Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

I know it sounds gross but my shihtzu's anal sacs get impacted often. Sometimes they express on their own.. and boy does it smell BAD. When they don't, I have to bring him to the vert so they can release them.. I hear this is normal is small breeds.

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

This is pretty common and happens to Molly every few months. The groomer will empty them for us. She just started scooting on Wednesday and luckily we had the groomer coming on Friday so he was able to take care of it.

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

My Doberman used to have that problem and I had the vet show me how to do it. I did it once a month - outside and he never scooted or expressed them himself again.
Just make sure it's done outside cuz the smell is horrendous.

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

I have a French Bulldog and she has the same Problem. You need to get her on a food that makes her stool harder. This will lessen the chance that they will impact.
We put Mia on chicked soup lite. she has been fine the last 2 times she went to the vet.

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

Oscar has this problem and we go to the vet to have them expressed. I can tell it is getting bad by now his butt looks and because he licks a lot. I have never seen him scoot. We would like to find a groomer who does this as some don't.

The vet told us to add more fiber to his diet. we feed him a teaspoonful of pure canned pumpkin every night. It must be pure pumpkin, no spices and not premade pre-flavored pie filling. It took a while to figure out gow much of that he needs (do not go crazy feeding a lot of fiber). He now goes for longer periods of time before he needs his glands expressed.

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

I think I will have to add more fiber to his diet too.

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

How would I know I had to get this done for Dottie?

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

Peanut's groomer does it every time we take her (6 weeks or so). I read somewhere that once the dog has them expressed by a person and not themselves, they lose the ability to do it themselves.

So we don't wait for her to scoot anymore, we just have the groomer do it.

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

When I was younger, my Belgian Malenois had problem also - they actually exploded and formed their own drainage. We didn't even know something was wrong until it was pretty freaken' obvious. We had to watch what she ate for a while.

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

this happens to my friends bull dog

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

Question- when they express on their own, is there a mess all over? Or does it just smell?

I'm just trying to figure out if I need to do this for Dottie?

I mean, she has god awful gas, but I don't think it's the same thing you guys are talking about.

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

If dotty has gas try changing her Food.
Mia had terrible gas. We put her on Chicken soup brand dog food and it is pretty much gone. Except for maybe when she gets a human treat she is not uses to.

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

Posted by ~Colleen~

Posted by chikita315

How would I know I had to get this done for Dottie?

My cat often gets impacted glands...one sure sign is the "scooting" - where she scoots her butt across a carpet Another sign is constant licking of the area.

I have to bring her to the vet to get the extracted every so often. They're supposed to extract on their own when they go to the bathroom...if their feces is too soft, it's obviously not pushing against the gland thus not allowing them to extract.

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

Posted by ~Colleen~

Posted by chikita315

How would I know I had to get this done for Dottie?

My cat often gets impacted glands...one sure sign is the "scooting" - where she scoots her butt across a carpet Another sign is constant licking of the area.

I have to bring her to the vet to get the extracted every so often. They're supposed to extract on their own when they go to the bathroom...if their feces is too soft, it's obviously not pushing against the gland thus not allowing them to extract.

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

Posted by ~Colleen~

Posted by Blazesyth
My kitty has this problem once, they got impacted and infected. I am concerned she is going thru this now again, I saw her licking the area a couple of times and of course we leave for a 10 day vacation next week, so with only someone coming to visit 3x to change food/water we will be worrying the whole time.

DH and I always wonder how often cats go down there and start licking - how often is 'normal'... we saw her 3x in the past week.

Whenever I have a concern about her condition and am about to leave her for vacation, I bring her to the vet. No harm, no foul. It gives me the peace of mind you want while on vacation

Re: Does anyone else have problems with their dogs anal sacs?

sophie gets impacted anal glands. the first time they leaked i had NO idea what it was (never had a dog before, let alone one who got impacted anal glands). i almost passed out from the smell

now that i have a clue i take care of her glands about once a month and then bathe her immediately afterwards.

Message edited 6/12/2007 8:59:49 PM.