Eye Care for Animals

Eye care for animals takes only a few minutes a day. Bichon Frises usually have healthy eyes, with tear staining as the most common problem.

Just like humans, dogs need good vision to function well. Keeping your dog’s eyes healthy and his vision clear is up to you.

Dog eye care is not difficult. Just observing the condition of your pet’s eyes will be a great help in keeping your dog’s eyes healthy. This will help you know if you need to do some special dog eye care.

Why is Eye Care for Dogs Important?

Dogs communicate with us using their eyes, and so we often look at their eyes. In fact, eye contact is very important when you are training your dog.

Your dog uses visual cues to know what you are doing and what you want her to do.

She uses vision to detect when something in her environment is disturbing or she thinks something is threatening.

Dogs recognize familiar people visually, and they identify strangers visually.

Your Bichon Frise dog needs to see well, in order to perform these activities.

Bichon Frise Eye Tearing

Healthy dog eyes are shiny and clear, without pus or watery discharges.

If your dog’s eyes are tearing excessively, it may be a sign of allergies, infection, an injury or an irritation.

Eye tearing is especially common in some breeds, like poodles and Bichon Frises.

It’s not always clear why your dog has tearing eyes, but there are some things that you can do to prevent a problem and tear staining. If your dog has white or light hair, even normal tearing can cause dark tear stains beneath his eyes.

To help keep the staining of your dog’s eyes under control, wash the area under her eyes frequently, using warm water and a cotton ball.

Carefully trim away any stained hair. And make sure that you don’t get soap into your pet’s eyes, as soap can actually cause a corneal ulcer—very painful!

Canine Eye Care for Discharge

If you notice a large amount of discharge or pus in the corner of your dog’s eye or a reddish look to the white of his eye, your dog may have canine conjunctivitis.

Your dog can develop this condition if he rides in the car with his head hanging out the window or if he spends a lot of time outside when it is windy and dusty.

Most of the time all you need to do is wipe any discharge from the corner of his eye (or below) with a damp cotton ball. I like to use a product like Petpost Tear Stain wipes because they also help to prevent tear stain formation.

If you think there is too much discharge, or it doesn’t go away in a few days, take your dog to the veterinarian to be examined.

Vetericyn has a product, Verericyn Plus that is very soothing animal eye wash. It helps keep eyes clear of mucus and debris and keeps your dog’s eyes healthy, shiny and bright. If your dog has eye issues from time to time, you might consider giving Vetericyn Plus a try.

Why Does Your Dog Paw at Her Eye?

Dogs will paw at their eyes to clean them—sort of like a cat, but not as precisely.

If you notice that your dog seems especially preoccupied with pawing or fussing with an eye, take him into an area with good lighting and look carefully at his eye to see if there is a foreign object (dirt, seed, grass, etc.) in it.

You may have to pull down on the lower lid and up on the upper lid to get a better look.

Remove anything that you find, carefully and very gently, with a wet cotton ball. If you can’t remove it, your dog should see the vet to have it removed. Removing a foreign object from an eye is actually considered to be a form of surgery, so be really careful.

That’s all there is to it! Eye care for animals is really easy. Simply observe your dog’s eyes daily and make sure they look healthy. Keep them fresh and clean as part of your Bichon Frise grooming tasks.