Hi. I have an 8 month old springer puppy with very runny eyes. I got him from  a breeder at 8 weeks old & during the first week we had him , first one eye started to run (this eye had a tiny amount of wet in the corner when we picked him up, nothing that worried me though) & then the other one started. The vet treated it as conjunctivitis but the drops didn't make any difference. Several months down the line & we have tried  a lot of different eye drops & he has just had his tearducts flushed but to no avail. His breeder felt that he would grow out of it as his face grew but now we are all wondering if its an allergy. Has anyone had any experience of this & have any advice? The vet can find nothing wrong with his eyes.

This is common in many breeds. A lot do grow out of it, some do not. My Cavalier grew out of it, most of my Papillons did, but one of the Papillons did not and still have runny eyes aged 6 -there's nothing wrong with them or him.

One of my dachsie bitches had one eye that was permanently wet and did grow out of it at about 8 months old, the vet put drops in the eye to check there was no ulceration due to lashes turning in and all was clear, she thought it was the finer lashes causing the problem and as her muzzle grew and head changed shape things would resolve and they did.

The staining beneath the eye disappeared as new hair grew in.

2 of my Cavaliers have had bad tear staining, my older girl grew out of it, my 15 month old is improving though hasn't completely grown out of it yet. Your puppy is still very young, don't panic too much yet.

My youngest cocker had tear staining in one eye which slowly improved until, at just over 1 now, she is fine.  Let nature take its course and try not to worry too much so long as it just watery eye and not actual eye infections e.g green/yellow and gunky.

Just because eyes have featured so much in the life of my Welsh Springer Spanial I would ask if your vet is an opthalmologist and if not please go and see one. Runny eyes can be a symptom of other things, I do not want to alarm you and it may be nothing but I will never leave any eye issue without investigation ever again.

Thanks for the replies. They are most helpful. As sometimes his eyes seem quite dry, I'm going to wait a bit before I rush back to the vet & see if if they clear on their own.

From a major runny eye sufferer owner here we tried and feared allsorts and finally I went through an elimination exercise and did a lot of research and it appears to have boiled down to one of or two things but i leave both out now as its been such a long haul to get here and i am so pleased its just ingredients and not a physical issue... it seems many have had the same problems.... Yeast and sugar beet. Its made an amazing difference and its so great to see him looking so clear now :) In fact his new food does have a small amount of brewers yeast in the meat coating but its tiny and apparantly small enough to not upset the immune system and the food also contains probiotics and initially I noticed a tiny return of runny eye which made me dig deeper into the ingredient list but it didnt escalate as i feared it might and it settled down :) and in fact maybe it was a different issue that caused it as hes a right old snuffler in the shrubs and long grass so it could have just been coincidence those couple of days..who knows!?  I'm just glad its resolved and would suggest you try the same if the feed you use contains any as imo its worth a go.

I would look at diet. Dogs definitely have more or less eye discharge depending on foods. Especially a dog with allergies can have major eye discharge if eating an allergen.

Has your vet checked to see whether the tear duct is partially blocked?  It could be blocked for a number of reasons (abnormality etc.) or it could simply be immaturity and the duct is not yet big enough to cope with the amount of tears produced.

Tears are constantly produced and drain out through small ducts. The ducts empty into the nose. If the tear duct is blocked (or too small), the tears overflow the lids and run down the face.

She did say the dog has had the tear ducts flushed so it seems its not the problem as I assume the vet must have been happy they werent blocked or immature or would have said so. I would hope so anyway...

has entropion been ruled out ??

Yes, entropian has been ruled out. We are working on the theory that its an allergy at the moment. He can't cope with too much chicken in his diet - it gives him the runs - so I'm trying to take all chicken out of his diet to see if that makes any difference. I'm hopeful that this is the cause as he does seem to have been a bit better recently although yesterday one eye was looking very sore & runny but today it seems fine.

hope all goes well and you get some answers soon.. xx

Just been back to the vet this morning & it looks as though it might be entropian after all, although the vet said that it is very subtle. He has referred us to an opthalmologist vet nearby & we have an appointment tomorrow to see whether he needs an operation to correct it now or whether we should wait until he is older & fully grown. Fingers crossed that this is the final diagnosis & that we finally get something done.

Sorry to read that this may be the more serious condition and requiring surgery, I hope you get your final diagnosis and help to decide what you need to do and how soon.

For what ever reason, vets often rush into a surgical treatment for something like this...something which often resolves by itself with the natural maturity of the head.

the vet said that it is very subtle
Couldn't agree more Tooolz.  With a comment like that from the Vet, I certainly wouldn't be rushing into surgical intervention. :(

A quick update for you all:  Finlay has entropian which will need surgical intervention but the vet said it doesn't need doing immediately so I'm going to wait until he is a year old unless his eyes get any worse. Thanks for all you replies.

So sorry that the news wasn't better, hopefully waiting won't leave any lasting damage to the surface of the eyes, I am sure the vet would have stressed if it needed doing sooner rather than later.

but the vet said it doesn't need doing immediately
That's good - it must be very little or it would need fixing immediately to avoid damage to his eyes.  By the time his skull grows he should (if you're lucky) grow into his loose skin and not need surgical intervention.
I've had a few Rough Collie puppies over the years, whose eyes have been watery around teething time but none have had a problem by the time they were a year old.

they don't all need doing.
my 3 year old weimaraner has it on both eyes.  vet she saw at her puppy check was an eye specialist and said its suprisingly common on mongrels as well as pedigrees and much of time is not sufficiently bad to warrent treatment.  he advised wait and observe closely as he said if was going to cause real trouble would be obvious before 18 months- and if wasn't causeing distress/damage better left alone