General Question is there a connection..

[punky]

I recently posted about my rocky's tear stains thinking it had gotten worse because of the antibiotics he was taking for his tail pocket infection.. but now his tail has been amputated and hes on no medicine but tear stains are still there.. but what i have noticed also is along with the tail infection that he had when i rescued him, he also had an ear infection, my vet treated it twice,

when we took him to the other vet to have his surgery on his tail i asked them if they would mind looking at his ear while he was there just because i noticed he was shaking his head a little bit.. they did and told me his ear was fine that it was just dirty.. humm. i thought that's strange because just a week before is when we had it treated and cleaned.. but that's OK as long as it is all it was.
well, then a week later i was doing his routine face wash and decided to clean his ears.. just one ear, yeah you guess it, the same ear that was infected was really dirty and nasty.. in just 1 weeks time.. i dont understand how just that one ear is getting so dirty,.. i asked the vet when i took him back to get his stitches out about it and she just said he just produces more ear wax in that ear.. so do any of you think there is a connection with the tear stains being worse since he has came into our house and does it have anything to do with his ear getting so dirty.. it looks the same, brown yucky stuff.. just wondering.. so now we clean ears more and he thinks im playing every time and steals my wash cloth or wipe.. he is a ham.. love him so much though..

 

[cali baker]

I'm not sure if there's a direct connection between tear stains and the ear wax. My vet has recommended that I clean Finn's ears with an ear wash 1x/week b/c he also produces a lot of that brown gunky wax , especially in his rt. ear.

As far as tear stains, I have noticed a decrease in stains in my boy Tate since i've eliminated his treats b/c he recently had a GI ailment. I was actually pretty amazed b/c Tate had a very bad tear stain problem, particularly in his left eye and the vet was thinking he may need eye surgery d/t some entropian he had which was contributing to the tear stains.

You may want to do an experiment with Rocky and if you give him treats, try eliminating them for a week and see if there's any improvement.

 

[Biogirl71]

Frank hardly has any tear stains and it really helped to give him filtered water, as well as finding the right combination of food and treats. However, in just the last year, he has started developing issues with his left ear especially, producing lots of brown gunk. The last two vets had said he just has persistent yeast in that ear. I tried a couple of different ear cleaners. One didn't really do anything helpful. The other he absolutely hated and acted like it was causing him pain. We recently got an ear cleaner from the vet that wasn't that bad a price but has really worked well. I am cleaning his ears every other day until the gunk seems to be gone, then the vet said to go to once a week.

 

[punky]

thanks. i will try the treat thing because when i got him he was a rescue and i don't think he ever got any treats , and his tear stains were good, because he acted like he didn't even know what a toy was when i would give them to him, so i'm sure he never got treats either..
he did not want to go outside at all..just wanted to play with my feet.. it broke my heart that he never had toys so of course i had to buy him a bunch.. i know im bad, but now he will go out.. still stops to make sure i will let him back in but getting better at it.. if its not to hot i will just leave the door open so it will assure him that he can get back in.. not sure exactly how he was treated before me but something tells me someone just kept him out all the time with no attention..and i did give him alot of treats.. so im going to start there.. maybe carrots?? something more healthy without a bunch of ingredients he dont need.. may keep him from getting big too.. hes good weight now but i know how that creeps up on ya. lol. thanks for advice.. i will try it starting today

 

[cali baker]

[MENTION=295]punky[/MENTION], raw baby carrots, frozen green beans, frozen or fresh blueberries (all in moderation of course) are great snacks for our bulldogs. Your sweet Rocky sure is lucky that he has you as his momma now, to love and spoil him!

 

[punky]

thanks.. i thought dogs couldn't have blueberries? maybe i am thinking of something else.. but anyway. im going to try the other things.. he eats anything.. and I think i am the lucky one to have him. he came into my life at just the right time.. best medicine there is.. having a dog to make me smile.. ..

 

[cali baker]

[MENTION=295]punky[/MENTION], blueberries are fine to give dogs. Maybe you are thinking of raisins? that's a definite NO.

 

[punky]

yes that was it.. and onions, and chocolate.. i need to find the list so i can put it on refrigerator for my dog sitter..thank you love this site. its so helpful.. and informative

 

[Biogirl71]

Like Henny said, Rocky is so lucky to have you! Thank you for giving him the loving home he deserves! For healthy snacks, we will give Frank frozen peas, green beans, carrots, melon, blueberries, banana. We will give chunks of apple without skin but we have to be careful with the seeds as they are poisonous to dogs like grapes/raisins, onions, chocolate, and the pits of fruit. It is a great idea to print out a list and put it on the fridge! We have one to make sure and also if we have visitors it helps too so they don't feed Frank the wrong things.