Health Question

[mavdog]

Hey everybody, I am a new member/new puppy owner. Maverick is 5 months old and is having some weird eye discharge whenever we get him out of his crate in the morning. The Vet said we might just have to live with it. Any suggestions on how to eliminate/improve this condition. The eye discharge is grey and has a thick consistency. Thanks!

[Sugars Mom]

Mine has the same thing....allergies is what had been determined. As she has gotten older, it has gotten less...but we have also changed her diet many times to find one that she seems to be best for her, and removed carpet on our main floor, so I believe that has helped alot.

[centrop67]

I agree that this could possibly be allergies. I had this experience with my lab - who was allergic to almost everything. Our effort to relieve him of the problem was trying, but it was an extreme case.

Bottom line is to have the food and environment tests done by your vet. It's worth the $$$, because your dog is suffering.

After several years of effort I went from having a dog with a life expectancy of 4-5 years to one that lived for 14 years. It took that long preparing his food to find a commercial diet he could tolerate.

Again, I had an extreme situation, but I am sharing in hopes that you and your dog have a better experience.

If you do hold out and try on your own to resolve the problem, start looking for sores on the nose, around the hips and butt area, and swollen joints. If any of those start happening get help from your vet.

[LyonsFamily]

To start with, what are you feeding? There could be something in the food that doesn't agree with him.

[mavdog]

Buffalo Blue with Buffalo Blue wet food. He is playful and full of energy without any soreness. It only happens in the morning and he has had it since we got him. Vet didn't seem concerned. How much does a food and environment test usually run? Thanks for the quick response.

[johninny]

the same thing can happen with other health problems - the most likely being intestinal infection of some sort. 2 foster DSs in a row had gooey eye discharge; for me that means immediate stool analysis even though they were supposed to be free of problems. both tested positive for different infections, got appropriate treatment and eye discharge went away. [ not relevant to you, but worth noting for others that same with my Tracedog who died in july of cancer; first sign of something wrong was gooey eye discharge that had never occurred before. vet said irrelevant, but after his surgery, it stopped. when the discharge returned months later, i knew the end was not far away.] so regardless of what most vets will say, eye discharge with a thick consistency IS indicative of something internal that needs addressing. allergy-related discharge is more likely to be more clear and watery.
in many areas of the country, intestinal infections in dogs are endemic, the more southern states and urban areas [ like nyc] being prime examples and most people do not realize their dogs have a problem, but instead ascribe loose stool to allergies, food, anxiety, etc, etc. i have had so many vets argue for just such causes and not want to do a simple test; every single time, the vet has been wrong. and the solution is so quick and simple.

[mavdog]

I am going to take a picture of the discharge that we find each morning. We are going to bring it to the Vet and have them check up on everything a second time. Thanks for the info.

[johninny]

maybe a bit too much to talk about here, but here i go. for years i keep handy those little plastic stool sampling container kits. if i suspect something, i immediately put one [ about the size of half a role of quarters] in my pocket, get a sample at 1st opportunity and take it to vet for test - usually without the dog in tow [ on my time table while sample fresh - no appt necessary for dog]. the result is that i often identify problems quickly and get to do so for the price of the test which is modest since i do not wind up paying a vet fee for ''examination'' of the dog which usually will tell us absolutely nothing.
so you might want to consider just taking in a sample. keep it simple and see if the test is helpful.

[mavdog]

That is brilliant. I will probably use this more than once...haha. What a glorious life we have as dog owners...talking about poop. Thanks again.

[LyonsFamily]

You don't need anything fancy to bring the fecal sample in either. A ziploc baggy will do. When I used to work at a vet we'd get poop in all sorts of things to test. Just make sure your dog's name and your last name is on the sample container and you should be good.

[Choochi]

One other possibility it could be environmental, maybe some thing in his bedding in the crate (if that's where he sleeps at night). How are the ears and nose (any nose discharge, runny nose in the morning)? Does he pick at his paws, do his paw pads and the tissue and fur between toes look ok, nail beds and the nails themselves...

[MinaHerdershonden]

Mina has never had funny eye discharge but she has wheat allergies and gets very itchy broken out dry skin when shes not on wheat free food, we went ahead and get wheat/soy/corn free food. Shes MUCH better on it.

[feraloup]

My old GSD, Cory had food allergies. When I first adopted her, she used to get chronic yeast infections in her ears... No eye discharge, but ear infection after ear infection after ear infection. It was awful. (Although in hindsight some of her escapism techniques when she'd see me coming with the bottle of ear solution were seriously comical...) Once I changed her food it never happened again.

[Christie M]

You don't need anything fancy to bring the fecal sample in either. A ziploc baggy will do. When I used to work at a vet we'd get poop in all sorts of things to test. Just make sure your dog's name and your last name is on the sample container and you should be good.

Wouldn't it disgust you completely when someone would wait and want their tupperware container back???? EEEWWWWWWWWEEEEE. I always made a note not to eat any cookies or anything from that client

[alspyce]

Wouldn't it disgust you completely when someone would wait and want their tupperware container back???? EEEWWWWWWWWEEEEE. I always made a note not to eat any cookies or anything from that client [/quote]

[structural]

We were told the eye gunk our pup was experiencing was just a result of teething. She is 6 months old now and no more gunk, it looks like all her adult teeth are in. Not to say it couldn't be what others have said either though.

[LyonsFamily]

You don't need anything fancy to bring the fecal sample in either. A ziploc baggy will do. When I used to work at a vet we'd get poop in all sorts of things to test. Just make sure your dog's name and your last name is on the sample container and you should be good.

Wouldn't it disgust you completely when someone would wait and want their tupperware container back???? EEEWWWWWWWWEEEEE. I always made a note not to eat any cookies or anything from that client

YES! The first time someone said to me "now, last time I didn't get my container back, can you bring it back to me when you're done" I was like oh, people, keep those things?

[mavdog]

Maverick is all good now. He had a slight eye infection and some pretty nasty diarrhea. We went to the vet and they did a fecal flotation and found tons of grass...I reminded the vet that my dog is part cow. He is taking an antibiotic and some eye cream. He has done a complete 180. The vet called his stomach issues "garbage gut". Does anyone else have a dog that eats EVERYTHING during walks? haha

[Sugars Mom]

I have said that Sugar is part cow too

I want to say that since she has been on the Orijen food (the fish one - chicken one did not work for her) so many of her little ailments have gone away. Can't be sure its just the diet...I'm sure the environment has to do with it as well, but she hasn't had eye discharge for so long, she used to have bouts of regurgetation...haven't seen that it a long time, and she hasn't been eating grass lately which makes her throw up, (but wait until spring when its seems to be particularily yummy!) I used to say she was part cat from the way she would lick herself, but doesn't do that anymore either. She used to have bouts of what I would describe as depression every once in a while, and not anymore.

I really feel that her food is what made the difference. Her fur is so soft too. Was giving her coconut oil for a while and that really made her super soft, but even now, after I've stopped giving it to her, she is still really soft and shiny. The only thing is, it took months for her stools to firm up when I (gradually) switched her to the Orijen. Now they are only soft every once in a while.

I also say she is part frog (from the way she lies), and part chicken (because she is wary/cautious of dogs she hasn't met)

So glad to hear Maverick is doing better!

[centrop67]

I am glad to hear that Maverick is better now.

Radar is part bovine as well. His favorite though, is to pull down palm fronds and chew them up.

It's pretty funny to watch him try to run around the yard with one in his mouth.