# Tear Staining



## BuckeyeMaltese (Sep 10, 2006)

I wanted to share with everyone a discovery that has worked MIRACLES on all three of my Maltese. As soon as I can figure out how to scan and post before and after pics I will. All three of my girls had horribly stained faces all the time. I had read numerous times that sometimes the drinking water causes staining. I switched them to bottled water for weeks with no improvement. I then started buying the "*Reverse Osmosis*" water that you filled your own jugs with at the water station at Walmart. Within a couple weeks I noticed that the hair growing out closest to their skin was white, so I trimmed their hair down to get rid of alot of the staining, and lo and behold, they now have snow white faces with very minimal to no staining. It is such a radial difference!! My youngest whom I got 3 months ago had a completely rust face, I trimmed her face down and started her drinking the water, now three months later she looks like a totally different puppy! My groomer who has Westies, and my aunt who has two Maltese have also switched to reverse osmosis for their drinking water with miraculous results also! The water costs 25 cents a gallon, you fill your own jugs and IT WORKS! I swear by it. I had tried Angel Eyes, eye wipes, you name it and nothing gave them clear faces. Amazing how something so inexpensive and easy to use can make a world of difference. If your Maltese has staining please give this a try. As I said, it takes time, the clear hair has to grow out and you have to trim the stained hair down, but within 6 weeks you should have a stain-free faced little Maltese! Those of you who try this, please keep me posted on your results!


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## wagirl98665 (Jan 5, 2006)

"*Reverse Osmosis*"Is awesome my friend has it in her house, well in her mansion, but to
me it always has an after taste. My friend doesn't drink it, but does water her dogs with it and also 
cooks with it. Do you drink it also and do you taste an after taste?


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## NewMommie (Jan 19, 2006)

> I wanted to share with everyone a discovery that has worked MIRACLES on all three of my Maltese. As soon as I can figure out how to scan and post before and after pics I will. All three of my girls had horribly stained faces all the time. I had read numerous times that sometimes the drinking water causes staining. I switched them to bottled water for weeks with no improvement. I then started buying the "*Reverse Osmosis*" water that you filled your own jugs with at the water station at Walmart. Within a couple weeks I noticed that the hair growing out closest to their skin was white, so I trimmed their hair down to get rid of alot of the staining, and lo and behold, they now have snow white faces with very minimal to no staining. It is such a radial difference!! My youngest whom I got 3 months ago had a completely rust face, I trimmed her face down and started her drinking the water, now three months later she looks like a totally different puppy! My groomer who has Westies, and my aunt who has two Maltese have also switched to reverse osmosis for their drinking water with miraculous results also! The water costs 25 cents a gallon, you fill your own jugs and IT WORKS! I swear by it. I had tried Angel Eyes, eye wipes, you name it and nothing gave them clear faces. Amazing how something so inexpensive and easy to use can make a world of difference. If your Maltese has staining please give this a try. As I said, it takes time, the clear hair has to grow out and you have to trim the stained hair down, but within 6 weeks you should have a stain-free faced little Maltese! Those of you who try this, please keep me posted on your results![/B]



OH I need to try this!!! Thanks! I know for rolley the angel's glow wanst working like I thought it would. Do you know where you can get the jugs to fill the water with?

EEK! So I was going online, look up Reverse Osmosis water, and I found this.. I dont know how true it is or what.. but check it out


http://askwaltstollmd.com/wwwboard/messages/441658.shtml


Hope the link works.


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## BuckeyeMaltese (Sep 10, 2006)

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## Max & Rocky (May 20, 2004)

> "*Reverse Osmosis*"Is awesome my friend has it in her house, well in her mansion, but to
> me it always has an after taste. My friend doesn't drink it, but does water her dogs with it and also
> cooks with it. Do you drink it also and do you taste an after taste?
> 
> ...


Actually, RO water is far less likely to have a taste than regular water. I would think what is actually happening is that you are so accustom to various impurities in water that once those impurities are removed, the water tastes strange to you.

We've used it for cooking, coffee, dogs, ice cube maker, etc for years and would never consider anything else. You actually get ice which is clear, as opposed to milky white ice cubes... which is what you will get with water in some areas of the country.

