Tackling Tricky Tear Stains - Ep 07

Get ready to see eye to eye on today's episode of the Bulldog Broadcast. Delve deep into the common canine concern of tear stains, exploring everything from breed influences to environmental factors. Join us as we shed light on this issue and offer practical solutions for keeping your Bulldog's eyes clear and bright.

• Understanding Tear Stains: Explore the various factors contributing to tear stains, from breed predispositions to environmental triggers.
• Symptom Awareness: Learn to recognise the full range of symptoms associated with tear stains, including potential eye conditions and infections.
• Practical Solutions: Discover a range of grooming techniques, dietary considerations, and topical treatments to effectively manage tear stains and promote optimal eye health in bulldogs.

Take advantage of the opportunity to join the Bulldog Broadcast community for further discussion, recommendations, and episode extras at BulldogBroadcast.com. Tune in to the next episode for more insightful conversations.

📝 Click to read Show Notes

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Get ready to see eye to eye with me. On today's episode, we're tackling tear stains head on from breed influences to environmental factors and everything in between. Join me as I shed light on this common canine concern and explore practical solutions for keeping puppies and adult eyes clear and bright. Welcome to the Bulldog broadcast the Pure Talk Pedigree podcast. Join me, Sara Lamont, as we delve beyond the pedigree, propaganda and misinformation surrounding the beloved Bulldog breed. Together, we uncover the real-life realities of Bulldogs, sharing insights with admirers, owners and breeders worldwide. Hello. Welcome back. And thank you for joining me again today. In this episode, I would like to talk about tear stains. They seem to be the bane of some Bulldogs owner's lives. I think we need to understand all the reasons why your dog might be having them to know the correct treatment to fix them. Basically, what is a tear stain? It's a stain by the eyes, typically within the eye wrinkles, because the tears are either overflowing or it's a wet, moist environment. What can happen is that area oxidises, and it creates this reddish brown stain from the corner of the eye outwards. In their wrinkles, they can get this reddish-brown stain that tends to be a bit wet and mucky. There can be the bane of owner's lives, particularly if you've got a light-headed dog. It's more prevalent. If you've got a darker-headed dog, then there might still be there, but it just seems less obvious that they're there when it comes to tear stains.

[00:01:52] To find out the right solution, you need to observe what the full range of symptoms are. So for instance, if you have a dog has the tear stains but also is rubbing their eye like trying to rub it on stuff with their paws or their blinking a lot. Or maybe they're shaking their head, they're uncomfortable with it. Then that to me suggests that the eyes are actually irritated in themselves. So the dog is uncomfortable with the actual eyes, which is causing the tear stains. And so we need to consider, well, why might that be the case? Now, a Bulldog's head is different from a lot of dogs. They're brachycephalic, so the short face and the eye set is set really far apart. Having this type of eye set and this type of head means they can be more prone to having eye issues. And it's not just Bulldogs. There can still be breeds that have tear stains that don't have the wrinkles. So you can't always say it's connected to the wrinkles because, for instance, shih tzus can have quite bad tear stains. Maltese are known for having bad tear stains. Poodles can have bad tear stains. Their low-wrinkle dogs. They don't have the folds that a Bulldog would have. So sometimes.

[00:03:05] Is it a genetic factor? Is it a breed factor? Is it the shape and makeup of the head? I think it's worth bearing in mind that if you have noticed stains, particularly in a young puppy, and then they develop but they're not irritated, don't seem irritated by them. This can sometimes be related to teething. Teething generally affects eyes, ears, and throat, so teething itself can cause tear stains. As well as sometimes it can send ear sets a bit crazy, so the ears start doing crazy things. But when a Bulldog head matures, which can take up to 18 months. Years ago people used to say the head used to split. It doesn't actually split, but obviously it becomes a lot broader with maturity. And so this change in skull development and formation can then sometimes put additional pressure on a tear duct while it's going through that growth phase. So sometimes tear stains can be growth related. And it generally doesn't last long term, but it is just a period of time that you might have more excessive tear stains than you did previously have, and then it might go again. So it's always just worth bearing that in mind. Like I've said about the eye conformation and how the head layout is different to a majority of breeds, there has been a focus on the eye formation, and particularly the eyelids in themselves, because there can be a condition called Entropion, where the eyelids roll inwards.

