# Canidae and tear stains?...



## RileyStar (Mar 24, 2008)

About 9 months ago I switch my 9 year old Shep mix to the Platinum Formula and she loved it right away. Before that I was feeding her commercial dog food from the grocery store. She is not a golden but I have never had to clean her ears or get gunk out of her eyes. I never see any tear stains, I think every dog is different and every dog's environment is different (more dirt in the air, inside outside dog etc..)


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

I have never had an issue with tear stains or anything else while on Canidae, but every dog/breed is different.

If Dulce is teething, you might want to soften the food a little bit-it's possible that her teeth hurt and chewing hard food hurts too much.


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## Eupher (May 9, 2008)

Tahnee GR said:


> I have never had an issue with tear stains or anything else while on Canidae, but every dog/breed is different.
> 
> If Dulce is teething, you might want to soften the food a little bit-it's possible that her teeth hurt and chewing hard food hurts too much.


Linda, what would you recommend in softening the food? Adding a little fruit juice? Dollop of yogurt/pumpkin (which I currently do with Belle once per day only)?

Or go to a different food altogether during the teething process?

Belle's eating Canidae and has since we've gotten her. I've been inspecting her ears, but there isn't anything really cruddy. I'll be cleaning them anyway prior to her bath later today. She'll get occasional eye boogers, but no tear stains.


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

Eupher said:


> Linda, what would you recommend in softening the food? Adding a little fruit juice? Dollop of yogurt/pumpkin (which I currently do with Belle once per day only)?
> 
> Or go to a different food altogether during the teething process?
> 
> Belle's eating Canidae and has since we've gotten her. I've been inspecting her ears, but there isn't anything really cruddy. I'll be cleaning them anyway prior to her bath later today. She'll get occasional eye boogers, but no tear stains.


I generally soften the Canidae with warm water and let it sit for awhile. I only do this when I notice that a puppy wants to eat but mouths the food and then drops it, or is eating very slowly, or anything else that tells me their mouth might hurt, and there is no other visible reason for it.

If it just seems that their appetite is a little off (warm weather sometimes will do that), I like to add yogurt, or cottage cheese or the plain pumpkin. This doesn't happen much with my dogs  but I do pay attention when it does!


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## Debles (Sep 6, 2007)

Selka has always had tear stains (not bad or an issue) since a pup and has always been very healthy. We have always fed Nutro Natural Choice Lamb and Rice, just changing over to Nature's Variety.


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## Celeigh (Nov 29, 2007)

Jaireen, I wonder if maybe in looking for a reason why a dog might have tear stains, some owners have said, "Your dog eats Canidae, mine too! That must be the cause..." 

The problem is that it's such a popular food and tear stains are somewhat common that it would be strange if there _wasn't_ an overlap in dogs who both ate the food and had tear stains. 

I had a college professor who used to drill into us that "commonality does not equal causality."


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## TonyRay (Feb 5, 2008)

sorry to sound dumb but what are tear stains?

btw: our Golden girls have been on Platinum for some time now.


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## Dalton's mom (Apr 5, 2008)

I've always thought that tear stains are caused by something environmental. My Husky mix & my Golden do not have tear stains & they both have eaten Canidae for a long time.


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## jaireen (Feb 25, 2008)

TonyRay said:


> sorry to sound dumb but what are tear stains?
> 
> btw: our Golden girls have been on Platinum for some time now.



hi!!!...heres a pic of a dog with tear stains..i got this pic from another forum with which they have a thread regarding dogs with tear stains and canidae...










celeigh, yeah, you have a point...it could just be a coincidence and it has nothing to do with the food...it just bother me though when i went thru that thread....:doh:

by the way my pup will be 4 months old on the 19th and she was on go natural until i switched her the other day to canidae als...i opted for canidae als since ive read that a lot of the forumers have been using it on their dogs and got a lot of good feedbacks from it...thought id try it on dulce too...


dulce doesnt like go natural....i moist her food with liver stock or warm water but for the past two days she barely touches her meal....we mixed it with canned solid gold, grated apple, etc just to get her to eat her meal....good thing today though she finished two cups of food (lunch and dinner only)....but still it was a struggle..i just wish she'll get over the teething stage....


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## jaireen (Feb 25, 2008)

Dalton's mom said:


> I've always thought that tear stains are caused by something environmental. My Husky mix & my Golden do not have tear stains & they both have eaten Canidae for a long time.



yeah it crossed my mind too...ive seen a lot of long haired dogs with tear stains anywhere....could it possibly be?..hmmm....


