# Keeping Clean arround the mouth



## WhatsinAname (Mar 29, 2008)

For those of you who have HAvs with light color around the mouth, how do you keep it clean? I've seen many photos here of furbybabys with light around their mouths and I can't figure out how you keep it clean. Cody has brown stains from food around his mouth and I can't get it clean. Any help with be appreciated.
Thanks all.


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## Beamer (Jan 29, 2007)

Hi Glenda,

It might be the food you are feeding Cody which is stainging his fur. Maybe try another kibble out! Or a raw diet would be good to!

Ryan


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## dschles (Jan 23, 2007)

Scout has staining in his beard area. I always thought it was because he gets that fur wet when he drinks out of a bowl and the wet fur leads to some bacteria growth that causes the stain. Some people say that the staining is caused by hard water, but we have always used bottled water. We also have a hamster-like water dispenser, but Scout prefers water from his bowl.


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## WhatsinAname (Mar 29, 2008)

Beamer said:


> Hi Glenda,
> 
> It might be the food you are feeding Cody which is stainging his fur. Maybe try another kibble out! Or a raw diet would be good to!
> Ryan


Hi Ryan,
I feed him Nutro Ultra Dry food. Is there a kibble you'd recommend?


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## WhatsinAname (Mar 29, 2008)

Diane,
That's interesting what they say about the water. The water here on Long Island isn't the greatest so I've been giving Cody purified water.

Glenda



dschles said:


> Scout has staining in his beard area. I always thought it was because he gets that fur wet when he drinks out of a bowl and the wet fur leads to some bacteria growth that causes the stain. Some people say that the staining is caused by hard water, but we have always used bottled water. We also have a hamster-like water dispenser, but Scout prefers water from his bowl.


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## Beamer (Jan 29, 2007)

Glenda,

I do not feed Beamer kibble any longer. He is on a raw meat diet for the last year! BUT.. Evo is a great kibble that lots of people use around these parts!

Ryan


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## Julie (Feb 8, 2007)

There are alot of different theories and different things to try. We have struggled with this for the last 2 years. If you do a search on here of tear staining/stache staining---you'll find alot of people have used/tried many different things. I have not found anything that actually works. I know originally I was told to avoid kibble with beet extract in it.....that turned out to not be accurate. Beet extract is WHITE-not RED...and therefore does not contribute to the staining. The thing that I find most interesting is some show dogs have muzzle staining in their pictures.In fact-quite a few of them do. There are also others with beautiful stain free faces,in both pet and show dogs. The thing I have noticed however,is my dog drinks from a bowl and I do think keeping the muzzle dry is a big help,by use of the water bottles like a hamster uses,but bigger. 

Good luck-and if you find the secret----please share.

If your dog is doing well on his kibble-I certainly would not change it because chances are it will not make him stain-free.(Been there-did that-several times over)


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## RikiDaisyDixie (Apr 15, 2008)

*show dogs have powder to cover it up!*

You notice a lot of staining in the black and white dogs for some reason! My silver has no staining, and my black and white does...as do my friend's with black and whites!

Show dogs have special tricks and powder to cover it up!

What is funny is where Riki licks his paws does turn red...so it is something in the saliva...and he is on a raw diet.

I was reading all the things some of the show dogs use...no wonder they look so good. And some show dogs have no stain at all no matter what color they are. Look at Karen Ku's beautiful Bailey...he never stains...and I've known him as a puppy.


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## MopTop Havanese (Sep 25, 2006)

We switched to hamster type water bottles over the summer. I noticed a big decrease in the mouth staining in my Havs. It's not totally gone, but def better~


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## Gracie's Mom (Sep 7, 2007)

I personally believe it is the dog and their make-up as to whether their saliva affects it or not. Gracie has never had staining around the mouth, and I really don't do anything special. I do use distilled water, I guess. But she has stains under her eyes, but that is because she is constantly wet because of her eye problems (that she has having surgery for on 10/22). Maybe it is how long the hair is wet. Her face doesn't really get wet when she drinks. I keep her in a puppy cut so her snout hair is short and the hair under her mouth is pushed back always. Kind of makes sense??


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## WhatsinAname (Mar 29, 2008)

Thank you all for your advise. It's been very helpful and interesting.

Katie, Your puppies are precious. I want one... I want all


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## Jane (Jun 2, 2007)

Rikidaisy said:


> What is funny is where Riki licks his paws does turn red...so it is something in the saliva...and he is on a raw diet.


Lincoln battles this too, periodically. The staining is due to bacteria and red yeast. I am not sure why some dogs are more susceptible to this vs. others - I am looking into food sensitivities as a possible cause. Anyway, the only success I've had battling the red yeast staining is Tylan powder (aka Tylosin), also found in the products Angels Eyes and Angels Glow. Good luck!


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## marisoma (Jan 20, 2008)

Rikidaisy said:


> What is funny is where Riki licks his paws does turn red...so it is something in the saliva...and he is on a raw diet.


I am so glad I saw this as I had this problem with Giotto and could not figure out how it happened.

When I picked him up from his 2-night stay at the vet's for his neutering his front paws were a rusty/red color. I assumed it was blood and asked them about it and they said it wasn't blood and is just the color of his paws. I knew that wasn't the case because he has white paws and they were white when I brought him in. It took weeks for that redness to go away and now that you mentioned that your dog's paws get red when he licks them I realized that is what happened to Giotto. He is a licker in general, but he really licks when he is stressed, especially his paws. That is what must have happened when he was overnight at the vets and why it didn't happen before or since.

Mystery solved!


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