What to Do When Your Puppy Has Excessive Tearing

Nutrition & Diet πŸ“… August 9, 2026 πŸ‘ 2278

πŸ“ Summary

A puppy's excessive tearing may be caused by food that is too salty, eye inflammation, or ingrown eyelashes. Generally you need to improve the diet and feed lighter food. If the dog's eyes are inflamed, use ointment; if it is ingrown eyelashes, surgery at the hospital is needed.

1 Overview

I. Causes of Tearing in Puppies

1. A puppy may tear more, likely because it eats overly salty food. Salty food makes the puppy ‘heat up’ and causes tearing and hair loss. At this point generally improve the dog’s diet – do not feed only dry kibble, and supplement with some wet food.

2. If the dog’s eyes are irritated and infected by bacteria, eye inflammation occurs and causes tearing. First clean the dog’s eyes with saline solution, then apply chloramphenicol eye ointment or erythromycin ointment to reduce inflammation.

3. A dog with ingrown eyelashes will keep irritating the eye and tearing constantly; generally you need to take the dog to a pet hospital for surgery to remove the ingrown lashes.

II. How to Handle a Puppy’s Tearing

1. Treat the cause – treat the dog’s tearing according to the different underlying reasons.

2. Tearing caused by viral or bacterial infection requires antibacterial and antiviral treatment, and attention to the puppy’s hygiene – clean often and bathe often.

3. When a foreign object falls into the dog’s eye and causes tearing, simply remove the object from the eye and disinfect.

4. Tearing from ‘heat’ due to salty dog food requires reducing salt in the diet, keeping food light, and feeding more suitable fruits and vegetables.

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