she used to have red swollen eyes from constant scratching, and we switched her food and the itching and redness went away. The moisture did not, and it is stained. I would think that if his eye is bothering him, causing him to scratch it and make it red and swollen, it is beyond tear staining and there is an underlying cause. For my dog it was definitely a food allergy.

Cathy
when she first came home

Hi Cathy ... thanks for your response. Do you ever notice more staining around 1 eye verses the other? Hurley right eye has more discolor and moisture then the left. It's also a little swollen, but I think that's from him rubbing it. thanks again.

going by percentage alone isn't really an accurate assesment, because some proteins (plant based, etc) and less digestible than others.

here is an article about protein I found useful:
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=protein_myth

Cathy
when she first came home

my girl has bad tear stains I am trying to figure out, but it's not red like your dog's and her fur is not falling out. Here is a pic where you can see what her tear stains look like.




Cathy
when she first came home

Hurley didn't really seem to like it and I continued to read that it wasn't a very high quality food. To be honest though, other then not liking it I don't think he had any issues while eating it.

nm


Kelly and The Carverbullies

a couple of days of benadryl 2 in the am and 2 in the pm for two days and see if that helps...he could be rubbing his face....if it does not clear up then i would make an appt with the vet....
i would also get some vit c going...start at 500mg for three days once a day then move up to 1000mg once a day....
keep us posted....

Hi Laura ... thanks for the response. Is there a maximum protein % the food should have? I thought I've heard between 20-25% Hurley is 9 months old and about 50 lbs. Thanks.

was the best food we found for no tearstains but gave Butkus really soft poops so we now battle tearstains with firm poops on TOTW Fowl. Blue Buffalo Fish was also great but he lost weight on that food so for the money of Blue Buffalo I didn't think I should have to be supplementing.
L

Laura
Thunderstruck Bulldogs
http://sitekreator.com/thunderstruckbulldog/index.html

To those who understand no explanation is needed. To those who don't no explanation is possible.

it looks like he's got something going on above and in the corner of the eye. At 9 months he's at the prime age to develop demodex and it looks just like when my boy had it. That being said, we have our guys on TOTW pacific stream and they have no tear stains. What flavor do you feed? If you change him, try to stick to a grain free food and switch very slowly over a 10 days period. If you do decide to have him scraped, it's a very simple procedure.

Kathy, Ollie and Chester

If he has demodex would his folds be moist. The more I monitor his folds, the more I'm noticing that they are a bit moist. I'm leaning toward this being a tear stain problem due to the moisture. Thanks for responding!

I've thought about it a little more and have a new theory. I think that it's his food (Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream) that's causing the tear stains and the tear stains that are causing the redness, irritation and hair loss. Looking back, when I first switched him to TOTW from Royal Canin about 3 months ago, I slowly began to notice what I thought were the beginning of tear stains (he never showed any signs of tear stains on Royal Canin). They were barely noticeable at first, but have obviously gotten progressively worse. I also noticed that the area under his mouth (typically white) began to turn a reddish-brownish-pinkish color after the food switch. However, that has seemed to have gone away.

Does this theory make any sense to anyone? At this point, I'm leaning toward switching his food and doing what I can to keep his folds dry and treating them with ointment. The funny thing is that I've heard a lot of people successfully moving their dogs to TOTW to get rid of tear stains, but I guess all dogs are different! If I do transition him to a new food, does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Brandon & Hurley

My boy had demodex and I suspect this is demodex also. Have the vet scrape him in more than one spot for mites. It's treatable don't worry. =)

'Twas not my lips you kissed
But my soul ~ Judy Garland
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my first bully Truman had it and it looked just like that, bumpy and red around his eyes. You need to have your vet do a skin scraping and he can tell for sure. If it is demodex, it needs to be treated asap but it is treatable.

Kathy, Ollie and Chester

Hi Kathy,

We just got back from the vet and you were right ... he as Demodex. Thanks for the help in pointing it out!

Brandon