[00:04:35] And ultimately, what that means is that the eyelashes in the skin start rubbing on the surface of the eye, which obviously is going to be painful. You only have to get an eyelash stuck in your own eyeball to realise how annoying that is. That's going to cause serious discomfort and potential damage to the eye so they can actually get eye ulcers and that kind of thing as well. So it's not just a case of having a tear stain. They can get cornea ulcers, which can be quite serious. I mean, they can lose their sight if they're not treated appropriately. So you've got entropia where the eyelid rolls inwards and you've got Ectropia where the lower eyelid sort of droop and turn outwards. And then that exposes some of the inner eyelids, which then in itself can impact the sensitivity of the tissues around the eye, which again in itself can cause irritation, excessive tearing and possible eye infections. This you may be heard or referred to as diamond eye, which is like the breed standard, asks for a round eye. Many Bulldogs have an almond shaped eye. Equally is acceptable, but a diamond eye is just. It literally is a diamond. It's got like points. You look at the eye and the skin is sort of all puckered, and there's points at the top and the bottom, so it gives a diamond shape effect.

[00:05:48] That's not a well fitting eye. And that can then cause problems in itself. So particularly when you're looking for a puppy, look at the parents. What type of eyes do they have? Do they have a nice fitting eye or is the skin around the eye puckered in or out? Are they? Did the parents themselves have excessive tear stains? Some basic observations can help you identify what your potential puppy could have, or might not have going forward. Now, sometimes there isn't anything that's causing it, and it's just general maintenance of a wrinkle. Like ultimately you have two. A wrinkle is going to be two bits of skin folded over themselves, and it can get a bit hot and sticky. So for instance, you might have a dog that's absolutely fine in the winter because their overall body temperature is lower. But we hit summer, humidity levels increase and they start getting tear stains. But and they have an elevated body temperature. Those changes are gonna encourage bacteria to grow which then creates a tear stained. So some basic grooming and regular grooming of tear stains. And ultimately, you just want to remove the moisture in that area because then that's going to stop the bacteria growing, which is going to stop the irritation, which is going to stop any infection; this Distichiasis, honestly it, 's not. It's not a word that rolls off my tongue. Distichiasis is something that you need to look out for when you're grooming your dogs, which you should be doing routinely, like weekly at least just having a little check on them.

[00:07:23] And this is where an eyelash can just basically goes rogue. And you'll just have a random eyelash growing somewhere where they shouldn't grow. And ultimately that becomes an irritant to the eyeball. So it's always worth just checking when you do your weekly once over and you check in for your wrinkles, just look to see if there's any rogue eyelashes, and sometimes you might pick this up if a dog again is fine, and then suddenly they just get a random tear stain, like particularly on one side and not like it's not matching. Just have a look at the eyelids and see whether there's a rogue eyelash growing somewhere. And if there is, sometimes if they're a little bit snoozy or the dog's snoozing and you've got good light, you might be able just to pluck out that rogue eyelash by yourself with just some tweezers. Always just be on the lookout on eyelashes growing where they shouldn't be growing. Another thing to bear in mind is the dog could just have an eye infection. And this could happen because the change of, you know, environment, change of weather, they might have, I don't know, took them to the beach the day before and they got some sand in their eye. Always just looking at overall eye health.

[00:08:32] And yeah, it could just be that there is no reason apart from it's just a random one off eye infection and everything's fine. So obviously treat that eye infection, which I'm going to come on to treatments in a bit. The final thing I wanted to talk about was allergies. So allergies can have a huge impact on your dog. And I think this is actually increasing. To be fair, I think it's probably increasing for humans. So why would the dogs be any different? It could be anything from environmental factors. So actual pollutants I saw the other day, somebody said they've had to bin their Yankee Candle because it was actually an irritant to the dog. So just be conscious of anything in your household, basically like airborne, but also cleaning products. You might see it online every now and then. It pops up about Zoflora not being safe for pets, which from my understanding isn't true. But what you need to understand is that any chemicals when wet are dangerous for your dog, so it's all well and good washing down the floor, and if they go and walk over it while it's wet, or lick it while it's wet, then yeah, then that's a potential hazard to your dog. And I think that's where that rumours come around with Zoflora because yeah, if it's wet, it's probably not the best thing for your dog.

[00:09:47] But going forward, I think it's always worth just considering a more holistic approach to your environment that the dogs in some dogs can be extremely reactive to pollen. So change of weather no different to hay fever for humans. Hopefully your dog doesn't go down that line because it can be a little bit of a minefield, but basically it's their immune system going overdrive. I mean, even nowadays I've got a not that I bought it for the dogs, but I've bought it for myself, mainly in my workspace with the dogs. I now have an air filter because I suffer from hay fever. If you haven't picked up by these recordings by now, but I suffer hayfever and an air purifier helps out massively. But also it's got a I can't remember what it's called. I want to say an air scrubber, but it stops bacteria in my workspace where I have different dogs come in and out. So I want to minimise the cross-contamination as much as possible. So having things like that around your house could make a huge difference to you and your dog. Also, when it comes to allergies is dietary factors. What you need to remember is kibble is really popular because it's convenient for us as owners. It's so easy just to have a 15 or 12 kilo bag of dog food delivered to your door, or you go and pick it up and it just, you know, you stick a cup in it and they get a scoop twice a day job done.

