GAH!! Dog food/gland dilema

tk123

OK firstly apolgies for yet another food thread but I'd like some opinions pls!

My dog is currently on JWB cereal free. I thought it was suiting him fine - the farts he started having from it were canceled out by a spoon of yoghurt and our other issue of stinky bum anal glands would sort itself once he was unrestricted and allowed of his lead again (he had an operation on his leg) When he was restricted he wasn't always pooing in the evening so he started to have full glands..now that he IS pooing in the evening we still have stinky bumbums The poos are hard (and SMELLY - never stunk like this before I put him on JWB) but the glands are still leaking - I've tried giving him wings a few times and he gets a carrot everyday but still at least once a week there's a leak.. This morning we came back from our walk (he poo'd) and I could smell them!

So question number 1
- I've tried emptying the glands myself but nothing ever comes out and he's uncomfortable with me doing it because I don't know what I'm doing - I can't feel them! Is it time to take him to the vet or should I see how he does on a different food? I'm wondering of they could be impacted? He's not scooting but does lick at the base of his tail? I was only there a couple of weeks ago for his kennel cough and didn't mention it as I thought it's sort itself out.:rolleyes:

Question 2
- I was planning on trying him on Taste of the Wild - my concern now is that if the JWB is too rich will TOTW be the same/worse?? I can't switch him to raw or give him bones at the moment so it has to be dry food. I'm not really looking for brand suggestions - I've already got my hit list made up but should I play it safe and go for in and around the same nutritional levels as the JWB or go with a higher quality food. He's a retriever btw which I know are prone to sensitive tummies. Is there any point switching the JWB flavour from turkey and veg to lamb and veg? I would have thought lamb was richer?

GAH!

cocker5

I have my cocker on Burns (Chicken and brown rice)... on my vets instruction is give him a small handfull of all bran (just the twigs nothing else) mixed in his food and his glands are perfect... some dried food are low in fibre so try and substitute with all bran.

Also try and add a tin of sardines mused up into your dogs food once per week.... oil and all it will help keep his glands clear and healthy coat etc

tk123

How often do you mix in the all bran cocker5?

lorebringer

Glands have been, and sometimes still are, the bane of my life! Hours and hours have been spent, and bags and bags of food have been bought, trying to find the best food to get glands to drain on their own and, unfortunately, every dog is different. I have found that adding a bit of Shredded Wheat or something similar (All Bran, brown bread etc) helps but doesn't eliminate all the problems. JWB is great, Best for my Dogs is also very good (high in fibre and gets things going), Burns can work on some dogs but not others and a few other foods work ok but those three are the most successful (I have found). If you are thinking of changing food, going onto a richer food may not be such a good idea. I have tried JWB cereal free and they are definitely richer than the standard foods, the senior/light versions are the most "fibrey" and seen to work the best when it comes to the glands (if you were hoping to stick with the JWB). I don't know about flavour but I have found my guys like fishy foods the best! Retrievers can be big producers when it comes to glands but because they don't have particularly big glands (physically) they can fill quickly.

The best thing I have found is to do my dogs glands myself, especially as they get older and glands don't clear as well as they used to. Ask your vet or groomer to show you how to do it (most will show you for free!) - there are lots of videos online but if you can't get to grips with it (no pun intended) it would be easier to have a live model so you can feel what you need to and drain them properly without stressing you or your dog out! Trying things like putting a warm, damp cloth on the dogs bum for 10/15 minutes (keep it warm but redipping it into hot water once it cools) can get the gland fluid more liquidy and easier to get out.

Good luck finding a solution!

cocker5

tk123 wrote: »

How often do you mix in the all bran cocker5?

heres what i do....

saturday he gets the sardines.... monday a handful of all bran.....like a little bigger than match box size... and mix it in with his burns... and same on thursdays... and he's a regular as clockwork!

He did have to have his glands emptied during last summer... thats when my vet recommended the all bran... and he's been perfect ever since

tk123

Thanks for the advice guys!! I'm going to try him with some bran over the weekend as a temp solution. My other task over the weekend is to figure out storage for fresh/raw food - I don't know whether it's going to be a new fridge/freezer, a chest freezer squeezed in somewhere or a shed outside with a freezer in it if we need but we'll figure something out.

ABajaninCork

My Shih Tzu had the same problem. We solved it by changing his food to Burns (Pork or Duck), and adding some psyllium husk. He also gets a half teaspoon of cod liver oil added to his food.

We vary his diet a bit by giving him fish with brown rice and hearts a couple of times a week.

The vet emptied our dog's glands and the howls of pain were heart-rending. Get the vet or a groomer to do it if necessary.

Since we started adding the psyllium two years ago, we've never looked back.

DogsFirst

Anal glands are like zits, blocked secretory pores, a result of too many soft stools (ice cream esque). For these to be expressed in a normal fashion the dog needs to have regular bowel movements, which are firmer, smaller nuggets.

Adding fibre to the dogs diet increases the flow of digesta, making it softer and should in effect express the anal glands less. That's why fibre is recommended for constipation (it essentially acts like a sponge, absorbing water into the stool, bulking it). ABC above is right in part, fish and brown rice is almost completely digested by the dog, resulting in a small firm stool which expressed the gland normally. However adding fibre here counteracts this good effect.

