Tear stains and eye gunk: a five-minute routine that works

Eye discharge is one of those things that looks cosmetic and occasionally is not. Getting the routine right takes about five minutes a day, and the biggest risk is not the discharge itself but the enthusiasm people bring to removing it.

First, work out what you are looking at

Normal drainage is clear to slightly grey, appears overnight, and wipes away easily. It is more noticeable on flat-faced breeds and on any dog with a shallow tear duct, which is most small breeds.

What is not normal, and what means a vet rather than a comb:

• Green or yellow discharge, or discharge that keeps coming back within hours of cleaning
• A visibly red or swollen eye, or one the animal is holding shut
• Pawing at the face, or rubbing the eye along furniture
• Any cloudiness of the eye itself

Those are signs of infection, injury or a blocked duct. No grooming product fixes them.

The reddish-brown staining

The rust colour under the eyes of light-coated dogs is porphyrin — an iron compound in tears that oxidises on contact with air and light. It is a stain, not dirt, and it will not scrub off. What you can do is remove the fresh discharge before it dries and oxidises, which stops new staining building on top of old.

Existing stain grows out with the hair. On a dog groomed every six to eight weeks, expect a couple of grooms before the difference is obvious. Anything promising to bleach it away overnight should be treated with suspicion, particularly anything applied that close to an eye.

The daily routine

1. Restrain kindly. Sit the animal facing away from you with its back against your chest. Working head-on invites a flinch straight into your hand.
2. Soften first. A cotton pad dampened with warm water, held gently against the crust for twenty seconds. Never pick at dry gunk — it is attached to hair that is attached to skin.
3. Wipe outward. From the inner corner of the eye out towards the ear, never towards the eye, and a fresh pad for each side so you are not moving bacteria across.
4. Comb the hair, not the skin. A fine eye comb takes softened debris out of the hair below the eye. Use short strokes, keep the teeth angled away from the face, and stop the moment there is resistance.
5. Dry the area. Damp hair held against skin is where yeast and that faintly musty smell come from.

Tools that are worth having

A dedicated fine-toothed eye comb with rounded tips is the one specialist item worth owning. Regular combs have teeth long enough to reach the eye if the animal moves, and the tips are often sharper than they look. An eye comb is short, blunt and designed for exactly this job.

Unscented, lick-safe wipes are the other useful item — plant-based wipes with nothing in them that matters if the animal grooms the area afterwards, which it will. Check the ingredients for alcohol and fragrance and put the bottle back if either is near the top of the list.

Things not to use

• Human eye drops or contact lens solution. Different pH, different additives.
• Baby wipes. Almost all contain fragrance and preservatives that are fine on skin and not fine near an eye.
• Hydrogen peroxide. People genuinely do this to remove staining. It is a chemical burn waiting to happen.
• Scissors. Trimming hair around the eye of a moving animal is a job for a groomer with a proper blunt-tipped tool and a second pair of hands.

Cats are the same, with more negotiation

The routine is identical; the cooperation is not. Do it after a meal when the cat is relaxed, keep sessions to thirty seconds at first, and stop before the cat asks you to. Flat-faced cats need it most and tolerate it least, so build the habit while they are young if you can.

Frequency

Daily for flat-faced breeds and heavy tearers, every couple of days for everyone else. It is a maintenance task like brushing teeth — small, dull and much easier than dealing with what happens if you skip it for a month.

Ask us

If you are not sure whether what you are seeing is normal drainage or something that needs a vet, describe it to us or bring the animal past the counter. We look at a lot of faces in a week and we will tell you plainly when the answer is “that is a vet visit, not a wipe”.

Why the hair length under the eye matters

On a dog with hair growing up towards the eye — which describes most terriers, shih tzus and any doodle cross — the hair wicks tears out across the face and holds them there. That is why the stain on those breeds spreads sideways in a fan rather than sitting in a neat line. The fix is not a stronger cleaner; it is a groomer taking a few millimetres off with a blunt-tipped tool so the hair lies flat and away.

Between grooms, combing the area daily in the direction the hair grows does the same job less effectively but well enough to stop the fan spreading. It takes about twenty seconds once the habit exists.

Diet, water and the things people blame

You will read that tap water minerals, or a particular protein, or a grain, causes tear staining. The evidence for any of it is thin. Porphyrin production is largely individual, and the reason a diet change sometimes appears to help is that people who change the diet also start paying attention and wiping the face daily.

That said, two practical points are real. A dog that suddenly starts tearing far more than usual has had something change — an allergy, an irritant in the flat, a blocked duct — and that is worth investigating rather than wiping away. And a water bowl that the dog buries its whole muzzle in will keep the area permanently damp; a shallower bowl genuinely helps flat-faced breeds.

Keeping the kit clean

Whatever comb you use near an eye, wash it. A comb that lives in a drawer collecting the debris of a fortnight is being wiped across an open eye area every morning. Warm water and a drop of shampoo once a week, dried properly, is enough.