You see it all the time in light coloured dogs, they have the cutest faces but there is a slight, or more than slight discolouration around their eyes. Most of the time it’s a brown or reddish colour and all of the time, it doesn’t look the best. The staining is actually caused by a type of yeast infection – more specifically, red yeast. The staining is believed to be caused by excess tearing and when the hair on the dog’s face is wet, it becomes a breeding ground for bacteria and yeast. Not pretty, and not hygienic when you look at it from this perspective.
People have been struggling with this for a long time. When we got Paddington, I noticed that giving her yogurt actually helped her quite a bit, but when Corduroy started to get bright red stains on her face, the yogurt did nothing and I knew I needed to try something else.
I tried the topical ointments, I tried washing her face more, I tried brushing her face more – nothing seemed to work. I didn’t want to use any sort of bleaching product on her because that just doesn’t seem safe to me.
When we picked up Corduroy from the breeder, they had told us about a product called Angel’s Glow. They said it was the only product they tried that actually worked, and they have been breeding Maltese and Shih Tzus for about 10 yrs. When Corduroy started to have the really bad staining, I went on their website and ordered the smallest sized bottle, just to try it out.
Angel’s Glow is a powder that you mix into your dog’s wet food that is ingested to counteract the yeast infection. I followed the instructions on how to give it to the dogs and over the next few weeks I noticed an improvement – the staining was stopping! Every day (once a day), I mixed the specified amount into some Tripett and they gobbled it up without complaint, mostly because they love Tripett so much! Over the next three months I following the regime set out on the Angel Glow website and since then I give it to the dogs about 3-4 times a week.
Keep in mind that this will not eradicate the stains that are already there, nor will it stop the dog from having watery eyes, but it will stop new stains from occurring. The previous stains grow out and you are left with a beautifully white dog!
I am ALWAYS getting compliments on Corduroy’s face, how white it is and everyone asks me how I do it. I ordered the 120g bottle about 6 months ago and for two dogs, I still have enough for a few more months left (both dogs top out at 7-8lbs). I was not charged any customs on the order and the shipping is quite reasonable.
Let me know if you have had success with any other method. Some people suggest only giving your dog filtered water, others say mix a bit of vinegar in their drinking water and there are countless recipes online that people have concocted to remove the stains. Let me know if you have found something that works!
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Liz Bradley is a dog lover who lives in Ottawa, Ontario with her husband,
6 Users Responded in " Tear Staining in Light Coloured Dogs "
I have a 1 year old white faced english bulldog that I adopted 2months ago who had very bad staining on her face wrinkles and around her eyes. I noticed that she also had blepharitis so I used the same product to clean her eyes and face wrinkles that I use on my eyes. Its called Lid Care and its PH balanced and very gentle. With a once a day treatment, within 2 weeks in addition to reducing her blepharitis, almost all of the stains around the eyes were gone and in 3 weeks all of the stains around the eyes and face wrinkles were gone. Her face is now completely white where it should be. Lid Care comes in little packets that contain premoistened small gauze squares. Just follow the directions to wipe out the eye lids and I also at the same time wipe them around the outside of the eye, soaping things up and in her face wrinkles. She got a little red but not overly so for the first couple of weeks, the red has since completely gone away without any action on my part. Lid Care is about 10 or 11 bucks for 32 wipes. You should use 1 packet per single eye. I purchase mine at Costco or Walmart but any drug store also sells it.
Great tip! Thanks Daisy – I had never heard of Lid Care before.
I have an all-white Pomeranian and even though I was pretty good about keeping his eyes clean, last summer he became very teary and developed terrible reddish-brown stains under his eyes. I tried an eye cleaning product from Petcetera and was constantly drying and wiping his eyes, but that didn’t work and the stains got worse. I took him to the vet and she said that he likely was allergic to something in the yard and prescribed him some eye drops.
I gave him his drops till the bottle was finished and continued with the cleaning regime and now you couldn’t tell his fur was ever stained — the before and after pictures are really kind of shocking. I now use eye cleaner sold at the vet’s office but also find that Essentials Tear stain remover works, too, and its a bit cheaper.
I have also read that diet and stainless steel bowls may also affect a dog’s eyes so I replaced my Pom’s bowls with ceramic ones and I do think yogurt helps to keep yeast at a minimum as well, though I think the real test for him will be this spring and summer when the flowers are in bloom again.
Having a white dog is like wearing white shoes sometimes
Hi Liz
I cannot buy Angels Glow in europe- it is banned?!?!?
I agree that it works but I am glad that I cannot buy it anymore because I was forced to try a natural product called Angels Delight from Bichon Hotel. Unlike Angels Glow it has no antibiotics and it says that it also helps with slipping patella- I notice that you mention patella probs in another post…
You can sometimes get Angel’s Glow at Bark & Fitz in Westboro or Kanata. Ask the employees as it is sometimes not out on the floor.
I have three dogs and they all had the staining around the eyes, and I use a product called Eye Envy. It works great to remove eye stains. Here are the links to the products I use:
http://www.eyeenvy.com/Detail.bok?no=2
http://www.eyeenvy.com/Detail.bok?no=15
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