Eye Health and Tear Stains in Dogs - A Natural Treatment Approach

Dogs Eye Health

They often say that the eyes are the window into the soul. This may be true, but they are also the window into our health. The same goes for dogs. The eye is one of the many openings of the body where the first signs and symptoms of ill health start to show. There are a number of ways that you can keep on top of your dogs genetic predisposition to disease and any future health issues that could be of concern.

Eye Discharge in Dogs

Eye discharge is one of the most common and seemingly regular problems in dogs today, however discharge in the eye region is not necessarily evidence there is an infection, which is an assumption most dog owners would make.

Dog owners often have a misunderstanding of the various degrees of eye infections, and confuse conjunctivitis, eye discharge or simple redness for an infection which requires antibiotics and medical care. But in reality, eye discharge can often be a good thing as it is an indication that your dog is cleansing and detoxifying it's immune system. Many openings of the body in both humans and animals, serve as cleansing and detoxification ports, one of these ports being the eye. This cleansing process is the body's way of fighting and attempting to push bacteria or toxins out, which often manifests as inflammation and or redness, which is often misperceived as an infection.

If your animals eye discharge is not a result of cleansing or detoxification, it could also be from a scratch, corneal ulcer, inverted eyelash, obstructed tear ducts or a simple case of dirt or grit in the eye. A last resort should be visiting your vet as eye related examinations for animals are particularly damaging to the wallet.

So if you are suspecting there is something wrong with your animals eye, what are the options for you? Is there a quick fix? Is there something I can be doing to help prevent future problems with my animals eye? Does my dogs feed have an impact on eye health? These are all questions you should be asking yourself as it could save you a lot of worry and a lot of money. Firstly, yes your dogs diet has a huge impact on this matter, your dogs immune system and body cells are developed from the food you are giving it on a regular basis, that is why a natural, grain free and ideally starch free food is so important. And yes, there are some solutions you can make yourself at home to give your dogs eye a good rise without an expensive vet visit, which I will discuss further in this article.

Eye Treatment using a Natural Approach

If you do choose to take a holistic and natural approach to tending to your animals ill eye, start with a good warm water and salt based wash and proceed with a healthy diet, restoring nutrients and natural vitamins and minerals that your animal is perhaps lacking in. Now, if you want to give your dogs eye a serious and thorough clean and you don’t want an expensive vet visit and recommendation, just use a sterile saline solution which is five drops of Eyebright and roughly three drops of Goldenseal, this will work perfectly for your dog and you can buy large containers of this and keep if for future use.

A lot of dog owners will assume that if a bag of processed animal food is labelled organic or natural it must be good, however unless you are familiar with the production company and or have additional information such as a follow up nutritional blog written by the company, they will not be organic or natural unfortunately. The best possible option is to go with a dog food product which is sea vegetable based or a completely raw diet altogether (be sure you are informed on raw dog food diets before embarking on this route.)

A healthy digestive tract, liver and immune system are the key to reducing eye discharge and ensuring a clear passage for natural cleansing from your animal, when needed via the eye.

Antibiotics should be taken, to eliminate a specific problem that's occurring in a dogs health, only when absolutely necessary. Antibiotics target a virus that is challenging your body’s immune system, however because they are so strong they leave a dent, and if abused they eventually lower your immune systems strength permanently, this applies for your animal as well.

Regardless of what tactic you choose to help protect your animals health, in this case the eye, try not to suppress the immune system with steroids or antibiotics as they have long term damage. 

 

 

Sea Vegetables to tackle Tear Stains in Dogs

To avoid using steroids and antibiotics certain blends of seaweeds can help with weeping eyes as they tackle the inflammation that lies at the root of many weeping eye cases. By simply adding it into a dogs daily feed, the anti-inflammatory properties in the seaweeds can help reduce the inflammation in the dogs body, preventing the eyes from weeping and the unsightly tear stains from forming. As well as this, the seaweeds add vital vitamins, minerals and trace elements into the dogs diet helping avoid many other health issues that can occur. Oculus Prime for tear stains, is one such blend of seaweeds that has helped control many dogs weeping eye issues and is an excellent natural supplement to feed your dog.

Symptoms of Bad Eye Health

Because there is the small issue of a language barrier between us and our dogs, it is always hard to know when something is not right or they are in pain. However, there are ways we can stay on top of this as best we can. Your dogs iris is like the window into the holistic health of your dog. The iris is the small circle of colour in your dog’s eye and practitioners can use the iris and the science of iridology to help asses your dog’s current condition.

Iridology and Dog's Eye Health

Your dog’s iris is far more complex than you might know as it acts as the connector to all of the internal nerves, muscles and organs that we can not see. The iris is made up of large amounts of fibres that lead to every nerve, muscle and organ within their body by way of the brain and spinal cord. And so, through the science of iridology we can see how each of your dog’s systems are effecting one another.

Iridology analyses slight changes in the iris that manifest as pigment discolouration, eyespots, lines and textures. By studying these changes in the iris, Iridologists can tell you exactly when there is an imbalance in your dogs tissue, systemic health and toxic load as well as identifying when there is a drop in their level of strength and weakness. However, not all of us can afford an Iridologist every 6 months to check up on our dogs health but you can look out for a number of prevalent signals just by checking the iris such as rings, spots, pigment change and or pigment dilation, and this will give you a head start before symptoms of an infection, eye discharge or eye inflammation start to occur.

Being aware of your dog's health through the eye can be a massive bonus to both you and your beloved animal. If you see severe and dramatic changes in your animals eye in a short amount of time, do see a specialist but if you are just looking to have more knowledge on your animals health, the eye is a good place to start, and like all aspects of the body, the diet is key and when it comes to our animals, a natural based diet is always the best approach, adding in herbal and natural supplements to fortify and support their health.