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## skeller (Mar 5, 2008)

Benny has had tear stains since we got him, he eats Natural Balance Potato and Duck.


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## Griffyn'sMom (Mar 22, 2007)

Griff is on Canidae and has never had tear stains or any problems with his ears or skin. I'm a bit of a fanatic about cleaning his morning eye boogies - I doubt you'll ever see a picture of Griff with any goop in his eyes unless he is sick.

I would think tear stains are from eye infection - the eyes are constantly tearing from something - whether it be allergy or an eyelash problem. Since Goldens don't have hair that falls into the eyes like Maltese, Yorkies, etc., I would take the dog to the Vet to get it checked. 

Our neighbor had an old chow mix that had such infected eyes that it looked like rust stains down one side of her face. What a shame - something like that should never be ignored.

But back to your question - is it the the canidae - I don't think so.


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## Goldbeau (Mar 29, 2008)

We switched Beau to Canidae about 5 or 6 weeks ago. He always had some tear stains. I noticed that his eyes tear when he eats, but that was always the case. Even on his old food (nature's select) I try to wipe his eyes after he eats which had really helped. You can hardly see any stains any more. I don't think it has anything to do with his food. However I can say he went from pooping 3 or 4 times a day to 6 times a day when we switched to Canidae. I was hoping this would slow down, but it hasn't yet.


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## Celeigh (Nov 29, 2007)

Fergus has one eye with tear stains and the vet's response was that sometimes they are associated with allergies and "some dogs just get them" for no apparent reason.


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## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

When Lucky had his "food allergies" it was remarkable how my mind made the cause and effect relation with different foods indisputable. The human mind is so powerful. Lucky never had food allergies...but perception is so reality.


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## Ardeagold (Feb 26, 2007)

Some tear stains are caused by the water they drink. Same goes for the color of their coat to an extent.

Ours don't have tear stains, but everything around here will have a light "cream" cast or yellowing....if you don't have a water filtration system. We're on well water with LOTS of minerals in it. Those minerals cause rust...browning....yellowing.

That might be a question to ask. Are they on well water?


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## Griffyn'sMom (Mar 22, 2007)

Oooh that's an interesting thought... we are on well water too and my laundry whites over time are not very white. :no: (No filtration system)

On our old well we had to have a filtration system - high iron content - the water would turn ORANGE after a day of sitting (like in a kiddie pool). But hey - I always said Jake's long life was because of the well water - he lived to be 17 and the Beagle behind us lived to be 20 1/2! : 

But again... neither Jake nor Griff have/had eyes that tear. That's actually something I looked very closely at when choosing a puppy. Puppies with runny eyes can indicate illness.


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## Maggies mom (Jan 6, 2006)

No tear stains for mine and they have been eating Canidae for some time.


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## jaireen (Feb 25, 2008)

Goldbeau said:


> However I can say he went from pooping 3 or 4 times a day to 6 times a day when we switched to Canidae. I was hoping this would slow down, but it hasn't yet.



oh, my!!...thats a lot!!!...when dulce was in eukanuba, she poops 3x-4x a day...when i switched her to go natural, she only pooped once or twice a day...but mostly she would only go once a day and very very seldom that she poops 3x a day...now that i am still in the process of switching her to canidae, she has pooped twice a day for the past couple of days....shes still eating her old food mixed with canidae....i wonder how much shes gonna poop when she starts eating canidae without her old food....




Ardeagold said:


> That might be a question to ask. Are they on well water?



dulce is drinking mineral water....hmm...well water is a thought we could consider....


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## katieanddusty (Feb 9, 2006)

Dusty has always had tear stains. They've never cleared up and he's eaten everything (Pedigree, Iams, Nutro Natural Choice, Solid Gold, Innova, Wellness, EVO, Eagle Pack Holistic, and Canidae). I highly doubt there were any common ingredients among all of those, maybe if you left out the first two, but probably not.


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## Goldbeau (Mar 29, 2008)

jaireen said:


> oh, my!!...thats a lot!!!...when dulce was in eukanuba, she poops 3x-4x a day...when i switched her to go natural, she only pooped once or twice a day...but mostly she would only go once a day and very very seldom that she poops 3x a day...now that i am still in the process of switching her to canidae, she has pooped twice a day for the past couple of days....shes still eating her old food mixed with canidae....i wonder how much shes gonna poop when she starts eating canidae without her old food....


 
I would be curious to know that. Was actually thinking about starting a thread. "how much does your dog poop on canidae?" LOL  Honostly it does seem to be a ton. I keep running out of little plastic bags!!! I love the food, but eventually may switch him to something else if it doesn't slow down....


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