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I am migrating over from the cat chat boards to ask a question. I met the cutest 5 month old Maltese in the vet's office yesterday and long story short, the owner mentioned she uses distilled water to keep her eyes from running -- the rusty discoloration. She had no discoloration and the only time she got it was when she didn't drink distilled water (drank tap water).

I was wondering if anyone had ever heard of this before as it might benefit both dog and cat breeds that have problems with tearduct/eye area discoloration.

Thanks.

It may merit some investigation and in theory it may prove to be accurate as distilled water has many of the minerals removed that are found in tap water. Still I wonder if just plain spring water might work just as well. In actuality though the the EPA has stricter safeguards on regular tap water than those found in bottled water. I wonder if a daily wash around the eyes would do just as well?
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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

She mentioned when the puppy drinks distilled water, no stains, when she drinks tap water, stains show up... I thought it was interesting...

Distilling takes out many impurities in the water, but it seems odd to me that it would make such a profound difference in that manner. Maybe if the tap water had heavy iron content and was splashing on the face it could discolor fur and that's what is being seen instead? I guess it wouldn't hurt to try such an experiment. Just be careful and don't use deionized water instead.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles www.freewebs.com/performanceshibas