Please take our tear stain questionnaire.
For a short time, our tear stain questionnaire is still available. 2,626 people have taken it so far. Join us.
If people had tear stains, we’d surely know why. I hoping we’ll have the answers about dogs soon. 2,526 people have taken our in-depth questionnaire. Stay tuned for more news on our analysis by following us on Twitter or Facebook or e-mail us at
For almost a decade, I’ve been researching and writing about the causes of tear stains – and safe cures. (I’m the author of an award-winning book on holistic dog care — Scared Poopless — and proud mom of five Maltese who used to have stains.) Though staining is generally perceived as a little-white-dog problem, it afflicts large dogs as well. Even black dogs have stains though you can’t always see them.
Why does all this matter? Isn’t tear and beard staining just a cosmetic issue? I wish it were! Staining is an indication that something is wrong, sometimes seriously wrong, with the dog’s diet or health. Sadly, underlying causes of the staining often go untreated while only the symptoms are addressed.
Antibiotic use: Compounding problems, people who’ve tried everything else to banish stains may resort to using products containing unspecified amounts of antibiotics; they may use them for months or years not even realizing that the product does contain antibiotics. This can lead to intestinal dysbiosis; antibiotics kill good intestinal bacteria along with the bad. Second, it can also lead to antibiotic resistance, a serious problem for the dog, the dog’s family and the world. Third, the FDA deems these products unsafe and untested. Learn more about all this at Dog Tear Stains: Everything You’ve Been Told is Wrong.
We’re hoping to disprove all those crazy tear stain myths, see why only some dogs stain, learn what works to safely clear up staining — and what doesn’t.
Please tell us your tear stain stories below or on our Tear Stains Truth Facebook page. No spamming with tear stain products ads, please. We’ll zap them!
Have a great photo of your dog’s tear or beard staining? Send it to us at stopstains at gmail.com for our upcoming book on tear staining.
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