If you have a dog, you’ll be familiar with wiping away their eye bogies – but have you ever wondered what your pooch thinks of it?
A woman has gone viral on TikTok after asking whether her dog knows she’s cleaning off their eye gunk, and here’s what a vet says.
Wiping your dog’s eye bogies
“Hey Siri, does my dog know that I’m cleaning out his eye boogers or does he think I just like poking him in the corneas for fun all the time?” she wrote.
It’s started a debate in the comments, with one person saying the dog definitely feels a sense of “relief” when it’s gone like humans do.
Someone else thinks dogs just accept it as a part of life, like your mom fixing your hair or outfit when you’re a child.
“I think they know because my dog LOVES when I wipe his face,” someone else argued.
The crusty gunk forms when eye discharge builds up. Often, this watery discharge is caused by allergies, dust in the eye or wind blowing in the face, WebMD explains. However, it can be a sign of something more serious like an eye infection.
Vet reveals what dogs think
We asked a qualified veterinarian with over 10 years of experience, Joanna Woodnutt, whether dogs know we’re cleaning away their eye gunk.
She told The Focus: “It’s impossible to tell what dogs are thinking. It’s likely that the first, second, and third time you clean your dog’s eyes that they’ll wonder what on earth you’re doing – which is why it’s important to do it carefully to keep yourself and your dog safe.”
However, she said if their eye bogies are at all uncomfortable, they are going to feel a “sense of relief in them being gone” in the same way humans do.
“In time, they’ll learn that the discomfort lifts after their human does the ‘weird eye-pokey thing’ and they’ll come to tolerate it for its benefits. This will happen quicker if you can make it more positive for them by giving them a treat after they’re clean,” the vet explained.
How to clean your dog’s eyes
Woodnutt said the best way to clean out your dog’s eyes is with cooled boiled water on a cotton make-up pad.
Hold your dog’s nose and gently wipe over the eyes. If the bogie has dried into a crust, you might have to hold the soaked pad in place for a few seconds to loosen the crust before wiping again.
In some cases, eye bogies are a sign of a problem, so if you find yourself cleaning your dog’s eyes a lot you should ask your vet, especially if the gunk changes colour or quantity or the eyes look sore at all.
Joanna Woodnutt is a qualified vet in the UK who graduated from the University of Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine in 2016. She has worked for numerous practices doing medicine and surgery, and now works as a relief vet in the Channel Islands.
