Eye, Tear and Urine Staining

This page is about getting stains out. Keeping them from coming back is a different job, and a more important one, so if you have not read the tear stain causes and prevention page, start there. Whitening a face that is still wet with tears is painting over damp.

Why the stain is red

Tears and saliva carry iron-containing compounds that oxidise on white hair to a rust colour, and the constantly damp hair under the eye is an ideal home for a yeast that adds its own reddish brown. Together they produce the orange face that owners of white dogs know too well. The stain is in the hair itself, so it does not wash out; it either grows out and is trimmed, or it is lightened.

Daily cleaning

Before any whitener, the basics: wipe under the eyes morning and night with a cloth damp with plain water or a saline eye wash, comb the hair out, and dry it. Then dust the dry hair with a little plain cornstarch to keep it dry. Over a few weeks, with the cause removed, new hair grows in clean and the stained hair can be combed through and trimmed away. For many dogs that is the whole treatment.

Whitening the hair

For a stain that is already there, show exhibitors use a paste made from equal parts milk of magnesia and a low-volume cream peroxide of the kind sold for human hair, thickened with cornstarch. It is worked into the stained hair only, kept well away from the eye itself, left for a few hours or overnight, and washed out thoroughly. The hair is then conditioned, because peroxide dries it. It takes several applications, a day or two apart, and the result is a lighter stain rather than a vanished one. Commercial whitening gels sold for show dogs do the same thing more slowly and more gently, which for a pet is usually the better trade.

What not to do: human hair bleach, strong peroxide, or any whitener in the eye. The eye is a few millimetres from the stain and one slip can cause an ulcer. If you are not confident, pay a groomer who does this regularly. A slightly orange face is a cosmetic problem; a damaged eye is not.

Conditioning afterwards

Every lightening product, however mild, dries and weakens hair, and dry hair under the eyes breaks off and lets the tears run further. Condition the facial hair every time you whiten it and most days in between. A small amount of a good human conditioner worked in and rinsed out is fine.

Urine stains on feet and hindquarters

A white male's front feet and a white female's trousers pick up a yellow tinge from urine, and both pick up brown from mud and grass. For these areas, which are nowhere near the eyes, a stronger approach is safe: a wash of a gentle wool detergent mixed with an equal amount of low-volume cream peroxide, diluted by half with water and used like shampoo on the stained area, left for a few minutes, rinsed, shampooed normally and conditioned. Keeping the hair on the feet and under the tail trimmed shorter prevents most of it, and drying the dog's feet after it comes in from wet grass prevents the rest.

When whitening does not work

If a face stays stained despite daily cleaning and the hair kept out of the eyes, the cause has not been found, and the list of causes on the prevention page is where to look next, with your vet. Stain that keeps coming back is the dog telling you something, and no whitener answers it.