Do you regularly express the anal glands?
 

There have been several recent posts touching on this subject, and I guess I'm still not sure... if the dog is not scooting or having any oddness/redness swelling around the anal area, do you still need to regularly express the anal glands anyway? In the informal Yorkie grooming DVD, the groomer says all dogs under 30 lbs need to have the anal glands expressed for them, on a regular basis.

My dogs are 8 mos old, and this has never been done to them.

I'd just like to know, once and for all, if I need to move on this or not. Sorry if this has been talked about before, I did a search on the topic, and it always seems to come up only as a possible solution to specific symptoms, such as the scooting or an odor.

Teresa

if its not broke, don't fix it. LOL

dogs do not need to have their glands expressed regularly if there is not a problem. most dogs express the glands themselves when they poop. some dogs cannot do this and then you will noticed them licking or scooting, and you might notice an odor. If this happens then you/the vet/or the groomer needs to express the anal glands.

skoshi scoots after he poops only on the carpet till i wipe his butt then hes good to go. is this the same thing. im so confused ive never heard of this

Agreed. There is no need to express them unless they are having trouble. It has been confirmed by Vets and from my own horrible experience that getting the anal sacs expressed regularly will negatively impact your babies ability to express them on his/her own. I use to get my oldest girl's expressed regularly and it's caused such a problem that I may have to consider surgery for her.

My girls never had a problem, but their groomer does it regularly. She seems to think it needs to be done. I have had issues about this also. I have read once you start you have to keep up with it. Max, on the other hand, I have been noticing he scoots a lot. I'll have the groomer take a look. I wonder how many actually have this done on a regular basis?

I can tell you that I never HEARD of a such a thing until last year, even though it's supposed to be common with small breeds. This was never a problem with the first Yorkie and it wasn't a problem with Ozzie until last spring -- when he was already 8 for Pete's sake.

We took him to a new groomer last year -- someone my mother knows personally -- and I think that was a mistake. Because it seems like within a day or two of that visit, our long series of trouble began. Started with rectal redness. Then, a few weeks later, noticed swelling back there. Took to one vet who thought could be a cyst and tried to EXCISE it (my poor baby -- if I'd only known). That only made it worse. Well of course it did because second opinion vet diagnosed its as a mild hernia! He thought neutering him would possibly help the hernia to correct itself. It didn't.

Hernia is no longer the problem. Vet said we can actually cause more problems with surgery (because it's the anal region and can result in complete inability to control bowels) to try to correct it. The invasiveness of the first vet brought on infection which we fought all last summer and which never completely went away. We think that is now the root cause of two recent bouts of HGE. Of course our vet won't say that outright but admits that it's a possibility.

Butt-scooting CAN be a sign of impacted anal glands but can also mean that they need to have their hair back there trimmed shorter, too. If they get a straggler attached back there, scooting on the carpet is their version of toilet paper!

My vet regularly sees Toto and he always checks hers ... if they need expressing, he does and if they don't need it, he doesn't. I would never allow anyone to do it but him.

our groomer does this for us every 6 weeks during haircut time

I did once when he was 12 weeks old thinking he needed it but I learnt that I was wrong. Now that I understand my boy better, he scoots when there is poop stuck on the fur on his butt and he does it after he poops because the carpet IS his version of toilet paper. Now I try to quickly clean his butt with baby wipe so that he doesn't scoot on the carpet but usually I am never quick enough for him :p

Don't fix what is not broken. Dogs really do not need the anal glands expressed that often. Some have never needed it.

The dogs need the secretion to lubricate the anis when they have a bowel movement. Don't have those anal glans expressed unless the dog is having a problem not expelling them. Dogs rub their bottom on carpets if it itches. Sometimes the little hairs that were probably cut away during grooming, tend to stick inward to the anis and poke that area which is very sensitive anyway. They don't always rub the bottom because of the anal glands being full.

I have never did this with my two and hope I never have to. I think it is best when they express them naturally

:eek: It just hit me reading this - When I used to take our Mini Schnauzer to be groomed, her hinder bothered her a lot after she got home. I'll bet her anal glands were being done... I'm going to call up there and see if they do it on regular basis. After I started grooming her myself, there were no problems whatsoever.... thanks for the eye opener!!:thumbup:

I've never done it to Coco or allowed anyone to do it. I groom her myself and I've never asked the vet to do it. I think it's best they do it naturally because I was told once you get them expressed, the dog no longer remembers how to do it naturally. They kind of get lazy and you have to always keep doing it for them, therefor causing more issues. I would leave well enough alone. Coco has scooted a few times but eventually she was ok :D

I have owned small dogs for over 20 years, and have never done it or had it done.

I've read that once you start you will need to continue. If they get sore or infected or whatever then I guess I would learn how to do it. Otherwise, as someone else said, if it's not broke don't fix it.

its not really true that once you do it you always have to do it. someone a gland does get impacted and needs to be expressed but after that they are fine again. the glands exprell fluid everytime the dog poops. its almost an involuntary thing that happens when the dog is pushing out the poop.

if your groomers are doing this without you telling them to i would have them stop. its not necessary and may become a problem