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The grizzly bear has been suffering from tear stains and ear mites since she arrived at my house 45 days ago. The ear mites have been solved by deworming and ear drops. The tear stains have been repeated until she arrived five months ago. After such a long battle of tears, I am also half an "expert" on the problem of dog tears. Let's talk about the problem of tear stains in detail, because this article does not include the means of professional tear stain treatment (surgery).

First, how do tear stains form?

Dogs, like us, need tears to moisten the surface of their eyes and avoid dryness. At the same time, tears can also play a cleaning role, washing away dust and particles that enter the eyes. Under normal circumstances, tears will be absorbed by the punctum after moistening and washing the eyeball, and will flow into the nasal cavity through the lacrimal canaliculus, lacrimal sac and nasolacrimal duct, but not out of the orbit.

This is like a bathtub, while running water while opening the sewer, it will not happen that the water overflows the bathtub and flows to the ground. However, if the "water output" (tears) suddenly increases due to some stimulation, or the "water" passage (lacrimal canaliculus, lacrimal sac and nasolacrimal duct) that should be unblocked is blocked, the "water" in the "bathtub" will suddenly overflow and condense on the hair around the eyes to form tear stains.

Why are the tear stains rust-colored?

It is reasonable to say that tears are transparent, so why do dogs form a rust-colored face when they shed tears? This is because if tears are discharged abnormally for a long time, they will grow bacteria and a substance called porphyrin, which will begin to oxidize when exposed to air and eventually turn rust-colored. This discoloration is not instantaneous, because oxidation also requires a process, so if the substance is dried in time and not given time to oxidize, it will not form tear stains. But once the oxidation is complete, it is difficult to wipe off the rust color. Moreover, in this oxidation process, it is easy to breed bacterial biota and cause skin diseases, and in severe cases, the skin will rot under the eyes (; ´ `)

3. What causes tear stains?

In the first part, using the bathtub as an analogy, there are two main reasons that cause tears to flow out of the eye socket and then oxidize into rust-colored tears: either too many tears or blockage of the nasolacrimal duct responsible for "drainage".

1. Excessive tears

In addition to the environmental impact, another problem with dog breeds is that dogs with round and large eyes, such as pugs and Pekingese, have more tears than other breeds.

2. The passage of tear drainage is blocked.

■ Clogged with dust and foreign matter

■ Infection may cause narrowing of the lacrimal canaliculus or even ulceration, causing permanent damage to the eye.

■ People born with narrow tear ducts, such as Chihuahuas, toy VIPs and Bichon Frise, are also the main members of the tear stain family. (This is the case with grizzly bears.)

4. How to deal with tear stains?

1. Professional treatment (omitted, detailed in the next part)

There are many causes of tear stains, and some of them must be treated by professional doctors, including nasolacrimal duct blockage, eyelid trichiasis, infectious disease precursors (canine distemper, etc.), conjunctivitis, keratitis and other eye diseases.

These will be discussed in detail in the next chapter of tear stains, because grizzly bears are born with blocked nasolacrimal ducts. In order to do this test for blocked nasolacrimal ducts, I went to several different pet hospitals (because the first two hospitals that did the test gave the opinion that there was no blockage; However, I went to a more professional pet hospital to do a new test. The grizzly bear belongs to the narrow nasolacrimal duct, which is not completely blocked, but once it is slightly stimulated by the outside world, it will overflow-even the wind blows.) She is very small. At present, I have not made up my mind to operate on her. If I really have an operation, I will share it in detail.

2. Dietary adjustment

Some tear stains are caused by the dog's intolerance to certain ingredients in the food. The shoveling officer must pay attention to the following two points when feeding:

■ Do not feed her human food. The amount of salt in human meals far exceeds the amount of salt needed by dogs. Excessive salt will not only damage the kidneys of dogs, but also affect their secretory system and aggravate tear stains. In addition, fish and shrimp food should not be given to dogs.

■ Try switching to hypoallergenic and light dog foods designed for sensitive dogs to avoid allergies and excessive internal heat, which will help control the formation of tear stains. I myself used the now small dog fresh meat grain-free hypoallergenic one for the grizzly bear, and the tear stains did improve compared to the previous Naiwick and the like.