It is a problem unique to domestic dogs and unique to those only a dry food diet. You need to aim for a good, easily digested diet of meat and maybe rice/spud for awhile to create normal poos. Dry fed dogs have big wet sloppy, stinky poos. This isn't normal for a carnivore. Soft sloppy poos are caused by cereal (fibre but also gluten - need to avoid wheat, barley and rye), poor quality protein (difficult to digest, bulking stool).

The anal glands are at 4 and 8 o'clock on the dogs bum. Use a gloved hand and some vasellline on your fingers. You squeeze them at the root like a zit then you have to milk it a bit!. But once you pop you can't stop. Even if you move to a good diet the problem may well return. To avoid dog discomfort (which will spread to the vet nurse's job and make it an eternally unhappy time for him) let the nurse do it and give her something nice when she does.

Key is - avoid the foods mentioned above, if it happens express (or get vet nurse to do it) and move to a food that the dog can digest - meat (pref. raw) and maybe a little cooked rice.

tk123

Thanks everyone - he's actually been fine the last few days - I gave him a little bit of bran and he also ate some sticks at the weekend which may have helped lol!!:rolleyes::pac: The poos are nice and solid on the JWB - never been sloppy but my mind's made up - he's going to be a raw/fresh boy by the weekend. My main stumbling block was storage - which has been sorted (by auditing the freezer lol) and the second thing that was holding me back was convenience - I don't really have time during the week to feed him eg stuff with bones in - in the morning it's all systems go and also my mum who gives him his dindins is nervous of giving him bones when I'm not there :rolleyes: - SO.. I got a mincer on amazon that will grind the chicken bones lol My plan is to mince up the thighs/drumsticks during the week and then at the weekend he can munch bones we're not in so much of a hurry. Now I know mincing it isn't ideal and he's missing out on eg tearing the meat but I think it's a good compromise and better than dry every day? Our butchers has a loyalty card so we'll be racking up our points now lol :pac: They're good price wise have a good variety including 'traditional' stuff like hearts, liver, oxtail etc so once we get started I'll try him on different things.

tk123

My mincer is out for delivery!! The excitement lol :D

SingItOut

Just to add on the fibre thing, I was in the vet this evening (youngest kitten getting her spay stitches checked on) and over heard a woman with a westie saying she had the same problem. The vet recommended a "teaspoon" of Muesli mixed in with the dogs dry food, not sure what food the woman was feeding though

cocker5

Muesli...?

not sure about that one.. as alpen / supermarket brands etc are full of sugar...plus raisans are bad for dogs... i wouldnt given it to my dog its far too sweet etc... he would be wired :P

personally i would stick with basic fibre cereals etc...

tk123

cocker5 wrote: »

Muesli...?

personally i would stick with basic fibre cereals etc...

NOOOO!! I'm all excited now about making up my batches of 'TK's Best' (patent pending):pac::pac::pac:

SingItOut

Of course you would take the raisins out, I know that much! Just offering advice I heard from a professional

paultf

TK - just came across this fibre product 'Pro-Fibre':

http://www.viovet.co.uk/p2788/Protexin_Pro-Fibre_ProFibre_for_Dogs_and_Cats_-_800g/product_info.html

Maybe the cereal fibre does the trick - cheaper anyway!

tk123

heehee

DBB

tk123 wrote: »

heehee

Ha ha! A familiar sight in this house!
Nyom nyom nyom!:D

Cherry Blossom

You need more lunch boxes!

tk123

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

You need more lunch boxes!

The bags take up less space in the freezer and don't have to be washed out like the boxes

DBB

adrenalinjunkie wrote: »

You need more lunch boxes!

I'd recommend treating yourself to more chinese and/or indian take-aways tk123

But yeah, I also freeze meals in bags as you can squeeze more of them into the freezer.

TooManyDogs

Did you mince up the bones??? Always curious how this would work. Did you have to chop up the bones first to fit them into the mincer? I have a poultry shears for my bones, works a treat, I think my lot would miss their bones but they only get fed once a day so it's not too bad to supervise them

tk123

Yeah I did mince them lol! They actually went through no probs I was surprised how easily it handled them - I was expecting to hear it struggling but I just fed them in one at a time and they flew through it. I put the carrots through after the meat as I'd read online to do that to make it easier to clean afterwards. It works for us because it basically makes it as convenient as feeding dry for our day to day routine. I wasted LOADS of time measuring it out though..only to realize near the end :rolleyes: that I had measuring cups that the meat/veg portions fit in perfectly!! So next time I'll be more organized and should get it done a lot quicker!

Zapperzy

Are you going mincing all the bones or just some of them for convienience? I think the bones are the biggest bonus for me, he's got pearly whites because of them!

tk123

Zapperzy wrote: »

Are you going mincing all the bones or just some of them for convienience? I think the bones are the biggest bonus for me, he's got pearly whites because of them!

Just some of them - I plan on giving him real bones at the weekend. His teeth are sparkling cos I brush them every other day - he LOVES it! :pac: