There are many ways to clean the eyes of a (Persian) Cat. You have to find a way that suits you and your cat. I will tell you what I use with my 3 cats. All products I use are linked in the text, so you don’t have to search the internet.
We have 3 cats at the moment. One British short haired cat, who sometimes has some dried tears in her inner eye corners, but no stains. So we just clean the eyes from time to time, but mostly she does that herself. We have 2 Persian cats, one golden and one silver shaded. And they both need different approaches. I will tell you about how we treat the silver shaded cat, because that’s the cat with the most stainable eyes.
As you can see in the image below, the eyes of Persian cats can be watery. The tears are transparent, but they dry up rusty colored. When this builds up it can get really dark en the longer you wait, the harder it is to get rid off.
Luckily there is a lot you can do about this.
Clean the eyes
First you want to clean the eyes. This can be done with a bit of cotton, a clean tissue, kitchen paper or a sterile gauze. There are special pads on the market, which are specially designed for this job. Which ever you prefer, as long as it’s very clean.
Depending on which country you live in, you can use clean tapwater, or water from a bottle. Where we live, the tapwater is very clean and safe to use. Make sure you check this before you use it. You can also use a solution that helps to get the staines out of the fur. I use both of the methods, depending on how difficult the stain is at that moment. I must admit the solution works really well, especially combined with the pads. I use the brand Eye Envy, not sponsored, just a happy customer. š They have this cute starterpack, which indicates it’ll last for 30-45 days, but my experience is it will last you much longer. The brush is perfect to use for the delicate eye area, so a real must have. If you’re grooming a cat make sure you buy the small version of the brush, as cat faces are small, especially the eye area.
Holding the head
I’ve talked about this before, and will address this over and over again. Be careful with the holding of the head. Don’t hold the head by the neck. You might choke your cat. And we don’t want that!
As you can see in the image below, I hardly hold his head, and certainly not tightly. All I do is hold my thumb under his left ear. The other two fingers are loosely around his head. But as you can see I hardly touch his face. It’s just to keep him in place, if he might move hist head. This is a trust issue of course. I trust my cat not to move to much, and he trust me to not pierce his eye accidentally. This trust you have to build and will get better in time. As long as you are calm and use as little pressure as possible, this will be a good experience for both you and your cat.
Apply cream
So the stain is mostly gone, you now want to keep it that way! Well, there are products for that too. I apply a little bit of cream under the eyes (never in the eyes!) to prevent new tears from getting in the fur. It’s also a pretty white color, so if you apply it correctly it lightens the under eye area. Although you should only apply very little, it’s not a concealer like with humans.
Set cream with powder
After the cream is on, you want to set it with a setting powder. You can do this with a little powder brush. This ensures the cream to stay on it’s place. It also mattens the look a little, because the cream can be a bit fatty, and shiny. And we want the look to be natural. To be honest, when I’m done with my cat, I want no one to see what I did. It should look like there’s no cream or powder used.
If you have any questions or comments please leave a reply below.
Dutchkittycat 