# Tear staining and food what do you use?



## beandawgs (Sep 9, 2015)

I have a standard and a mini - right now I'm feeding the standard pup Merrick puppy (not the grain free kind) and the older mini eats Nature's Recipe Salmon (which I think is grain free). Can you tell me what you've fed your poodle that has helped with tear production? Thanks!


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

I'm not an expert so I'll let them add their expertise to my basic response.

Is the problem with your standard or mini or both? Tear staining is common in toys and some minis and more rare in standards as the tear duct is too narrow to properly drain the tears so they drain down the face. Inverted eye lashes or anything else irritating your dog's eyes can cause problems - has your vet examined your dog's eyes to rule out any health issues? Do you smoke? Smoking is irritating to their eyes.

It could be allergies - but what my dog is allergic to may be completely different than your dog so knowing what people feed their dogs is probably not helpful. Grain free is only a problem if your dog is allergic or intolerant to that particular grain. My dog in particular is allergic to legumes (peas, lentils, chickpeas etc.) which is what most manufacturers replaced the grains with - so my dog would do better on grain food and not grain free. If your dog is allergic or intolerant they may be having other symptoms such as loose stools, itchiness and the ears may be red.

Here's a good article https://www.leospetcare.com/a-veterinary-guide-to-tear-stains/


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

I have a mini that I battled tear stairs with for years, although not bad, she is very light so they showed! I tried everything diet wise, but nothing worked . Then at the age of 5 the tearing stopped! Don't know why. She didn't have food allergies and is fed a half raw, half kibble diet. 

I tend to try and use limited ingredient kibbles and stay away from chicken based kibble as she eats a lot of raw chicken. As for kibble I tend to go for fish based or novel proteins like Bison, Rabbit, Duck etc. I also change kibble type with every bag to avoid allergies ( See Dr. Karen Becker's Video 'Control Your Pet's Food Allergies' on YouTube) 
Does your Standard have tearing? That is really not common in Standards, it is more of a mini and toy problem. If so, you might want to see if indeed it is caused by allergies either environmental(dust & pollen) or food based.


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## asuk (Jan 6, 2017)

My mini is currently eating merrick not the grain free kind and also raw. Before that he was eating wellness core and also raw. He use to have bad tear stains, irregardless of food. I have been giving him apple cider vinegar thinking it might help, it actually made it worse, soon as I stopped the ACV, tear stain stopped. Strange, I know.I also wipe his face when he wakes up, to clean up eye booger. He no longer have tear stains. Tear stains is pretty common during teething though.


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