Please help- pasty gunk in anal glands!

7920 Views 6 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Rubydoo, Dec 2, 2006

murraysmom

Discussion Starter · Nov 28, 2006

Murray's anal glands are no longer producing smelly brown liquid- rather, they are filling up with pasty beige gunk.

We were at the vets last night for our regular monthly anal gland expression, and for the 2nd month in a row that is what the vet found. He flushed both glands with saline.There is no infection, but he says that this material can't pass out by natural means when Murray poops.He said that if this continues he can continue to flush, but that maybe it's time to think about surgery to remove the glands.

I've managed Murray's anal glands for 2 years (since both glands abcessed) with monthly expressions and diet and exercise- pumpkin and bran added to his food and lots of activity, and up until now we've been OK. This isn't working anymore.

Has anyone out there had a hound producing this pasty stuff in their anal glands? What did you do?

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Betsy Iole

· #2 · Nov 28, 2006

One of my dogs does this. I express her glands as needed, and she has not had trouble with infections.

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murraysmom

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 28, 2006

Thanks Betsy!

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Soundtrack

· #4 · Nov 29, 2006

I routinely see dogs with pasty gunk. It doesn't seem to be a problem for them that I'm aware of.

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murraysmom

Discussion Starter · #5 · Nov 29, 2006

Thanks Miriam- I had never seen this, and the vet gave me the impression that something abnormal was happening. (He has been talking about removing Murray's anal glands for 2 years, since they abcessed.)

I will continue to just manage them as I have been with diet and exercise and regular expression of the glands.

You and Betsy have put my mind at ease about this. I really appreciate it.

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Maggie's Mommy

· #6 · Dec 2, 2006

Stickers has a terrible time with her anals! Seems she needs them expressed every 3 weeks! The Vet just told me to either try adding a human fiber supplement or Fiber One cereal to her diet. It seems most of the fiber supplements have some type of sugar substitute in them. I don't like that idea. So instead she gets a nice handful of Fiber One cereal as a treat daily. She loves it and her poop looks drier. Time will tell if it helps. I wrote to Maggie's Mae's (ATB) Vet in Phila. and he said let more time pass between expressing her anals. She needs to build those muscles up.

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Rubydoo

· #7 · Dec 2, 2006

When Ruby had gunky stuff in the anals, she had an infection there as well. Antibiotics took care of it.

I've written about this before, but we had the WORST time with Ruby's anal glands for more years that I care to count. I think we put the vet's kids thru college with all of the vet bills. They were blocked all the time no matter what she ate or what we did and so on....she still pooped fine tho.

We didnt' want to have them removed. When we moved to Jacksonville, FL, we met the most wonderful vet in the world (wish we could have taken her with us when we moved again). Apparently she is the only vet in that end of FL that does anal marsupilization (I know I'm not spelling it correctly). The glands aren't removed but cut and sewn inwards and then they shrivel up on their own.

You think a basset does dinosaur sized poop? You should see what comes out (so to speak - ha!) after the glands are done.

No problems on that end ........sorry...........

I really can't resist.

tee hee

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