I would recommend that anyone interested consider having a unit installed under their kitchen counter. An RO unit costs maybe $200 but I'm sure the cost per gallon works out to be a penny or so, instead of 25 cents plus gas not to mention the trouble.

We also have a large marine reef aquarium setup in our house and these things take ultra pure water (we have a separate unit for the RO/DI water for the tank). The best systems around I know of are from http://www.spectrapure.com/ 

They are very easy to install with minimal skills or, hire a plumber to do it and pay the $50 to $100 for the service call. Either way, you can beat them!


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## MissMelanie (Feb 13, 2006)

I have been singing the praised of *Reverse Osmosis Water* for years! I drink it and my cat, snakes and dogs do too.

Saddly though, I can't get it for .25 cents a gallon. I have seen it go up from .27 cents a gallon to the current price of .73 cents but still well worth it.

I am also HOOKED on Dasani when out and about. I still swear Coke has put something else in their Reverse Osmosis water.







It just tastes so darn good and clean.

enJOY!
Melanie


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## Cosy (Feb 9, 2006)

I have not heard good things about RO or distilled water either. Minerals are in water for a reason.
Not everything needs to be removed. I'll stick to using it for ironing........when I iron once a year. LOL


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## angelsugar (Apr 22, 2006)

*OK, here go the questions.......

What is the difference between:
1. RO water
2. Distilled water
3. Spring water
4. Any old bottled water, like Daisani

Which ones are best for malts?? *


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## Deanna (Jan 14, 2005)

One of my closest friends is very ill, and the doctors are linking it to RO water, which he has been drinking for 15+ years, during which time he would never drink anything but RO water. He developed a severe mineral deficiency. The most damage has been done to his arms- picture the tendons that run from the elbow to the wrist- his tendons have holes in them- like swiss cheese. This could lead to him needing a tendon transplant! 

I think distilled is ok occasionally, and it's great for the iron- but we (our animals included) need the minerals in water.


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## Max & Rocky (May 20, 2004)

> *OK, here go the questions.......
> 
> What is the difference between:
> 1. RO water
> ...


RO water uses membrane technology to filter out many contaminates from your water. Here is some info I've cut from another site:

The technology of reverse osmosis water filtration came along in the 1990's, at a moment when Americans were increasingly aware of pollutants in public water. Pesticides (like Atrazine and Simazine), harmful e.coli bacteria, lead, nitrates and nitrites, and arsenic are steadily available from even the cleanest public water. Reverse osmosis doesn't rely on chemical additives to maintain cleanliness. In fact, reverse osmosis is the same process that the body's cells use to filter out contaminants. RO filtration utilizes acetate membranes to filter water at the molecular level in order to remove up to 99% of all dissolved minerals. Chemical compounds like pesticides and chlorine, bacteria, arsenic, lead, viruses, and other nasty bits are all left behind as water molecules penetrate and diffuse through the membrane, molecule by molecule.

The system, as mentioned, is only natural. According to David Kaus of DK Industries, who built reverse osmosis system for the Wedge, "RO water reduces the workload on the body's cells. That's part of why clean water is so vital to human health. And there's nothing cleaner than RO."

Contrary to what this article suggests, RO will typically remove 95 to maybe 97% of the dissolved solids in your water... to go to 99% will take something special which is going to cost $$$.

As best I know, a term like spring water can mean anything the supplier of it wants it to mean... as I do not think there is any law in place to require otherwise.

Distilled water is typically just water that has been boiled to drive off volatile compounds and kill bacteria.

I have no clue as to what is in Daisani water.

To this list, I'll add one more item, that is Deionized water, typically labeled DI water... or RO/DI water. DI water is super pure water... and I'll just leave the explanation at it is far more pure than anyone here has to worry about.

I've seen the comment here to the effect that "I want to keep drinking my water and I don't want any of that new fangled stuff". To each, his own.

However, I really don't want pesticides, lead, nitrates, nitrides, and the various dissolved solid salts which tend to be in water in the Western US.

