eye buggers

[breezylover328]

ok, so my breezy has amazingly handsome eyes, however he gets the worst tear marks under his eyes. and sometimes there is a crust there (gross i know) so i always have to clear it out probably every to every other day. so a while back i got a "clean eyes" type liquid and i used a cotton ball type thing and anyting else i could think of. but nothing works! and it cant be comfortable for his to have this all next to his eyes. he's healthy and recently got a vet check up so i know its nothing like that. i was just wondering what everyone did for your yorkies eyes, especially if your super busy and dont always have time to sit down with a (whatever you use) and clean his eyes. help?

[Britster]

Alot of things could factor in. Environmental allergies, food allergies, genetics, etc. What food are you feeding? I know when Jackson ate a certain brand of food, his eye boogers were REALLY bad. He is now eating a grain-free food (Acana, as well as Go! Natural) and most mornings his eyes are totally clear. Sometimes, when the pollen count is high, he will have more, but since switching foods, it's sooo much better.

[Dzbabykel]

That's a good question haha because my little furball has the same problem! I use this clean eyes cleanser with a cotton ball like you said but it doesn't seem to do much. I usually have to use my finger or nail to get the little buggers out I've heard of a supplement type thing you can sprinkle on their food or something but I don't know how safe that is!

[breezylover328]

i usually have to use my fingers to because i just give up! i also heard about the eye powder but i dont know how safe it is and it is also quiet expensive. he is eating a bunch of different stuff ( i used to work at a natural pet store and got a bunch of free sample bags) he is eating cali natural and evo. im probably going to switch his food once we use up all the sample bags (which wont take long, since we also have a GSD). and i dont think he has allergies? we live in nj so the pollen can get high but i dont know what type of symptoms would show if he did have allergies.

[Dzbabykel]

My pup eats Eucanuba puppy chow, hopefully its not giving him allergies. Anyone know if that brand of food is good and healthy?

[breezylover328]

i was told that, that brand of food was horrible. it is processed in china and the chemicals that they need to use in order to send it back to the U.S. are very harmful. also 99% of the china made products have cats and dogs that have passed away in them ( they can say its a meat source but they dont say what kind!). my old boss would take a type of food and call the company and ask where they got EVERY INGREDINT. if they said stuff like "we cant say" or "its private" she hung up and didnt sell it. iams is also crap! 20 years ago, iams was the best type of food but the big $ making companies saw this and bought the origial company out. once they bought it they sent it to china ( its cheaper) and made the formula crap! there is a book called "food pets die for". it made me sick reading it, it talks about all the stuff that these companies do to make sure that thier food is the "best". these companies make me sick.

[Dzbabykel]

OMG!!! That's sooo scary!! I asked my vet and she said that Eucanuba was good for them and my pup's breeder was feeding them it so I haven't really transitioned from anything different. He's only 11 1/2 weeks so what food do you think I should start him on? Haha sorry to change the subject off of eye buggers

[breezylover328]

yea, well vets are basically paid to say that. they also say that science diet and ID are great...not. good ones are ones such as: fromm, evangers, merrik. there are a bunch. they are a little bit more expensive but once the dog gets used to it then you can actually feed less. also! you always want to change the type of food you feed. you NEVER want to feed the same bag of food over and over again. it can cause the dog to become allergic to it! so one month feed chicken, then the next month switch to fish. then you can go back and forth. you just dont want to feed the same protien source.

[Dzbabykel]

Thanks so much! That's really good to know

[zekie's mom]

First I wash Zeke's face with a pretty wet warm wash cloth. Then I soak the buggers with a very wet warm soft paper towel. Then I take a flea comb and slowly work the buggers away from his eyes. I usually have to keep wetting the buggers as I go. It takes a while becuase I do not want to pull and hurt him. If you do it every day, it is not so bad.

[Britster]

Originally Posted by Dzbabykel

OMG!!! That's sooo scary!! I asked my vet and she said that Eucanuba was good for them and my pup's breeder was feeding them it so I haven't really transitioned from anything different. He's only 11 1/2 weeks so what food do you think I should start him on? Haha sorry to change the subject off of eye buggers

Eukanuba is full of fillers and by-products. Alot of it is marketing and making you believe a good is wonderful, when it's really not. Check out Dog Food Analysis - Reviews of kibble I believe it's rated 1 star out of 6. I'm sure some dogs do perfectly fine on it, and have in the past, it's just not something I'm comfortable feeding my dog. Some good brands available at Petsmart/Petco are Blue Buffalo, By Nature, Wellness, Solid Gold, etc. A lot of small end specialty type stores sell even better foods such as Acana/Orijen, Go! Natural, Nature's Variety Instinct, Taste of the Wild, Merrick's, etc.

[SarahK]

Originally Posted by Dzbabykel

OMG!!! That's sooo scary!! I asked my vet and she said that Eucanuba was good for them and my pup's breeder was feeding them it so I haven't really transitioned from anything different. He's only 11 1/2 weeks so what food do you think I should start him on? Haha sorry to change the subject off of eye buggers

My 10 1/2 week old puppy loves Taste of the Wild--both the kibble and the wet food. Our breeder mixed Taste of the Wild and Purina Pro Plan and he ate that at her house but wouldn't touch the Purina once he arrived at our house, so he's now exclusively on Taste of the Wild and loving it.

Unfortunately I don't think most vets have very high standards for dog food. Our vet gave us a bag of Hill's for our puppy. There is NO way I would ever feed it to him! Corn is one of the first ingredients and that's a huge no-no!

[Lovetodream88]

Callie gets eye buggers and I have to take care of then every day but they never leave stains or anything. If they are wet ones I use a tissue and if they are dry and crusty I use a little water. But Callie has allergies so they water sometimes a lot others times very little. If she has been playing in the dirt though her eye buggers are like dirt or maybe just coated in dirt.

[ellabee]

my oldest is a doll-faced yorkie (smooshy muzzle, I know there is really no such thing but thats how people describe it) which I think means, she has underdeveloped tear ducts. the only thing that works for us is a cotton ball and warm water every evening and then a comb to brush the goopies out.

she is also my pup with PLE, so diet is very, very important and I have researched lots and finally settled on dick van patten's food, specifically the fish & sweet potato and the venison and sweet potato because she needs very low fat content. I had her on buffalo with pureed veggies but the vet didn't like the home made meals due to not being certain what her fat intake was - I abandoned the hill's prescription diet due to byproducts, poor reviews and opinions people on this forum have shared.

I don't change up the food of my two littler pups - they are on the chicken Go Natural and its an all-life-stages food. Our breeder recommends against changing the type of food they are on.

Here is a link I found that I liked when I was researching a change in diet for Billie: Dog Food Comparison Chart - Dog Food Ratings of Premium Dog Food and Supermarket

[ellabee]

quick addition - Billie is on canned food because its lower in fat content than the kibble, but I like kibble for my other two pups because yorkies have notoriously bad teeth and the kibble is better for their teeth.