[00:11:08] Realistically, for their dietary system and immune system, it's a highly processed food. It's now becoming more apparent how maybe kibble-based food isn't. It's convenient for us, but it isn't necessarily the best thing for our dog. It's a bit like McDonald's. It's convenient. You can drive through and literally pick up your dinner, but is that best for you long term? Probably not, and I think that's why there's been a big uprising of raw food, sort of. We've almost gone full circle from years ago where dogs were fed scraps, or you go down the butchers and pick up bits and bobs. It went all to a highly compressed, convenient food. And now I think we'll see it go full circle again. And we're going back. A lot of people are deciding to go back to raw food for the fact that it's got less additives in it. Even the source of proteins are easier to identify to be able to pick up potential irritants easier. So it's quite a lot that I've covered there. So just a few things to recap a sudden tear stain. Is it a growth phase that your dog's going through? Is it because of the the breed and the wrinkles and maybe grooming would improve that? Is it because that there is a undetected eye condition and that needs to be looked into? Is it because just by sod's law, they've picked up a eye infection and that needs to be dealt with.

[00:12:33] Is it because of allergies being on the increase, whether that be environmental or dietary? So that's quite a lot of things to look at. So it's all well and good seeing online. Someone say my dog's got tear stains. How did you deal with it? You need to look at which one of those your dog falls into as to how to appropriately deal with it. Now some of the treatments there might be quite extreme and serious, which would involve veterinary intervention and possibly surgery to change the eye conformation. I myself, of all the dogs I've owned, have never ever had this done. So hopefully that to me is how extreme and serious it would be if it needed doing. But I'm not saying there aren't dogs out there that need that. You've also got your topical treatments. So for instance, if it was an eye infection, obviously go and see your vet. You can buy mild antibiotics for humans over the counter. That might just fall into your dog's eye. So I think there is a Optrex with a mild antibiotics. And GoldenEye have mild antibiotics. So you might just think, hey, let's not panic. Let me try this for a few days first and see if it fixes a problem.

[00:13:48] And then if it doesn't then maybe I'll go to the vet. I did have a and we said about maturity, funnily enough, I've had it at the other end of a dog. Becoming older is actually my French Bulldog. Some breeds have more bulbous eyes just because of how they're sitting within the head and what their eye sockets are like, and Frenchies can fall into that category as much as Bulldogs. But I had a female that actually had a she literally for a year suffered continual eye ulcers and then they suddenly stopped. So it was so weird because she never had them. She got to like seven and was fine. And then 7 to 8 she had this problem. And then she actually lived until 12 and she never had them again. So at that time, to deal with that, we took the approach of antibiotics, but we actually dealt with them with serum treatment as well. This is where you draw off blood from the dog, you spin it down, you separate the blood, and you actually drop the serum back into the eye. Because of the serum properties related to the dog's immune system, basically. And she didn't suffer dry eye because we never did any dry eye drops afterwards. So I don't know, whatever. Weird. I don't think they really knew. But we had this 12 months of to and fro in the vets, and she even went to an eye specialist as well, and they recommended a certain type of eye lubricant.

[00:15:08] And then after that year she was fine and she never had an eye problem ever again. I mean, yeah, I mean, it could even be an environmental fraud. I know it could have been a cleaning product that I'd messed up on and hadn't realised we never really had that discussion at the time. Thinking back, yeah, maybe. Did I change something that caused it? And then I stopped doing that and that stopped the problem. Who knows. There are ways of dealing with it. You'll hear about when it comes to eye ulcers. I think recommend I believe it's called gets talked about a lot. Say that the serum drops and possibly antibiotics. You don't really want a serious eye ulcer because the eye drop treatment's very intense and it has to happen day or night. And the last thing you want is a melting eye. Also because the dog could possibly lose their eye. And then they do all sorts where they could stitch the eye shut or unfortunately, ultimately end up removing the eye. So I stuff is serious all with me saying this. It's serious. You get one set of I like I get one set of eyes, so you need to look after them for as long as possible. It's not like I don't know if you lost her.