Because of my reef acquarium, Ihave test kits which allow me to test water, icluding what comes out of the tap versus what I make. There is no comparison at all. I honstly can't tell you the dollar value of the live rock and various critters and fish in my tank, but I know it is over $4000 and that was quite a few years ago.

I would guess that if I started using water straight out of the tap, most of it would be dead within a week or two. I did loose a much smaller tank I think back in 1992 or 93 because of an RO problem...

The only so called issue with RO or especially RO/DI water is it's ph. Because of the process the water goes through, the water comes out with a lower ph than desired. This is one of the reasons RO or RO/DI units are always plumbed with the little plastic tubes instead of copper pipe. In my opinion, you would have to drink so much water that you would already mess up your bodies electrolytic level for it to hurt you. 
RO/DI water, which isn't the issue here anyway, can literally leach calcium out of your bones and teeth over a very long time. RO, by itself, will have no such effect.


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## lorraine (Jun 24, 2006)

> I have no clue as to what is in Daisani water.[/B]


Neither have Coca-Cola, seemingly. We had an enormous broohaha over here about Dasani some 2 1/2 years ago.
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,3604,1174127,00.html


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## felicity (Jun 19, 2006)

funny you guys should mention this, i told Jeff before we brought Mishkin home that he should drink distilled water and he said that there's no way that's healthy, he said our body's (animals too) need the minerals in water and drinking water that has them removed all the time is very unhealthy, mishkin drinks good old tap water and has since he started drinking water at Joys house, so far he hardly has any tear staining, he gets a tiny bit sometimes but it pretty much dissapears with some aristopet tear stain remover and warm water.

it could get worse as he gets older i suppose but for now he's fine.



felicity


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## Deanna (Jan 14, 2005)

> I've seen the comment here to the effect that "I want to keep drinking my water and I don't want any of that new fangled stuff". To each, his own.[/B]












I don't see that anyone said anything even close to that- I think people have stated legitimate concerns about not only the bad stuff being removed from water- but the good stuff too. I think RO is great for your fish tanks, for ironing, for cleaning, for our cigar humidor, for our yearly wine making, and won't hurt a person to drink it every now and then. However, I strongly believe that we need the minerals in water that are removed by the distilling and RO process.


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## Littlemans Mom (Apr 6, 2005)

Now I am so confused as to what Indy should be drinking







We have given him distilled water for over a year now (ever since we broought him home) now I am worried we are hurting him







Our tap water is VERY hard water, it turns eveything to a rust color, I have a hard time even keeping out toilet bowl from staining and I clean it daily! I thought it would be bad to give it to Indy so we went with the distilled. Now I don't know if that was the right thing to do


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## k/c mom (Oct 9, 2004)

> funny you guys should mention this, i told Jeff before we brought Mishkin home that he should drink distilled water and he said that there's no way that's healthy, he said our body's (animals too) need the minerals in water and drinking water that has them removed all the time is very unhealthy, mishkin drinks good old tap water and has since he started drinking water at Joys house, so far he hardly has any tear staining, he gets a tiny bit sometimes but it pretty much dissapears with some aristopet tear stain remover and warm water.
> 
> it could get worse as he gets older i suppose but for now he's fine.
> 
> felicity[/B]


From what I understand, you get the minerals your body needs from the food you eat rather than from water.


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## wagirl98665 (Jan 5, 2006)

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I think you're probably right. I have a really good filter system in the kitchen that makes the water
as pure as can be, but I still notice the after taste for some reason. Bottled water I don't and that's
also suppose to be pure spring water. I don't get it. This is the system I have.

http://www.waterandairworks.com/index.htm


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## gattirenata (Jul 28, 2006)

> Now I am so confused as to what Indy should be drinking
> 
> 
> 
> ...


i share your concerns!!!! now I'm worried too!!
Mac was drinking filtered water or bottled water. because around here water is no good (as they say, and I heard of dogs getting giardia because of the water) but when I was doing my research about the tear stains lots of people told me to give him distilled water. I even called the breeeder and she said that what he had when he was there. 

