Eyes shed tears for many reasons, and some are due to serious health problems. Don’t ignore the tearing and staining without seeing your veterinarian. Your dog might pay the ultimate price and lose his/her sight altogether if you assume that what you’re about to read applies to every single dog.
But! – the pictures below are a clear demonstration of how big an impact diet can make.
Before Diet Change
This dog belongs to a client who gave me permission to post the pictures and the story. I showed the pictures on Facebook, and they received attention, but my in-box became flooded with emails from people with many questions.
Q: What was the dog eating before the diet change?
A: A high-quality commercial kibble followed by a Rx diet from a veterinarian, followed by an unbalanced home-prepared diet that included a rotation of a variety of foods.
Q: What was the dog eating to create such a dramatic improvement?
A: A balanced home-made diet of Ostrich and quinoa, but this is what worked for this particular dog, and is not a cure-all. It happens that these were novel foods for this dog, and we had very few novel foods to choose from.
Q: Other than the staining, was there anything wrong with the dog?
A: She has allergies. Her eyes would tear badly as is obvious, and if you look at her paw, you’ll see staining there as well. Believe it or not, that is not dirt! It’s stained from all the licking this poor, itchy dog was doing. As well, her skin had tiny eruptions and was inflamed.
Q: How long did it take for the dog to get better?
After Diet Change
A: We started seeing changes within a couple of weeks. At first, it was just a matter of the dog seeming spunkier, so we assumed she was feeling better. Then the paw licking slowed down, eyes seemed to tear less and less, and within one month the improvement became obvious. The “after” picture was taken two months after the diet change.
Thank you, Stephanie for allowing me to share this with others in order to help their dogs. You’re a wonderful “mom”