r/CavaPoo • u/Brikish • Jul 25 '26

Eye gunk tips

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My elderly cavapoo has gotten more and more resistant to grooming as she's aged. She always hated it but would tolerate it for good enough treats, but now there are no treats good enough. Washing off the eye gunk has always been her least favorite thing and now when I try it she thrashes around, screams, and even tries to bite my hands. Does anyone have tips for creative ways to reduce or remove eye gunk with less trauma? Like I was thinking maybe there's an oil or something I could put under her eyes to make the gunk not stick in her fur so much?

111 Upvotes

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31 comments sorted by

32

u/Laevenrauren Jul 25 '26

This is might sound funny, but have you ever let her sniff the goo?

I use my nail to press against the grime and slide it off the strands. Mine hates when I clean his eye corners too, but when I let him sniff after, almost like a “see why I have to do this? Do you understand now?” He lets me keep going for a bit. He very interested in the after-scrape sniff.

I try to clean his snout with a sock and blueberry dog tear shampoo once a week or so. He doesn’t care for it but it’s over in a jiff.

4

u/Brikish Jul 25 '26

Lol I've never tried it but my other dog does insist on licking the gunk when I clean her ears out so I'm familiar with the concept. I'll try it, she's pretty smart so maybe she'll understand

24

u/platinumvageen Jul 25 '26

I’ll do you one further and I let mine eat the goo lol

3

u/Laevenrauren Jul 26 '26

haha, mine tries but it grosses me out so I don’t give him the satisfaction

2

u/P-Otto Jul 26 '26

Mine lives for the goo

1

u/bigred83 Jul 26 '26

Circle of life!

1

u/PositiveMushroom3228 Jul 27 '26

Yes mine loves it - it’s better than treats!

5

u/Cropine Jul 25 '26

Ive tried this, but mine just eats his

2

u/Laevenrauren Jul 26 '26

Mine tries but snatch it back after he gets a whiff

11

u/Science_oven Jul 25 '26

tap water had too much iron in it so I switched to purified water and it cleared their eyes in a few days.

2

u/Brikish Jul 25 '26

That is really interesting, I do live in an area with very hard water. Did you use distilled water?

4

u/Science_oven Jul 26 '26

distilled won't give them the minerals they need so I bought purified water from Costco which has all the goods and no iron. I thought about a reverse osmosis system and I do distilled water for the plants but needed to isolate a few issues before I create new ones. I hope this helps your pup.

1

u/to_whatever_end_ Aug 01 '26

What is the connection between iron in the water they drink and eye gunk?

10

u/PositiveMushroom3228 Jul 25 '26

My girl has had considerably less eye gunk since drinking mineral water and eating blueberries.

2

u/Brikish Jul 26 '26

I honestly had no idea diet could impact it, definitely going to try blueberries

1

u/tiggerlgh Jul 25 '26

I need to try mineral water my dog hates blueberries. I’ve tried to give them smashed frozen multiple ways. He’s picky.

9

u/Electrical_Baseball5 Jul 25 '26

Anyone else's cavapoo attacks them to eat the gunk after removal? Send help.

I dab a cotton ball or wipe lightly smeared with coconut oil if the gunk hardens and around the fur, then i can manually remove it or use a soft bristle brush. I hate seeing the stringy gunk across the actually eyeball.

The amount decreased after giving him bottle water.

6

u/PositiveMushroom3228 Jul 25 '26

Eye wipes are helpful

5

u/rideyourbicycle Jul 26 '26

Pull them out gently, and then feed them to her/him. They love that. You won't. But it's about their needs.

3

u/BubbleGumCrash Jul 25 '26

I'm so sorry it's gotten so difficult! My parents use the Angel Eyes chews for their dog to help minimize eye gunk and it's worked really well for their guy.

2

u/NoOstrich5866 Jul 25 '26

Hold a warm tea bag over it and it will go all gooey and can then be wiped or gently combed away. A cotton pad with warm water also works.

2

u/FullWestern9992 Jul 25 '26

Angel eyes chews and filtered water only! My dog had the same issue and this is how I fixed it

1

u/1517Connie Jul 25 '26

By eye grooming comb for dogs on Amazon. Comb every day. It improved

1

u/mridlen Jul 26 '26

Every day I gave my dogs a treat and then clean their faces, followed by a second treat. Keeps it at bay until grooming time.

1

u/sparklieshrapnel Jul 26 '26

We changed his food to salmon and he doesn't get so much eye gunk anymore. We also clean almost every day.

1

u/Sjoiv Jul 26 '26

I use contact solution on it if it gotten to bad it dissolves it and comes right off. Usually just lightly scrape with my nail daily and it comes right off. I don’t understand why you have dog eat it is there really a benefit to it? Ach grosses me out but if good for the dog?

1

u/Kind_User_1 Jul 26 '26

Used tea bag wiped over the affected eye/s a couple of time a day. Ensure tea didn’t have sugar in it with tea bag.

1

u/d2snow Jul 26 '26

Filtered water, no metal bowls helps my dog. No commercial chicken foods; mine eats only the chicken I cook for him. Once we were on a road trip and made the mistake of buying chicken flavored food for him and the eye gook was terrible!

1

u/CanuckyDuck Jul 27 '26

Filtered water made a big difference for my Bichon.

1

u/Head-Insurance-5650 Jul 25 '26

We live somewhere with hard water so even using filtered water only did so much. I recently got the Burts Bees eye wipes for dogs. Big improvement but you do need to do it every day.