Baxter is doing great. He is a super dog and now enjoys
the run of twenty acres thanks to invisible fencing. He is
so smart he was trained in three days. He often has weepy
eyes and that characteristic brown stain. Is there anything
we can use or do to stop this? Is there anything that we
can use to clean the brown stain without harming him? Thanks
again for such a great family member.
Dr. DeMichael: Both Vicki and I are very happy
to hear that BAXTER is doing so well. If you send us an
updated photo, we'll be happy to post it under the Photo
Of The Week portion of the website.
Regarding the weepy eyes, this can be caused from any
number of conditions, one of which may be a mild allergy.
If that's the case, you would have a couple of choices.
One would be to apply a corticosteroid-antibiotic based
ophthalmic ointment (or equivalent) which should clear
up the tearing. I am assuming the secretions are not purulent,
which would suggest an infectious process, as opposed to
clear, tear-like secretions more likely seen in a non-complicated
allergic process.
The brown staining you refer to is caused by the tears
overflowing the lacrimal duct's capacity to eliminate them
from the eye, thus they cause a weeping effect which then "stains" the
hair under the inside corner of the eye.
The lacrimal duct in fact carries the excess tear from
the inside portion of the lower lid and deposits them into
the end area of the nasal canal. This is why your nose
runs excessively when you cry. The tears are being rapidly
flushed through the lacrimal duct and carried to the nose
where they are "dumped". The overflow causing the brown
stain can be due from an allergic irritant causing an excess
production or tears. Or it may be caused by a swelling
of the opening to the lacrimal duct which would then cause
a narrowing of the area meant to carry the tears. Thus
less tears are flushed away and the excess spills over
causing the staining. In some cases the duct may even become "clogged" with
debris requiring a simple flushing process to open it back
up.
In any case, treatment with the appropriate ointment (I
prefer ophthalmic ointments to drops because they provide
better "contact time") as mentioned above would act as
follows: Reduce irritation and the excess production of
tears which would reduce swelling of the duct which then
clears the excess tears resulting in elimination of the
stain.
