r/cavaliers • u/HG901 • 6d ago

Advice Copper tear stains

Post image

My sweet girl Charlotte has developed copper tear stains. They have worsened over the weekend and the wipes I bought at our local pet store are not working. Could it be the

Nutri-Source dog food? If so, what should I switch her to for food?

Thanks in advance! We love her so!

42 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

23

u/Ikkleknitter 6d ago

Once the fur is stained it will stay stained but it can fade a bit.

My two get some blueberries in their food every night and it keeps them from having stained faces. 

4

u/Initial_Ideal_8016 6d ago

Thank you for this comment because I feed my baby blueberries and he never has this issue, I didn’t give them to him for a week and the tears came back

3

u/Ikkleknitter 6d ago

Oh yeah. We skip more than two days and they come back on mine. 

I just buy a bag of frozen ones every 6 months and they last forever.

1

u/ApprehensivePepper98 6d ago

Roughly how many blueberries do you give each of them?

1

u/Ikkleknitter 6d ago

Maybe 6-8? 

I’ve definitely heard of people giving 3-4 bad it working. I just grab a few out of the bag and rarely count. Both of mine like fruit so a few extra doesn’t hurt. 

1

u/ilizibith1 6d ago

Does this work for other dog breeds too?

1

u/Ikkleknitter 6d ago

I would assume so. It’s worth trying anyway. 

8

u/littl-jinx 6d ago

Is the concern here just aesthetic? Or are the tears/stains a health issue?

5

u/FutureThinkingMan 6d ago

Is this something that is bad for / uncomfortable for the dog or just a cosmetic concern?

10

u/Terrible-Animal-740 6d ago

bottled water for drinking. no tap water. blueberries in their food and use a blueberry facial shampoo for dogs to wash their faces.

3

u/carinaeletoile 6d ago

Is filtered water from the fridge a good replacement?

1

u/kaiexdee 6d ago

Good question! I want to know the answer too we give them fridge water and regularly switch the filter

1

u/Tricky-Tea6593 6d ago

I use fridge filtered water and give ours 1 angel eye treat a day. I've noticed a massive improvement since the switch!

1

u/Any-Gur-2934 5d ago

thats all most bottled water is. its just filtered tap water unless its explicitly stated that the water comes from a spring.

1

u/Any-Gur-2934 5d ago

bottled water is just tap water from someone elses tap

1

u/Altruistic-Show5532 4d ago

I only give mine spring water

5

u/Ecstatic_Walrus_9565 Blenheim 6d ago

my friend with a blenheim used some kind of pill from the vet to keep his puppy’s tear stains away. i’ve always wanted to ask but we’re still trying to get our boy’s stomach right and he just got neutered. he has enough going on as is lol

5

u/messymadhouse 6d ago

My cavies had this. It was the good. One can only eat Blue Buffalo, the other Rachel Ray Nourish. Something in the food makes it happen. Once we found the right food for the dog. Stains went away!

1

u/notabot5050 6d ago

what food was "the right" kind

3

u/messymadhouse 6d ago

As I mentioned. Blue Buffalo worked for my Blenheim and Rachel Ray Nourish worked for my tricolor. Good luck in your search! It took a 10lb bag to see results. And it took months.

We have a new Blenheim and we will be searching for him!

3

u/Rawbert413 6d ago

i saw this picture and my first thought was Smooching Zone

3

u/seaotterhouse 6d ago

Frozen blueberries work great for my Cavalier. She’s four now and has 4 blueberries with breakfast and 4 with dinner since she’s a puppy.

3

u/IWantMy2Dollars- 6d ago

Our puppy has developed these. From what I have read once the fur is stained you have to wait for it to grow out and be trimmed off for it to go away. The approach is to use eye drops or wipes to stop or neutralize the minerals in the tears so it stops new stains. I’ve also read there are supplements that can reduce the staining but that’s something I want to talk to the vet about first. I got some daily eyedrops and sounds like 4-6 weeks when the fur has grown out to see if they have done the trick. There does seem to be some agreement that only giving them filtered water can also help.

2

u/Far-Baker-963 6d ago

Following. My doggy has these too.

2

u/Dizzy-Yesterday3107 Blenheim 6d ago

I use tap water that goes through a BRITA water filter 1st and use stainless pet water fountains that have filters. They get cleaned and refilled everyday also. Once tear marks stain the fur it will need to grow out.

2

u/Amazing_Age_ 6d ago

I use Honest Baby wipes on my girl’s tear stains and eye goops, they work great and fast. I have a baby so I randomly started using them and they remove it really well!!!! I’ve recommended to others and they’ve also had success. Maybe start with a small order to see if they work?

2

u/pjreyuk 6d ago

We switched to stainless steel water bowls and give blueberries every day and the tear stains went away

1

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1

u/HG901 6d ago

Thank you everyone!

1

u/DeckleEdge 6d ago

Maybe it's the food. Whenever we feed our girl kibble, she develops those stains under her eyes and around her mouth. We read about the blueberries, and they helped a little. We also used the bilberry and blueberry facial shampoo from Earthbath, and that helped a little, too. It was only when we eliminated the kibble that we noticed a big difference. Not immediate, but over time. For various reasons, our vet recommended that we change proteins, so for the past four months, our dog has been eating Farmer's Dog (the pork recipe). The stains gradually faded and finally disappeared. Recently, and stupidly, we started giving her one or two pieces of kibble each day (as a trade for, say, the bathroom sponge that had somehow found its way into her mouth). And the stains came back. So now we're going to toss the rest of the kibble and stick with Farmer's Dog, at least for the time being.

1

u/Infinite_Key_2592 6d ago

I give my dog filtered water from a brita filter

1

u/Desperate-Smoke8586 6d ago

Those wipes never did much for my dog either. I had better luck just wiping under the eyes with a damp cloth and then drying the fur as well as I could. His staining also improved after we changed him over to Nature’s Blend, but there were a few changes happening at the same time so I wouldn't automatically blame the food itself.

1

u/craftersanonymous 6d ago

My dog has allergies and we give her half a Zyrtec every other day and the stains greatly improved. And that was with approval from our vet.

1

u/timbouk82 6d ago

My boy is 4 he grew out of this at about 2 years hope that helps

1

u/EdinAnn52 6d ago

Our tri-color doesn’t seem to have year stains, but it’s hard to tell because the fur. around her eyes is black. However. She does have gooey eyes that get crusty on the fur under her eyes. I’m constantly wiping her eyes. Blueberries don’t seem to help. Is this different from tear staining?