[00:16:13] If you lost a tooth, you still got a whole mouth full of teeth, haven't you? But eyes are very important, so it's not to be messed around with. If you're. If you are concerned, then yeah, just get them to the vet. If you're in any doubt that definitely speak to your vet. As I said, when it comes to grooming, just keep an eye wrinkles nice and clean and tidy. I like to use hibi scrub which you need to dilute down. You can buy it online most days if you're even more lazy. And than that which I am, I quite like CLX wipes again. I'll probably stick links in the show notes. You don't have to dilute anything down. Basically it's it's like a baby. It's like a medicated baby wipe, which does exactly the same job as hibi scrub. So I quite like that just for pure convenience. But they are very expensive and they are very big wipes, so I always recommend people just cut them in half, clean the area with CLX wipes, pat it dry with either cotton wool or kitchen roll and then I would keep. It's all about drying the area out, so I personally would then put into the area medicated powder. And the easiest way to apply medicated powder is to put it into a ketchup bottle. You know those American style ketchup bottles, because then you can angle the nozzle into all the nooks and crannies, spray a bit in, rub it in with your finger, and then I just blow out any excess powder just so it's just not sat there and getting claggy and blocking pores.

[00:17:38] Which is why I hate with a passion. I'm gonna say it again. I hate with a passion soda cream. It doesn't fix anything. It's a barrier cream. I understand the idea of someone thinking I'm going to put Sudocrem on. So more tears run off. But if it's bacterial, you're helping that area stay moist and damp and it just sticks to everything. You end up with white marks over everything. So I don't have any Sudocrem. If I needed to treat a sore area, I would do exactly what I said CLX wipes, then I would actually put athlete's foot cream on. Preferably one that's got the hydrocortisone in. So it's got the mild steroid. And then I would put the medicated powder on. And I would do that for three days. And I would expect to see an improvement. So I don't use Sudocrem can't stand the stuff, don't use it. There are other better alternatives than Sudocrem and I just don't think it fixes a problem. Hibbi scrub with medicated powder is where a thousand times better than that. And so finally, in regards to treatments, let's talk about diet. So preferably. Always take advice from your breeder in regards to foods because typically if the parents were good on the food, you would hope the puppies would be good on the same food because they inherit their immune system.

[00:19:18] And so typically, if a dog was to have an allergy, not that allergies are in inherited, but a possible response to something that triggers the allergy could be always take their advice on what foods they recommend because you would assume the mums the. If the parents are okay, then the pups are going to be okay. But generally I think it's widely advised now to stay away from grains. So a grain-free food. I know there is a whole conversation about how grain-free foods may impact heart, but I think if you're having tear stains, then you need to consider no-grain foods or grain-free foods. Preference should be that they're grass-fed and I would try and get a single protein source food, because if you have something that's got duck, chicken and turkey, it's going to be hard for you to try and work out which ones are causing a possible reaction to try and keep to one, a single source, food. And even more so, like I've already mentioned, maybe consider coming away from kibble food and looking at raw feeding. It is more expensive generally, but if you've got 1 or 2 dogs, probably not end of the world stuff. It is more inconvenient because you do have to defrost food in a timely manner so your dogs don't starve.

[00:20:40] I will get a canine nutritionist in to talk a lot more about this, but it's a more natural way to feed your dog for how they're designed to eat. And so that in itself should cause less issues in the digestive system. And even like raw feeding basically increases the acids in the stomach, which means that they break down foods better, they digest food better. They generally have a better immune system when it comes to fighting off bacteria and that kind of fighting off viruses and bacteria and that kind of stuff. So yeah, it's not just a case of let's feed my dog raw food to avoid tear stains. It's that other benefits that come with that as well. So I hope I haven't bleated on too long. I feel like I have adequately, I hope I haven't rushed through it too much, and I hope I made it clear of the reasons your dog could have tear stains covering all those possible reasons. And if you need veterinary intervention, then yes, obviously take that approach, but consider some of the things that fall outside of it. Actually, what I didn't cover as some of the treatments is there are supplements, so there are topical treatments. So there are other powders. I've just talked about hibbi scrub, medicated powder. There are some specific. Products to put on tear stains to help with it, so you might want to look into those if you're happy.

[00:22:05] There's no more serious health concerns to the tear stain, and there are also some supplements that you can put on their food that helps get rid of tear stains, because I don't remember the ins and outs, but it's about balancing stuff out and how the body functions and that kind of stuff. I've also heard other things, such as only giving your dog bottled water, because tap water has whatever elements in it that are causing these kind of issues and reactions. So if you do, if you do some research, there's a lot of stuff out there. Some of it might be snake oil, some of it might be the real deal. But I think I've covered the main reasons for tear stains what you should be looking for, and trying to help you try and figure out the best solution for you and your dog. So that's it. Come and join us in the community if you want to continue the conversation. If you've got some amazing treatments that I haven't mentioned, or you've had some other reasons why tear stains have appeared and how you've managed to cure them, then I am all ears. So please come and join us in the community. Otherwise, until then, I'll speak to you on the next episode. Before you leave, make sure to visit BulldogBroadcast.com for immediate access to the show notes, community forum recommendations, and episode extras.