I changed a lot of stuff on Mac's diet because of the stains, and I did it all at the same time, so I'm not sure what really helped. The only thing I know is that his stains are a lot better and most of the hair growing now is not staining ALTHOUGH he is tearing more than ever... last week, his face was NEVER dry! (his adult teeth are cutting, you need to see poor thing... and besides that he didn't loose ONE baby tooth yet... that means he already has 2 teeth in each socket





















)

anyways... back to the water... Now I'm not sure what to do... maybe I should go back to the regular filtered/bottled water after he is done teething??? and is tearing less???


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## Max & Rocky (May 20, 2004)

As best as I can figure out, tear staining seems to have a multitude of contributing factors. I say this simply because when I was at MO, we tried every recommended trick ... and we never found anything that we were particularly impressed by to make the stains go away or to effectively clean them. This includes RO water, which we have had long before we ever had the boys. We were coming to the conclusion that all of our attempts at cleaning around their eyes with various substances were risk all by itself and we were simply going to have to not worry about it.

Out of desperation, we again spoke to our vet. This time, he gave us some some terramycin and we started using a small amount of it on their food. This probably did not go on for more than 10 days before it was clear the rust colored tear staining was graudually going away and not "reforming". That was probably 2 years or more ago and the rust stains have not come back for either Rocky or Max. They do get the dark colored eye bugger, but that can easily be cleaned with a damp cloth.

I know that I will catch grief here for using an antibiotic to correct what would seem to be a cosmetic problem, however, the ONLY thing an antibiotic does is to kill bacteria. I have no clue as to where the bacteria comes from or how it gets started, but it is clear that at least in these two, bacteria was living in or near their eyes...and that is all the reason I need to have used it in order to kill that baacteria.

Now... as far as different types of water...you all need to do your own investigations as to what is in your tap water. It varies from place to place all over the country. The only places I have lived besides here is AZ have been the Midwest and CA. Both places had lots of runoff from agriculture. AZ has lots of runoff from Ag and from mining. These types of contaminates are exactly what an RO system is designed to remove.

I've sat here trying to find some good INTERNET reference material for these things I have been saying... Jeez... as you probably know, anyone can put any sort of crap out there so after wasting my time reading places which also would tell you that fluoride is a government conspiracy... I gave up. I did go to the government site and found what I believe to be pretty good reference material although some of its format suxs... http://www.epa.gov/safewater/rads/radfr.html

http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw/dwh/t-ioc/lead.html

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/swp/swpcases.pdf

http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/bastre.pdf

There are all sorts of reference there having to do with reverse osmosis in some large or small way. I was using terms like "reverse osmosis" and "drinking water" to find these things and there were 1000s of hits, so have at it.

Now... I've read several responses containing wrong information I would like to address:

As someone previously noted, minerals do not typically come from water... minerals typically come from food... literally they either get in food in the farmers field or they are added somewhere along the way when the food product is made. Minerals in water are not a bad thing at all...(at least, within reason). When you take a drink of water, the minerals, or lack thereoff is the primary thing which you taste.

An RO system is not designed to remove minerals from water... although it does end up removing ~ 95% of them. Chemicals like nitrides, nitrates, heavy metals, etc are not "minerals" and serve zero good at all in the human body. 

If you read some more of that EPA stuff I cited, you will find that the EPA has limits for all of this stuff and they don't generally limit good things... I know at least water in my area sometimes fails for such and such chemical and I'd just as soon have none of it in my water... and that means none in the boys drinking water either. Some other of that EPA stuff I cited shows some info on typical contaminates found in water and it also shows RO as the best, or one of the best available technologies in order to remove it.

Ok... I think I'm done posting on this particular subject...


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## nikkivong (Aug 25, 2006)

i just went ot walmart over the weekend and bought a gallon of the reverse osmosis water and otis' stains have gotten a lot better. he's no longer staining like he was before. i think it really works.. thanks for the tip!!


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## I found nemo (Feb 23, 2006)

I live in New York, and our water is terrible ***Yuck It's taste bleachy*** I wouldn't drink it
either do my kids, so I wouldn't give it to Nemo either.. I love love **DASANI** and that is all we drink
We are all still here, I mean **ALIVE*** LOL , so I guess I will stick with that.

Thanks,
Andrea~


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