it since she was a pup; she's now three.
I try to wash her face with a wet flannel twice a day. The first wash softens the gunk, the second (half an hour later) removes it. She doesn't love this but she tolerates it, because she'll accept any indignity if it means a cuddle.
The vet has suggested an op to widen the nasal passages and solve the tear-staining. I've decided against, because it would mean pain and risk for the dog, to cure a problem that doesn't actually bother her.
posted by MinPin at 12:40 PM on November 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
I try to wash her face with a wet flannel twice a day. The first wash softens the gunk, the second (half an hour later) removes it. She doesn't love this but she tolerates it, because she'll accept any indignity if it means a cuddle.
The vet has suggested an op to widen the nasal passages and solve the tear-staining. I've decided against, because it would mean pain and risk for the dog, to cure a problem that doesn't actually bother her.
posted by MinPin at 12:40 PM on November 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
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posted by greta simone at 1:17 PM on November 16, 2018