HEALTH CHECKLIST: EYES
Is your dog suffering from tear stains? Excessive scratching, gunk, and wounds around the eyes can be a sign of an eye infection or overactive tear ducts in dogs and cats.
First, to make sure that the tear stains and other eye related problems are not caused by the diet, we recommend switching to a novel protein raw diet with limited vegetables and fruit or even better, with tripe instead. Keep your pet on a simple diet and cut down the treats as well for a few weeks and observe if there are any changes. If the problems persist, the problem may not be diet related.
Check the colour of the tear stain and tears. If the tear is brown instead of clear it may mean that your pet’s immune system is compromised. We recommend feeding a balanced diet of raw food if you aren’t already and adding a great probiotic (such as Olie’s New Beginnings) to help with their digestion. Adding an omega oil such as flax seed oil is a great idea to boost the immune system as well.
Yeast infection is also a suspect (from excess fruit and vegetable). Check their ears and eyes by smelling to see whether you can smell the yeast or not. If yeast seems to be a problem, we recommend changing the current diet to minimize or eliminate fruits and vegetables or feeding raw tripe instead as a vegetable replacement. Adding apple cider vinegar to the food is recommended as well.
Environmental causes are also suspect usually during the spring or the fall. Dogs can be reactive to pollen and dust in the air just as we are. Also keep in mind of any chemicals you use around the house such as bleach or other toxic cleaning solutions that may be irritating your pet.
If you suspect that the eye related problems are due to food allergies and you are already feeding a balanced raw diet, please keep in mind that we have seen more success with minimizing vegetation and types of vegetation compared to changing the diet completely to a new protein.
While you are trying to help your dog’s eye health, we have a few other tips to try:
– Change their water to bottled water or filtered water to minimize chlorine and fluoride which can be toxic to dogs.
– Colloidal silver eye drops are a natural anti-bacterial liquid and it is highly recommended for other injuries as well.
– Eye wash products can help dislodge debris in the eye that may be causing overactive tear ducts.
– Replace plastic food bowls with glass, ceramic, or stainless steel bowls.
We hope that this article was helpful to you and please don’t hesitate to drop by the store with your pet and speak with us if you would like to learn more!