If you have a light-haired dog, and his eyes water excessively, you may be frustrated with dark or reddish stained fur as a result.

• In part I of this series, we looked at causes of excessive tearing. 
• In part II, home treatments to remove the reddish stains, were reviewed.

Here are some natural treatments that may work well for your dog.  (If these natural treatments don’t work for you, then you might want to look at some alternative natural commercial cleaners that are antibiotic-free.)

I-Stain from Thomas Labs

This company produces an antibiotic-free solution to what they call a much larger problem than excessive tearing.  In their view, reddish stained fur can be caused by a number of conditions including diet, the dog’s overall health, breed disposition and shallow tear ducts.

Their product is a vitamin-probiotic-enzyme formula for dogs that addresses these underlying conditions.  It’s worth looking into, here.

NaturVet Tear Stain Supplement

My friend and I both use NaturVet Tear Stain Supplement for our dogs and we find it works well;  it is made in the USA and available as a powder, chew or tablet. (Available online here at Amazon.com)

i-Clenz Herbal Remedy

This product is featured as a a blend of natural, cleansing ingredients in an herbal tincture.  Like I-Stain, the focus is on addressing underlying health. The limited number of online reviews have not been very positive so you will want to look into this one carefully.  Read more here at i-Clenz from Amazon.com

Burt’s Bees Tear Stain Remover

Try this product from amazon.com for under $9.00. Customer reviews on Amazon were split between ‘works great’ and ‘didn’t see a difference.’

There are a number of tear stain remover pad products offered.  This one for example, Excel 8-in-1 Tear Stain Remover Pads, got good overall response from more than 60 customers; it should be noted however that you must rinse your dog’s face after using these pads which made them less-than-ideal for some customers.

One more way to remove stains, from a Bulldog fancier’s site:

Milk of Magnesia, corn starch and peroxide

“Use equal volume of Milk of Magnesia (plain white) and peroxide, and then use the corn starch to make a good paste of this; put on and work well into the stained area and let dry 4 hours.

“Wash out, CONDITION WELL. Keep doing this for several days until tear staining is gone, although you might want to skip a day or two between applications. Apply a thin coat of desitan diaper rash ointment after the area is washed out and dry.

“Try this every other day if possible and the choice way of doing it. If your dog has heavy stains then do this for 3 days in a row, then skip every other day.”  Source: Bulldogs World

Read more about dark stains under dogs eyes:

• VetStreet: Why does my dog have dark stains under her eyes? 
• Love to Know Dogs advice site