Help - Anal Glands!!!!! and apologies!!

[Cocodoodle]

Just taken Coco to the vets for her 2nd jabs which were fine and been advised to wait a week before taking her out.
The vet also noticed some flaky dried skin at the bottom of her back near where it joins her tail. She tested it for some long named parasite came back and said no mites then proceeded to empty her glands
Please tell me this isnt something i have to do????
Any thoughts what i can do to get rid of this flaky skin and advise about the anal glands

[stout]

Stout had blocked anal glands, and had to have them emptied, thankfully Chris is the one that takes him to the vet . If their poos are firm then they 'self empty' so its something you (and hopefully we!) wont have to do (Stouts poos were anything but 'til 9 months when we changed food). I know some groomers also offer the service - yuck!

Our neighbours dog had flaky skin and he was advised to give him a spoon of olive oil on his food, which did the trick, if the vet cant find any cause that might be worth a go.

[Maggie111]

I'm reliably informed you can look at videos of how to empty an anal gland on you tube if you need it...



Where's the vomit smiley when you need it?

[Bid]

I would try and ask your vet if they need emptying before he does it again! It's not normally required unless the dog has a problem with them, but once you start doing it, they tend to need emptying more often. As already said, a good healthy diet should mean there is no need for the glands to be emptied - I know some groomer will do it automatically unless you ask them not to, but I didn't think a vet would

[ArchieBoy]

When we had Harvey (our golden retriever) the vet asked me if I would like to be shown how to empty the anal glands! I turned green and said "no thanks"

Thankfully, Archie is in the "self empty" group! He has really firm stools and a couple of times now we have noticed he does this - which I am so pleased about as no trip to the vet and no disgusting smell

Kirsty and Archie

[Cocodoodle]

Thanks for the advice guys!! Think i will see if it becomes a problem before i spend my evenings browsing 'how 2 videos' on Utube

[Clairejen]

You can usually recognise when they need doing by the smell - once smelled , never forgotten. We usually feed something with a high bone content, chicken wings and suchlike, then as it passes through it helps the glands empty. That way you shouldn't need to learn the digital method

[JeanG]

Bella needed it doing when she was younger, I took her to the vets to have it done, she was constipated and "scooting". The good news is that it cleared up as she got older. I didn't want it to become a necessity to have it done. Following advice on here I changed her diet and now it's no longer a problem. Make sure your pup drinks plenty of water too. Again, following advice on here I changed from a metal bowl to a ceramic. Bella also likes ice cubes in her water!

[Norfolk family]

All of my girls have had theirs emptied by the nurse at the vets. Candy my ASD needs hers emptied regularly. They all have firm poo's but were advised to add some extra fibre to the diet but this just made them constipated. The nutritionist at our vets looked at what food they're on and said it's the one she recommends to people especially if the dog gets blocked glands. Apparently some dogs just suffer!

[trinared]

Marley was needing his emptied by the vet every 6 weeks despite being on a high fibre dry food..... then at vets suggestion I now give him 2 weetabix with his tea and result!! Now been 3 months and no smell, scooting or licking.... fingers crossed !!!

[Webbs]

Hi
I just had a bit of an issue surrounding anal glands. Willow has recently been emptying herself but not when going to the toilet so we would suddenly get a really bad fish smell. I was at the vet as she had an eye infection and I asked him if it was normal for her to do this and he said it can be. I did say she goes to groomers every three months and they do it. He then proceeded to check her and he said they were so full they were sore so he emptied them. She was not happy at all.

He did advise to add a bit of all bran to her meals to help but to me she has quite firm poos.

I was slightly annoyed with the groomers though as I dont think they have been doing it properly as she went end Jan. The vet did say that they dont always do it like he does it. They can just release them from outside the area but this wont necessarily empty them completely. He used his finger to empty each side.

Due to this, I am now changing groomers. I was thinking about it anyway and this has helped plus the new one is closer to where I live.