ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
by Lori

My 8 month old female maltese, Bella, had always had some tearstaining, but nothing uncontrollable. My female outside cat recently had a litter of kittens and after they were weaned we brought the kittens inside to introduce them to the litterbox, cat food , etc. Bella loves the kittens and plays with them all the time. Around the same time her tearstaining has become terrible. Its a real dark reddish brown and her entire nose stays this color. Its really disgusting looking. Am I right to assume she is allergic to the kittens? We will be getting rid of the kittens by the end of the week, so if this is the case she should get better. Could something else be going on? Thanks--Lori

DISCUSSION:

If she is 8 months old she could be getting close to going into heat which I have heard can cause eye staining. But if you remove the kitten for a day or two and it clears up, then I guess you would really know.
-Ruth

Your guess is entirely possible. My Cloud has a terrible allergy to cats. I took in my brother's cat for a year and Cloud began having a host of problems: eye infections, ear infections, and terrible itching--he would actually chew off his fur. He was at the vet monthly for cortisone shots. At first we didn't relate it with the cat, but we knew he had an allergy. The proof that his allergy was to the cat was very clear when the cat moved back to my brother's. Cloud was back to his old self within a couple of weeks. The change was so dramatic. A friend of mine who is a vet said that longhaired dogs have a tendency toward allergies to shorthaired cats or other shorthaired dog breeds. I'm so relieved that we discovered what was wrong. But Cloud really misses his cat friend. A year later and his ears still perk up at the word "kitty" and he will search to whole house.
-Carina

My maltese also had terrible eyestaining. Although there were no other pets in the house, the vet had told me she had seasonal allergies and for some reason Malteses are prone to this staining - allergies or not!
-Robin

Thanks for the replies, it is so nice to have a place to discuss Maltese!!
-Lori