Hi,

Anal Glands, what a good topic for right away in the morning (at least for those reading this in the morning). Almost a month ago my 2 year old GSD female had to have her anal glands expressed (by my Vet). She was exhibiting butt munching behavior and right after she went poop she would sit down and butt drag just a little bit. Anyways this morning she did it again and I am wondering if anyone knows what might be going on?

I am going to take her to the vet today have him check it out but I just wanted to find out any opinions from you guys.

She is fed an all natural diet, chicken quarters, chicken necks and backs, ground turkey, mackerel, raw eggs, salmon oil, vit E, some kelp and alfalfa. She recently quite eating hamburger, I think because I thought a little pumpkin in her diet would be good, she had semi-hard stools, after I put a little (< ¼ cup mixed in) she would not touch the hamburger. I have not been feeding veggies; she will not have anything to do with veggie glop. I just started her on THK perfect form supplement, I just started adding a little in this morning, about a ¼ teaspoon.

She did start on Heartguard the beginning of May, I gave her Heartguard again June 8th. It seems about 4 days after the Heartguard she gets diarrhea, happened in May and again in June, just for one poop and then everything is OK. I want to find something other than Heartguard.

I always take a gander at her stools to make sure everything is OK, and they look just fine, not too hard, not too soft.

Any ideas what might be causing this?? Or maybe the vet didn’t do a good enough job the first time.

Thanks

did she scoot before or after the perfect form? NOT saying the perfect form is not good for the dog. But, could be a trigger for the scoot if it is the first time for her and she is getting used to it.

It was before Perfect Form, we got up at 6am, I took her outside, pooped, did a little butt scoot, looked at me like what the hell and carried on like normal. She ate after the poop, like 6:15 am.

well, anal glands aren't always taken care of due to raw diets. take her to the vet,see what is going on, just to make sure.
Then, these people can help you figure out your diet to maybe help the scoots if they are due to impacted glands.

FYI, my Corgi mix had problems her whole life and nothing fixed it. sounds like yours isn't that bad and can be helped.

We feed Kasey a raw diet and I have to express his glands at least once a month, usually twice. He's almost 3 and has been like that since he was a puppy. The vet said some dogs just fill those glands up and can't express them well on their own. I had to learn how to do it from the vet because I couldn't afford the $30 they charge to do it. I can always tell when Kasey's are starting to bug him because he does the same thing your dog is - bites back there and scoots a little. They are never impacted, just full.

Thanks, I have an appointment at 2:30, hopefully the vet will show me how to do it, I am sure he will. It will be a learning experience I'm not looking forward to, maybe I can talk my wife into doing it

Good luck with getting your wife to do it! I tried and tried to get my husband to join in the fun and he won't budge!! It does take some practice - it's not easy at first. I went to the vet 3 times in a row when they needed expressing and had 'tutoring' to make sure I was doing it right. You can hurt them if you do it wrong! If you end up not wanting to do it, or just can't do it (some dogs are harder to express than others), you can often find a groomer who will do it for a lot less.

I dont think I will have a problem doing it, its my dog and its my responsibility to take care of her...

Yes, I read a lot about it and I know if I do it wrong I can create problems and\or hurt her. Thanks for the advice, I will probably do the same (tutoring the first few times). It only costs $20 here.

I will have to work on my gag reflex

Thanks

My female has to have her glands expressed every couple of months. According to the vet, both of her glands are positioned in a less than ideal location, one being very high up, an therefore are not expressed well when she deficates. She does not scoot, but will chew on her anal area when the glads are full & need to be expressed. They don't get infected, but fill up & need to be expressed. My dogs have been on a raw diet all their lives but in her case it still is not enough to express the glands properly due to their location. A raw diet, does add more 'bulk' to the diet for a dog, but since I have never fed kibble to my dogs, I don't know, personally, if it is works more effrectivly to express the anal glands. Just my experience.

The vet taught me how to do it, it's not that hard to do, just not that fun.

I just thought I would add in the part about the natural diet in case anyone asked...

Thanks