blocked anal glands - cure?

angeldaisy

Just wondering if anyone has successfully treated blocked anal glands naturally?

Tara is a jrt x and over the last six months has started to suffer with this, she's approx 3yrs old.
She is fed skinners and has been on this for around 12 months.

I've no problem taking her to the Vet as I've no intention of doing it myself:-S

Any ideas?

muddypaws

I have heard, and I do it myself, that giving a dog a raw chicken wing regularly will keep their anal glands clear, you may need to get them done at the vets this time, but then the chicken should work.

cocker5

angeldaisy wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone has successfully treated blocked anal glands naturally?

Tara is a jrt x and over the last six months has started to suffer with this, she's approx 3yrs old.
She is fed skinners and has been on this for around 12 months.

I've no problem taking her to the Vet as I've no intention of doing it myself:-S

Any ideas?

This time take her to the vet and get them sorted...

What i do is two days per week I add some All bran into my cocker food (recommended by the VET , its the twiggy all bran) and he has no problem in this department.

Its usually due to low fibre food... so by adding some all bran helps keep them moving :rolleyes:

Ms Tootsie

Yep a trip to the vet will be needed this time. Don't worry it isnt too costly.

We feed our guy a raw chicken leg twice a week and this keeps the problem at bay. He is also fed a raw diet so that helps.

Pablo

It can be done yourself, although I would recommend that you put some gloves on when attempting it. <snip>

ZiabR

cocker5 wrote: »

This time take her to the vet and get them sorted...

What i do is two days per week I add some All bran into my cocker food (recommended by the VET , its the twiggy all bran) and he has no problem in this department.

Its usually due to low fibre food... so by adding some all bran helps keep them moving :rolleyes:

Good advice here. I use brown bread aswell. Anything to keep them regular

angeldaisy

thanks, must try the chicken wing/leg.

Back from the vets (hubby took her this time) and he got stung for 30 euro - normally costs me 15! She has a slight infection in one of them so had an antibiotic injection and was sent home with tablets as well plus she had her nails clipped - she apparently was not impressed in the slightest:D


plus off to the shops to buy all bran!

SillyMangoX

Did the vets show him how to do it? After the worst of it has been done it's no hard to do it a bit more often to stop it from building up that bad again until you can get something food wise to regulate it! (I would strongly recommending getting your husband to do it :P wear gloves and goggles and keep mouths shut!!! :pac:)

ABajaninCork

I have a Shih Tzu with the same problem. A couple of good pinches of psyllium husk in his food does the trick.

I don't give All Bran as there's a danger of constipation if the dog doesn't drink enough to make the bran soft enough to pass. Psyllium husk is soluble fibre and therefore easier to pass.

angeldaisy

SillyMangoX wrote: »

Did the vets show him how to do it? After the worst of it has been done it's no hard to do it a bit more often to stop it from building up that bad again until you can get something food wise to regulate it! (I would strongly recommending getting your husband to do it :P wear gloves and goggles and keep mouths shut!!! :pac:)

in fits of laughing here at the thought of him attempting that:p unfortunately the task would fall to me to do - as usual...

Off to the shops on the way home!!

angeldaisy

Well she had to go to the vets again today, and is still suffering with them, is on a stronger antibiotic for the next 7 days, so hopefully that might help.

Tried the chicken leg/wing, psyllium husk and none seems to be working.

Thinking I might need to look at changing her food, the joys of it!

Dodd

Did you give her the chicken leg/wing at a different time than her food or did she have food and chicken at the same time?

I never had a dog with this problem but what I read is it is usually dogs with soft poo that have it because harder drier poo work the glands.
Soft poo does not and can lead to build up.

So wings fead at a different time to food should cause dry poo which works the glands on its way out.

blatantrereg

james wellbeloved dogfood seems to help

angeldaisy

I was giving her the chicken leg instead of her evening meal, will still keep on doing it as both dogs love them.

I can't afford wellbeloved unfortunately but am going to change to a different type of Skinners, the one that is wheat and maize free and see if that might help at all.

