Anal Glands!!! Really??
 

I am already having one of those horrible weeks to begin with...and now I feel even worse. I have to run Ricky to the vet for what I think is an infected anal glands!! Not to be gross, but I can literally see something starting to protrude from his little bun hole:(


I am well aware of what anal glands are and even know how to express them myself, but for some reason, I didn't catch it and that's what really upsets me! He had been itching his bottom for the last 3 or so weeks and I've even seen him itching it on the carpet, but both my boys were itching so much from our flea infestation(thank goodness we've finally got a handle on that) that I had never even thought about him having an anal gland problem. I've had my other dog for 3 years and I haven't expressed them once. I think I did ask the vet to do it while he was under for his teeth cleaning 1.5 years ago, but that's it.


Anyways...I am praying that the tech can just take care of it and express them. I am really hoping they aren't impacted or infected, or that it's not anything worse! To make matters worse, this is my first time at this vet. I finally decided I needed one closer to me for emergency purposes. The other 4 vets I use are all 45 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes away. I've only been to this vet to pick up flea meds and the lady's up front were nice.

Wish me luck!!

oh poor baby, i hope he feels better soon..

Anal Glands are nothing to mess with, hope your guy will be ok. Dogs don't really show discomfort or pain unless it's really bothering them. If they scoot or lick back there or whatever they do to show discomfort, it must be addressed right away. Anal glands can burst or cause an abscess...it can be caused by a food allergy. It happened to my Mimi when she was eating fish based kibble. She had anal gland sacculitis, inflammation.

Hmmm....I wonder if it's his food that is irritating him. He gets lots of fiber in his diet and his poops are typically hard, although he has went through a few bouts of diarrhea after traveling.

We did go to the vets today and we had her look at him before his glands were expressed. She said what I was seeing was the top of his bun hole inflamed~most likely from licking and scooting. She said one of them was fairly fuller than the other but they didn't look infected or impacted...so that's good...actually probably the best news I've heard all week!! I was expecting it to be way worse!!

We took him to Petsmart afterwards to pick up some food and to reward him for being a good boy. I bought him a Curious George Sweatshirt because he loves his toy monkeys...I am sure HE probably would have rather had another toy, but he'll be grateful to have a sweatshirt this winter :)

Poor Ricky, hopefully they can express them and you both can enjoy your weekend!!


Peanut has to get his expressed once a month. I will always just run him into the Vet. If we go past a month I can tell because he will start to butt scoot!! I will always take him in that weekend.. or week!

Glad to hear Ricky's glands are not impacted or infected. Hoping he feels better now. If he starts scooting, go back to the vet right away. Max had a minor problem when he was a pup after the vet manually retrieved a stool sample. He had to have his expressed twice before they returned to normal. The glands can fill up really quickly.

dog
 

When I bathe my Yorkies I just reach back there and pop those stinkin anal glands if they need it. It isn't hard to do just do not pinch too hard and hurt the dog. They need to be checked and if you go to a groomer, they should take care of them. My groomer does or I do.

Sorry, I wasn't implying that it's allergies...it can be allergies for some. If he was doing ok w/the food previously, then it's probably not the food causing it. Glad everything turned out ok!

I used to express Mimi's once every 2 weeks or so during bath time & I don't do them anymore. Only when needed, she'll let me know by licking back there. When she had problems not too long ago, they were eating fish based kibble & it seemed like it was filling up fast & she needed it expressed weekly. One side was apparently not getting expressed properly (by me) & it caused an impaction, leading to the inflammation. The vet said the stuff that came out was pasty but it wasn't infected.

I was totally afraid his glands were impacted or infected. It took me a while to get Ricky's regular and he had runny poop for while when I first got him, so I am thinking it may have built up over that time...and beyond. Since we've had him, he's always had poops that were smaller that both the cat and Princetons poo....which I assumed was right because he's so small(4 lbs) but now, his poo's are as big as Princes. He had to have been really plugged up,poor guy!!

Now that I know, I will definitely will keep an eye out for it needing to be done.