# Tear stains vs. eye gunk



## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

Ollie gets brown/blackish little ball of eye gunk in his eyes when he wakes in the a.m. If I don't wash it off daily, it will sort of drip down and stain a bit. But I wouldn't say he has tear staining. Or does he? I don't understand the difference.

This past week I only washed his face a few times because I had been so sick (high fevers off and on) and the gunk left on there left a bit of stain around the eyes. And he has "old" stain further down on his beard from before I had owned him at 12 weeks. None of this is very noticable so I don't think I'd consider him a tear stainer...could change at any time, I know.

So anyway, is there a difference between "tear staining" and the eye gunkies or is it the same??


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## Julie718 (Feb 17, 2006)

Tango has both tearing andd the eye gunk too. Tillie has more tearing than eye gunk. I'm not sure if they are the same or not??


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## abbey (Apr 4, 2005)

I wondered the same thing. I never think Abbey has tear staining 'cause when I wash her face, it's all white & I think if it was tear staining it would stay stained, wouldn't it?







Abbey gets the eye gunk, which is annoying but at least once I get that off, her eyes look great.


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## carrie (Aug 24, 2004)

tear staining stains the face a rust color. mini had it pretty bad when she came to me, because her hair was in her eyes causing her eyes to tear.

this was taken a while ago (excuse her messy hair, i was in the middle of replacing her band







). her face is getting much better, yet she still does have a bit from teething.








this is what tear staining looks like:


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## lorraine (Jun 24, 2006)

Thanks for posting that picture, Carrie. It shows something I have not noticed in photos of other Malts but that Pip has in both eyes. It's that little "wick" that seems to be hair growing from just inside the eye rim. 
[attachment=18674:attachment]

Tears flow right down it onto the face hair and no amount of trimming works for us. He has, more or less, finished teething and I'm wondering if I should get someone to check it out in case it is blocking the tear ducts. What do you think? Does Mini still have it although her staining is getting much better?


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## carrie (Aug 24, 2004)

yep, she still has the "wick". her staining is really bad some days, not so bad others.









fir instance, this morning....not so good. i'm not sure the beauty queen would appreciate me posting these:


















i took pictures of the side that stains much worse.... of course, i hadn't gotten around to fixing her hair or cleaning her face this morning, so i'm sure the little hairs that broke free from the band during her slumber may be causing her some irritation.


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## robin (Jul 11, 2006)

> yep, she still has the "wick". her staining is really bad some days, not so bad others.
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OMG Carrie, that sideways glance is so funny. It's like she's saying, ENOUGH mom! I can see the attitude. So cute.


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## Littlemans Mom (Apr 6, 2005)

Yes, the tearstaining is different from the eye gunk







Indy used to have both, then we changed his food and now he only has the eye gunk







It is much better as far as how his face looks, it used to be rust color and wet, now it is clean as long as I wipe his eyes in the morning


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## Zoe and Bella's mom (Jan 23, 2006)

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I agree - GREAT picture!

ginny


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## camfan (Oct 30, 2006)

> Yes, the tearstaining is different from the eye gunk
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OK, gotcha.

Those were great pics, too.

What was the difference in the food that you switched to? Ollie's on a pretty good food (chicken soup for the pet lovers soul) but I'd be willing to switch.

Some weeks his eyes seem runny and others not so much. There was one week where they were so runny that it would gather on the bridge of his snout and the whole top of his snount would be clumpy. I couldn't attribute anything different around that would cause it. He doesn't eat anything except kibble and an occasional cheerio or a few flecks of baked chicken--anything other than his kibble still upsets his tummy (he's only 4 months).


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## carrie (Aug 24, 2004)

yeah, she wasn't too happy about me holding her head for that shot. she kept wanting to look directly at me and i needed a picture of her staining....









when i take pictures of her straight on, you can't even tell she has staining!








the hair in front of it kinda poofs out and hides it.


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## beckybc03 (Jul 6, 2006)

I call the eye gunk "eye goobers" or "face goobers." Lilly gets them all the time and they somtimes work their way down her face. She even gets them up in her eyebrows sometimes. HAHA I think they are partly from her sticking her face in her food bowl but she definitely gets them right around her eyes too. I use one of the really fine toothed combs to get them out.


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