Health and wellness tip of the week: examine and clean your pets eyes weekly. Gentle cleaning with a natural product like Halo Herbal Eye Wash helps open clogged tear ducts and may help prevent irritation and infection that can be painful and possibly lead to loss of vision. Learn more about proper eye care for your pet: The Importance of Proper Eye Care.

Question: I have a 3 year old Cocker Spaniel and am concerned about his tear staining. I have read the pros and cons regarding Angel Eyes, and I don’t know what to do. Is the staining caused by a bacteria or yeast infection and should he get antibiotics? I don’t want to do anything that would hurt him, but I sure would like to clear up the problem.

Answer: Usually antibiotics or other medications are not necessary to treat tear stains. It is important to determine if there is an underlying eye problem that may be causing the problem before beginning any tear stain treatment plan. Many times eyelid or eyelash abnormalities can be fixed or the tear ducts flushed and the problem resolves naturally.

Normally, tears flow over the surface of the eye and into the tear duct in the corner of the eyelids. Common problems that can cause tear staining include:

• Excess tear production. For example, if the eye is experiencing irritation–from an allergy, foreign particle or an abnormal eyelid or eyelash–the eye tries to protect itself by producing more tears. The normal drainage system is overwhelmed and tears spill out and leads to stains.

• Abnormal eye drainage system. Cocker Spaniels commonly experience eyelid abnormalities (ectropion, entropion), eyelash problems or blockages of the tear ducts which can result in tears spilling out instead of draining properly. Any previous trauma or scarring of the eyelids can also block normal drainage. Some pets are just born with a defective drainage system.

Ask your veterinarian to take a look…good luck!
Dr. Donna Spector

Answers provided to pet owners by Dr. Donna Spector should be considered information and not specific advice. Answers are to be used for general information purposes only and not as a substitute for in-person evaluation or specific professional advice from your veterinarian. Communications on this site are very limited and should never be used in possible cases of emergency. Halo, Purely for Pets will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on any information or content contained in a blog or article post.

Dog Flu (H3N8) is a relatively new and highly contagious strain of flu virus which causes respiratory illness in dogs. Since the strain is fairly new, dogs do not have immunity to this virus and it spreads rapidly from one dog to another. Keep your dog as healthy as possible by building their immune system through regular exercise and Halo’s natural foods and supplements.

Click here to learn more about the signs of dog flu and if the new flu vaccine is right for your dog.

You don’t want to end up like me.

I had pet health insurance from the time my golden retriever was young until she turned seven. Since I never used it, I dropped the plan in early 2009. I naively figured that since I fed Rudi holistic food, took her to a top holistic vet, and made sure she romped through the woods every day, she’d live a healthy life and die of old age.

Boy was I wrong. At age seven-and-a-half, cancer struck. It was a virulent form called histiocytic sarcoma that is usually fatal. I tried everything — surgery, blood transfusions, supplements, chemo, injections, organic calves liver — yet the cancer won; she died on October 21, 2009.

Never did I toil over whether or not to spend the money on her care, totaling some $26,000 in the three months she was ill before passing away. I painfully learned that with great advances in veterinary care — including kidney dialysis, radiation for cancer, even cardiac monitors for heart disease — costs can add up as quickly as a high-roller’s debt in a Vegas casino.

“Cancer and other medical conditions are so very common in pets,” Halo’s Dr. Donna Spector says. “No one can afford to not be covered.”

Now, I’ve started comparison shopping for pet insurance for my other dog, three-year-old Smokey, a mix multiple breeds. I want a policy that covers cancer and one that, if Smokey fell severely ill, has a large reimbursement cap. And I want to make sure there are not any hidden exclusions, such as non-treatment for an ailment the insurance company may claim as hereditary.

Dr. Spector addresses the importance of having pet health insurance in a story she wrote last year, Pet Insurance–is it really worth it?

I wish I’d heeded her advice back then. Now I face the consequences, having spent every cent I’d saved on Rudi’s care. I am broke, struggling to pay my bills. I hope you learn from my mistake.

“Wow! I guess I was spending too much time lounging around, but now that I’m on Halo, I can’t sit still!” So begins Week 3 of PetMD’s 8-week fanciful account of Gordi’s transition to Halo. Tune in to see how the real-life Labrador’s story unfolds in Haute or Not. This issue, Gordi talks about Dr. Donna Spector’s expose, “What’s Really in Dog Food?”

Concludes Gordi: “Better for us dogs are carbohydrate energy choices like barley and high nutrition veggies like sweet potatoes, which I love, love, love, and which Halo uses abundantly … thank goodness.”

Tune in to hear Dr. Donna Spector on Animal Wise Radio today at 2:20 PM ET to discuss “the foundations of nutrition and quality ingredients as it relates to healthy companion animals.”

Animal Wise Radio can be heard live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area on KYCR (AM1570), and KDWA (AM 1460) – also streaming live at www.KYCR.com). In Phoenix and Tucson they are broadcast on KFNX.

Or for the rest of us, please visit www.allpetsradio.com – or get the podcast at www.animalwiseradio.com. Enjoy!