In addition to dog food, you can also supplement some nutrients that are good for your eyes to prevent more tears caused by eye diseases. I

usually feed the grizzly bear some carrots, purple potatoes and so on, and add some blueberry powder to the dog food. Blueberries are rich in anthocyanins, taurine and other nutrients, which can delay retinal aging and repair. However, it is not easy to find blueberries in China, so here we recommend MAG blueberry powder, cheap bowl mixed in dog food, not only to increase nutrition, but also to enhance appetite.

3. Daily cleaning

After eliminating disease and allergy problems, the most important thing for long-term old tear stains is to strengthen daily cleaning and care.

On the one hand, the eye

wash has the same effect of cleaning the eyeball as tears to prevent dust and foreign bodies from stimulating the eyeball and causing further infection; on the other hand, the anti-inflammatory ingredients in the eye wash can prevent eye diseases such as keratitis, conjunctivitis and the like. Moreover, in the process of eye washing, it will stimulate the lacrimal duct comb to a certain extent, which will help prevent lacrimal duct blockage. Use it once a week, and it should be cleaned after rain, swimming and windy and sandy days.

I used Runkang before, but after using it for a while, there was not much improvement (a very small bottle of 8 milliliters was used up quickly), and then I tried to buy artificial tears, the effect was relatively general, and the operation was relatively inconvenient. Recently, I bought Vic's eye wash offline, and it's really amazing.

Vick Eye Wash has a pH of 7.4, which is similar to the pH of natural tears. It is mild and non-irritating, and can be used even after sensitive eyes or surgery. Daily exposure to dust, sand, flowers, pollen and other allergens and irritants can be removed by eye washing, and the ingredients of cornflower and witch hazel also have soothing and anti-allergic effects, which are important to prevent tear stains.

In the previous article on eye cleaning, I shared the experience of cleaning the grizzly bear's eyes directly with warm water or 2% boric acid, that is, using a gauze to drop warm water or boric acid lotion to wipe the hair around the eyes; It does prevent the growth of bacteria, but it does not treat the tear stains that have already been produced. Personally, I think this eye wash can also be used to clean eyes in this way. Unlike warm water and boric acid solution, this eye drop does soften the dried tear stains to some extent, making it easier to wipe off the old tear stains. However, because it is too mild, it is not as effective as the traditional tear stain cleaner.

A set of products specially used to clean stubborn tear stains, often divided into water and powder, need to be used together, can dilute the color of the secretion around the eyes, so that the hair can restore its original color. Tear stain lotion is not recommended. I use the special one for the dog, which focuses on mildness. When I use it, I squeeze the lotion directly into the tear stain position because it is very mild and the tear stain area of the grizzly bear is very large.

Then use the matching dry soft cloth to wipe the tear stain part of the lotion, apply the lotion evenly, and then dry it.

Finally, brush the tear stain on the tear stain part with a tear stain brush to prevent the tear stain part from being wet all the time, which can play a role in drying and preventing bacterial growth. Tear powder recommended under the angel eye of this, I think it is still good.

If it is too troublesome, you can also wipe the tear-stained hair with a soft cloth or pet wipes dipped in tear-stained water, and then wipe it again with a little tear-stained powder on your finger. Clean it once a day, and after a week, you will see that the tear stains are much lighter, and then clean it once a week. Note that the tear stain cleaning agent is not an eye wash, so it is limited to the hair around the eyes and should not enter the eyes. It can be used with the above Vick Eye Wash.

Afraid that I can't say it clearly, I attach a video of tear stain water and tear stain powder.

4. Regular Beauty

For grizzly bears, which are long-haired dogs, regular grooming should be paid attention to, and excessive hair around the eyes should be trimmed to avoid excessive tears caused by hair irritation to the eyes. And cut off the hair that has been troubled by tear stains, it is easier to treat tear stains, paste a grizzly bear after beauty treatment half a month ago, I especially asked to cut short the hair around the eyes.

5. Avoid using irritating cleaning products

I basically mentioned this in every experience. After raising a grizzly bear, I threw away all the Dettol and 84 in my family and replaced them with special disinfectant for pets. This kind of disinfectant has no irritating volatile ingredients, will not stimulate the eyes and nose of grizzly bears, she licks the ground without worrying about poisoning, and for common bacteria and viruses can also be killed, shoveling officer can rest assured to use.

While not a complete victory over tear stains, the grizzly bear's tear stains have really improved visibly.

The above is my effective experience, for reference only.