I have a all white mixed Havanese, Bichon, Bolognese, and for the first 3 years he didn’t have a single tear stain. Last summer that took a dramatic turn and I had no idea why. I tried everything, I spent a fortune on different high quality foods, grain free, all natural, etc. I tried every topical eye cleanse for stains, washed his face twice a day with shampoo, changed his treats, researched online for hours, begged my vet to figure it out.. nothing worked. After several months, I realized I had changed his food flavor from chicken to Lamb, I was still using the same brand but a different flavor. When I realized that I had not thought about that and maybe I should go back to the original flavor he ate for 3 years when he didn’t have these tear stains, I switched back to the original food in the chicken and barley flavor. Within a month along with Eye Envy teas stain remover solution and powder, his eyes completely cleared up. Let me just say now that I don’t think it was the flavor change for my dog, rather the minor change in ingredients for each flavor. Here’s why, after several months of clear eyes again, I was in need of more dog food. Before and after the eye stain problem, I was using Hills Science Diet Advanced Fitness Chicken and Barley which never caused a tear any staining and cleared up the problem once I went back to it. The store happened to be out of the Advanced Fitness Chicken and Barley so I purchased the same Hills Science Diet brand again but in the Small Toy Dog formula in the Chicken and Barley flavor, how much of a difference could that make, right? … Low and behold the stains started to come back within 2-3 weeks. That’s when I realized, it might not have been the flavor change but perhaps an ingredient that was in one formula and not the other. I compared the ingredients one for one…. and there were 4 ingredients in the Hills Toy breed food formula that were not in the Advanced Fitness formula. Pea Fiber is one of the main ingredients, Powdered Cellulose, L-Lysine and L-Carnitine. I have no idea which of these is the culprit but someone mentioned above in another post that Pea heavy foods can be the cause. That might be the answer because the food my dog had issues with was obviously high in pea fiber, it was the second ingredient on the list. Just to be sure, I will avoid food with all four of those ingredients. Try a different food without Peas first, this may do the trick!
