How To Clean Dog Eye Boogers?
Do you notice hard crusty eye gunk near the corners of your dog’s eyes when he wakes up? Do you immediately get concerned or start googling if dog eye boogers are normal? If yes, then you are certainly not alone. This article was crafted to answer all your questions about cleaning your canine friend’s eye boogers. So, walk through this article with us for some expert tips and tricks to clean all that hard, crusty, and dark gunk from your pup’s shiny and big eyes!
Why Does Dog Eye Discharge Occur?
Just like we have gunk accumulated at the inner and outer corners of our eyes after sleeping, dogs do too, and it’s nothing to worry about unless there is an excess amount of gunk in there. Dog eye boogers are also known as discharge, and it is basically a fluid flowing out from your dog’s eye. The texture of the release might be runny, thick, or even crusty. The variations in color and texture can tell a lot about the underlying illness causing the fluid to discharge.
Dog eye discharge is a common problem among dogs. This is more common among dogs of smaller breeds. Eye discharge can occur because of a variety of issues, ranging from mild allergies to severe conditions like glaucoma (a condition that can cause your dog to go blind).
It is common for you to notice light brown eye gunk and crusty boogers accumulated in your dog’s eyes when he wakes up in the morning. As a responsible dog owner, you should be vigilant about your dog’s eye gunk; when you notice he has more gunk in his eyes than he usually does, your dog could be potentially having some eye disease/illness, and your first instinct should be to schedule an appointment with the veterinarian.
It would be best to be especially careful about dogs with short faces and bulging eyes because these species are more likely to be victims of an eye-related illness/disease. For example, suppose your dog belongs to such a breed and has eye discharges. In that case, it is imperative that you take your pup to a veterinarian for frequent checkups so that in case your dog has an eye infection, the veterinarian could prescribe appropriate medication to cure it.
Apart from keeping them healthy and clean, tears provide nourishment and oxygen to your dog’s eyes’ outer layers and remove gunk from their eye corners. In addition, since tears are made from tear glands, these tears provide a quick, hydrating wash to your dog’s eyes and clean off all the dirty gunk from their eyes.
How To Get Rid of Crusty Eye Boogers?
Eye boogers are not only because of illnesses or infections. It is quite natural for your dog to have gunk around his eyes, and only an excessive amount of gunk means that there is something wrong with your dog. You might have to remove the gunk every day from around your pup’s eyes after he wakes up. Below are a few ways to soften gunk and get rid of dog eye boogers.
1. Dog Tear Stain Remover
Wet tissues, solutions, and wipes are some great products to remove tear stains around your dog’s eyes. However, if you don’t have any solution or wipes available, don’t worry because you can use a cloth, wet it with some warm water, and dab it around your dog’s eyes to remove tear stains!
2. Try Eyewash!
To clean your dog’s eyes from all the gunk, use a formulated eyewash. Eye drops are a great way to cure your dog’s eye boogers. They work wonders because they clean off all the lubrication and dark, gunky eye boogers and also get rid of allergies!
3. Pet Eye Comb
Eye combs are used to clean eye boogers that are firmly stuck on the hair around the dog’s eyes. Since the eye boogers are really crusty and hard, removing them with just water is hard. Hence, eye combs are great utensils as they are easy to use, inexpensive, efficient, and are readily available at local stores! So please don’t waste your time getting brown eye boogers out with water from your canine friend’s eyes; instead, go for a wiser choice to clean up his eyes.
4. Keep Hair Short Around the Eyes
If your dog has long hair around the eyes, he will potentially have more eye boogers because all the goop sticks on the hair. However, if you trim the hair short, there will be less goop on the hair.
Be careful if you are trimming your pup’s hair yourself because dogs get panicky, and his eyes might suddenly come in contact with the scissor and therefore cause more damage!
You can get hold of some good quality dog grooming kits to trim your dog’s hair, or you might as well book an appointment with the groomer if you think you don’t have the expertise to perfectly cut your dog’s hair!
5. A Water-Soaked Cloth!
We humans widely use this technique to clean off our eye boogers too! Just take a soft cloth, soak it in water (lukewarm preferably), and gently put the fabric over the eye boogers for about thirty seconds. The eye dunk will soften, and then you will have to keep wiping the eye boogers until they come off. This might sound time-taking compared to eye solutions, but this is a good remedy when you don’t have eye drops available!
If your dog doesn’t like having his eyes clean, then you can use a toy or his favorite snack to distract him for a bit while you clean his eyes.
In case your dog’s eyes are glued shut with gunk, you will have to repeatedly wet the cloth and gently dab it on your pup’s eye so that the hard gunk softens and comes out.
6. Lubricating Eye Drops
These drops are a safe and guaranteed option for eye boogers removal. In addition, all of the ingredients of eye drops are non-toxic because these drops are manufactured specifically for dogs, so there is no chance that the eye drops might cause an eye infection or allergy!
How To Use Eye Drops? We know it might be your first time cleaning your dog’s eye boogers with eye drops; hence we have got you covered by providing you all the guidelines you will be needing to use eye drops.
First, clean your dog’s eyes with a cloth (soaked with water) and then use the eye drops. Next, tilt your dog’s head a little and add a few drops of eye drops to the upper part of your dog’s eyes.
7. Saline Water and Cotton Balls
To clean up your dog’s eyes, you will need some round/square cotton balls and some contact lenses solution (which is also called saline solution). All you have to do is soak the cotton balls in some saline solution, hold the cotton ball over your dog’s goopy eyes/eyelids for a few seconds and wipe all the dirty and gunky crust out!
How Should You Prevent Your Dog from Having Eye Boogers?
If you really want to keep a check on your eye dog eye boogers, then observe the color and texture of the discharge. It would be best if you keep checking your dog’s eyes for excess gunk or chronic red-brown staining around the eyes. If your dog’s eyes are of the same size, aren’t filled with gunk, and the sclera (white part of the eyeball) is white and clean, you don’t have to worry about your dog having an eye infection.
Excessive tears, discharge, clouded vision, unequal sized pupils, red-stained hair around the eyes are some common symptoms of an illness.
When Should You Be Concerned Regarding Your Dog’s Eye Boogers?
If your dog has more gunk in his eyes than usual, then it is a call for concern. Suppose your dog has watery, dark-colored discharge coming from his swollen eyes, or he is squinting and blinking excessively, or he is scratching his eyes after regular intervals. In that case, you should book an appointment with the veterinarian. Portraying a head shy behavior and redness in the eyes also indicate that your dog might be potentially ill.
If your dog has all or some of these symptoms, as mentioned earlier, you should immediately book an appointment with the vet so that he might prescribe medication and brief you about the correct treatment for your pup’s health!
