# Food that prevents tear stains?



## conleymm

<span style="font-family:Arial Black">The topic description pretty much says it all: I'm looking for a food to feed my 11 mo. old Maltese that will prevent his tear stains. I'm currently feeding him Angel Eyes food supplement, and I have tried other little tricks (distilled water, plus others). Does this type of food exist and will it or will it not cost me a fortune?

Thanks!</span>


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## mostlytina

I am interested in this subject as well. I just got my dog about two weeks ago. She does have quite a bit of tear stain. The breeder told me that her redness was due to motherhood and all hormone changes (she just retired from breeding). I feed her California Natural Lamb Meal and Rice. (That's what the breeder fed her before.) I also use the distill water. I am not sure how long does it take for the tear stain to go away. She does scratch a bit even though I find no fleas on her... I was wondering... is it allergy?!?! How do you know if your dog has food allergy?? 

One thing that my breeder told me is that Angle Eyes is not a long term solution because of the antibiotics. So you might want to look into other resources.


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## 2maltese4me

Grain free food did the trick here. Pure white faces. Tho just recently Cooper has developed some staining so I'm going to change the protein out. 

We feed Natural Balance....Sweet Potato and Venison. Cooper is going to get switched over to the lamb or duck to see if that fixes the issue.


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## Nikki's Mom

Grain free food, filtered (not distilled) water, probiotics or yogurt, plus a gentle eye wash product are good preventative measures. 

Some dogs never have tearstains, which others, like mine, have had them from the beginning. Genetics probably play a part. Sometimes the tearing stops after they turn 1.


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## cleooscar

When we got Napoleon, he had such a bad tear stain that I had to trim some hair off. His breeder uses well water. We put him on Solid Gold puppy food until he was about 7 months old. Now I feed him (and my other 2 Malts) Natural Balance Duck and Sweet Potatoes and rotating that with Orijen 6 Fish, after reading the recommendation from here. I also wash their faces just about everyday with Spa Lavish Face Scrub and rinse their eyes with Bausch & Lomb Collyrium for Fresh Eyes Eye Wash (again learned this from SM). I also feed them a tablespoon of probiotic yogurt, Danone Activia, mixed with a teaspoon of dry buttermilk powder (again from SM recommendation) to help with the tear stain. Their tear stains are so much better now. All the new growth has no stain. Yeah! I did read somewhere though that if you're using Angel Eyes, don't feed yogurt at the same time as it cancels out AE's effectiveness. Don't know how true that is but when we tried AE early this year, it didn't work for us but I was feeding them yogurt as well.


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## Nikki's Mom

Yogurt = probiotic

Angel Eyes= antibiotic

Don't give together.


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## lawgirl

I don't think there is a special food that will solve the tear staining problem, as the contributory causes include: (1) diet, (2) health, (3) hygiene, and (4) genetics. You can control for the first 3 factors, but not the 4th. Here's what worked really well for my dog--probiotics, good food, Eye Envy (used every day for a while then only 2x a week for maintenance), daily cleaning around eyes, and filtered water: all his new growth is pure white and he gets lots of compliments at doggie dates. Full info here:

http://spoiledmaltese.com/forum/index.php?...st&p=828310


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## makettle29

Someone posted a link that was VERY detailed and informative in the last month regarding tearstaining. Maybe you can search for it. It should be posted on this homepage because of the frequency of the question.

mary anna


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## makettle29

http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/grooming/grooming5.htm




THIS IS THE LINK! As you can see there are numerous contributors, so it's a real research opportunity.


please, DO NOT, use any of the removal suggestions, some of them are dangerous and unnessesary. While you are figuring out what causes it just keep the hair clean and trimmed.



good luck, mary anna eaton


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## wooflife

In our case it was a diet change - homecooking using a premix from Dr. Harvey's, and filtered water have made all the difference for us. Now I just wipe the sleep out of her eyes in the morning and her face stays mostly white. I'm sure I could wash with Spa Facial wash everyday and improve more but she really hates that.


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## 2maltese4me

Tear stains were in our case - caused by a food allergy. I'm assuming an allergy to grains....because soon after starting grain free food - all *3* of my dogs cleared up. That right there is proof in the pudding that grains do in fact cause a lot of the issues with our dogs.


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## FortheloveofBuckeye

Hello everyone, I've been browsing the forum since I joined recently and have found it to be quite informative as I endeavor to learn as much as I can about taking care of my little Buckeye. In reading your posts regarding tearstaining, as well as what I've read outside the forum, diet is an important factor. Right now, I'm feeding Buckeye NB Sweet Potato and Chicken. Many here on the forum choose the other flavors...is there a reason for this? I know it depends on the dog, etc., I was just curious as to where or not there is a reason for this from an experience standpoint. Buckeye seems to like it fine...just started him this week on it. Also, is it okay to give them bottled water? We also have a reversed osmosis system in our home. I've also read that there's not much you can do with the tearstains until they are older...Buckeye is 3 months old. 

Thanks for all your advice...this is an awesome forum!


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