Must look into some natural remedies to help clear the infection as well - can't be nice for her. Vet this morning 'suggested' that she might need an operation -bargain price of 300euro. Think I would rather try absolutely anything else than have to go down that route.

Millem

I feed mine the field and trial duck flavoured one and we haven't had any anal issues in ages. One of my dogs had horrendous anal glands and they emptied in my car once! Vile vile. I think some dogs suffer more than others regardless of diet as all my three are always fed the exact same food but only one had ever had anal issues. She has been fed hills, royal canin, James wellbeloved, burns and now skinners.

angeldaisy

Millem wrote: »

I feed mine the field and trial duck flavoured one and we haven't had any anal issues in ages.

This is the one ive ordered so fingers crossed it helps

ferretone

+1 on the using raw food, although I might go even further on the separation, as in feed only raw stuff a day or 2 a week, and stick with the dry on the other days. I believe its because raw and cooked are digested at different pHs, and therefore it's best to keep them as much removed from one another as possible.

I've also been taught that it's the proper, high-protein doggy diet (good protein, of course, meat or fish, whether cooked or raw, although keeping in mind they are digested differently, and absolutely not gluten, which is what is usually meant by "vegetable protein"!), that makes them strain a bit, that causes the anals to empty. I've never really understood how the fibre-based plan for that is supposed to work, although apparently it does for some, particularly those who use oat flakes.

I've worked as a vet nurse in the past, and am competent to relieve anal glands myself, but I did it quite a few times with vet supervision before I ever did it alone. I'm not sure how happy I'd be to send an owner off doing it themselves after a single demo. One could do quite a bit of damage attempting it too soon without guidance.

OP, I hope you can get this to resolve with diet. Never mind the vet bills, it's quite a stressful and uncomfortable way for a poor wee dog to go through life

ferretone

angeldaisy wrote: »

I was giving her the chicken leg instead of her evening meal, will still keep on doing it as both dogs love them.

I can't afford wellbeloved unfortunately but am going to change to a different type of Skinners, the one that is wheat and maize free and see if that might help at all.

Must look into some natural remedies to help clear the infection as well - can't be nice for her. Vet this morning 'suggested' that she might need an operation -bargain price of 300euro. Think I would rather try absolutely anything else than have to go down that route.

Oops, somehow missed seeing this one, when posting the above. Awful to hear she might need the op, so sorry In that case, I'd actually temporarily cut out the dry food altogether. I'd imagine that stuff has been running through her, and has led to her totally non-functional, blocked anal glands erupting with infection.

Your best bet is probably feeding only boiled chicken and whole-grain rice, for a few days at least, then gradually phase in a raw day or 2, and go softly, softly from there. I honestly would avoid feeding dry food for a while. Just give her system a rest from it, as I get a strong idea this stuff has been playing fast and loose with her system for a while.

I'm not claiming to be an expert, and others can advise more precisely on this, but I really do get the sense your poor bitch needs a rest from that sort of food. All the best with her again

ETA: By no means a criticism of you, by the way! Only the other week, I was discussing this with my neighbour. She has a dog who was diagnosed with megacardia, and at the same time he started the vetmedin (Ace inhibitor, I believe), we switched Darcy to a raw diet, with me driving in her wholesale supply with my own, and after 3 months, the vet checked him again, and declared his heart is now normal. Neighbour talked to me about how much harm she'd done her dog over the years, feeding that cheap, dry food that is so high in salt. I pointed out to her that she hasn't a lot of money, and thought she was doing ok by buying bags labelled "dog food". That really is where I see the problem. They shouldn't be allowed to sell bags labelled thus, when they are not fit to feed any dog, contain multiples of daily salt a dog should ever get per portion, and goodness knows what else. I mean, I thought we had Advertising Standards and all! And she has paid hundreds of quid over the years, for those miscreants to poison her dog! Disgusting is what it is. There are great dog food producers as well, but always, always far too many of the other sort. Out only to make a buck, and our dogs be ****.