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Is there a dog food that reduces the need for expressing anal glands?

4K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  BettyMiller 
#1 ·
Hi
I have a goofy basset named Henry who is almost 3 years old. When he became part of my family, he came with Giardia. That was treated, but later, he began to have a truly unpleasant odor and I learned a few months ago, he had to have his anal glands expressed. Now, the smell and the licking etc are back and the smell will now require another trip to the vet as soon as that’s possible. Is there a particular dog food that would help Henry?
I’ve enjoined the company of bassets for most of my life and this is a new one on me!
thanks!
Louise
 
#2 ·
I have always given my bassets a spoon of plain canned pumpkin with each meal.. started doing this when Murray had chronic anal gland problems many years ago and ended up with an anal gland infection.. Rather than surgically removing the anal glands which our vet at the time suggested, I started the canned pumpkin regimen. He never had another anal gland issue. The pumpkin adds fiber and our bassets like it. It works for me, might be worth a try.
 
#4 ·
The anal glands in the dog who normally passes a good firm, but not hard, stool should never need touching. And this has to do with a correct diet producing a correct stool. When there's a problem with digestion (ie diarrhoea or again, even overly hard stools) the glands (both or just one side) can become impacted and often infected. When this happens the dog will be uncomfortable and a trip to the vet (who will love you!) will be needed for him to manually drain the glands, and see what comes out. With impaction/infection the glands (or again just the affected side) will/should be packed with antibiotics. Some vets will give oral medication which has never worked with mine. The dog may well be uncomfortable for a while afterwards, until the glands settle down. And another antibiotic may be needed if the first one hasn't cleared the problem. Also until the reason for the problem is addressed, the glands, which should never be empty, will fill up again and the same problem start again.

Yes, if there's repeated trouble with these glands, they can be surgically removed - we had this done, once. It's a nasty surgery and I'd avoid this if at all possible.

My dearly-departed boy, who also came to us with Giardia at 4 months, to my horror, would have bouts of AG problems - his were set too far in (meaning I wasn't able to manually drain them myself as I did this via pressure on the outside, not internally) and the situation of them meant even with a normal stool, they didn't always empty naturally.

Be warned - dogs don't need these glands manually drained on a regular basis. Or shouldn't and the more you mess around with them, the more likely there will be problems. I've never used canned pumpkin btw.
 
#5 ·
I'm sure genetic plays some part such as atomically spacing. We have on dog that does need routine draining ie once a month otherwise they do become impacted which is much more serious. but in a normal dog expressing these glands does more harm, than good. In Wifes grooming shop back in the day expressing anal glands was a routine part of grooming Not any more , only done by request and is like less than 1% of dogs.
 
#6 · (Edited)
I think you should check with the vet. I feed my dog with the food recommended by the veterinarian , everything seems to be fine, there are no parasites and there is no smell either. My sister and her husband fed the dog only natural food and the dog got an allergy, maybe this is an individual case, but food is not always safe even for people, and special dog food is always reliable. I advised them the food that I use and the allergy passed. I always listen to the advices of veterinarians. Thanks for such good people who love animals and we can trust them.
 
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