One of our girls has had her sacs cleaned out for the second time in 8 weeks. We tried metamucel (sp?) for fiber, but that has not done the trick. The vet suggested that this could happen from allergies. One option is to change her food.

Has anyone had this problem and did you find it was from an allergy?

I have a 5 year old boy who is bothered by this same thing. His glands are so embedded that I can't get to them and they will not express themselves when he defecates. We have a standing appointment with the vet tech every 3 weeks to have them expressed. I'm not sure about the allergy side of this. I do have 1 boy that is allergic to grains, but no anal gland issue. I like the idea of no grain as a filler anyway so I feed all of my boys grain free. 2 are on Cal. Nat. Herring and sweet potato (allergy boy and anal gland boy eat Cal. Nat.)and the other growing boy eats Taste of the Wild Wetlands. It could be that the deep location of your girl's glands are what causing her to have such discomfort. This sure can be a pain in the you know where.

You have me intrigued; I have a girl with the same issue - and her sacs are difficult for me to express myself, so once a month we go off to see a tech; I am contemplating sac surgery. I will talk to the vet about them being deeply imbedded. They are difficult to express even "going inside" with a surgical glove.

I also feed TOTW, and will try the Wetlands now instead of the Prairie and see what happens. Am also intrigued about the allergy aspect, as all of this started with an exceptionally wet Spring.

My girl only has issues when her weight is a little high. But the trouble is I like her weight a little high just before breeding because whelping takes so much out of her compared to my other girls. My vet said the problem is exacerbated by being a little over weight.

Several years ago one of my girls was having some anal gland issues and needed her glands expressed every month to six weeks. At the time I was feeding her Innova dry food with otherwise good results. At about that time, Purina came out with their new Selects line and I put her on the turkey Selects. Her anal glands went berserk, she was constantly scooting and licking, and I was taking her to the vet every week to 10 days to have her glands expressed.

I suspected this dog didn't tolerate turkey well, so I changed her to a food with no turkey and she hasn't had an anal gland problem since. This was four years ago, and the dog has not had her glands expressed more than once in the last four years. Just my experience. I hope this helps.

I got to thinking about the allergy issue. My young boy that I feed TOW wetlands was showing what I thought were signs of needing his anal glands expressed. He was trying to bootie scoot, but couldn't quite get the hang of it. I took him to the vet to see if he needed his glands expressed and what it turned out to be was that he was allergic to corn in the kibble that I was feeding him. When the vet asked me what else he'd been doing, I told her that he was also licking his paws, scratching his ears and he had a start of a hot spot under the base of tail where the bootie ends and tail begins. Tah-Dah! Allergies. So what may have been an anal gland issue in my boy turned out to an allergy issue. Good luck with this.

About a year and a half ago I had a girl that was having problems with her anal glands, had them taken care of by the vet expressing them a few times then found an article on the web I think it was by the great dane lady that said to give the dog prunes once every so many days, did that for a month and she hasn't had any problems sinse.
Here is the article copied and pasted from the great dane lady site:
Jone Mizer, from Steinlove Setters- England wrote me to tell me of her experience with anal glands. This is certainly a natural and safe way to try and correct the problem.

" Years ago my veterinarian told me that one of his clients who owned a Rottweiler that had
constantly impacted anal glands had started to give her dog three dried plums (pitted prunes) on his food daily. Almost from the time that this client tried this, her dog never again required anal gland emptying.

I started giving two of my English setters, whose anal glands had to be emptied frequently, three dried pitted prunes once a week; and I have never had to empty anal glands on these dogs since then. (Not for more than 10 years in the case of the older dog.) I don't know why this works, but it does. I wanted to pass this information on to you. I hope that this will help others because it is a lot easier to scatter a few prunes on food than to physically empty anal glands. Friends who have tried this with their dogs have experienced the same happy results."

Aloha,
Jackie

Funny you brought up prunes Jackie, one of my boys has a anal gland issue, he now eats a few prunes a week. I give him one, I eat one, then all the dogs line up to wait for their's, and he gets another one or two. Works for me!

Wow! I'm going to give the prunes a try. At $12 a "X@#& squeeze" every 3 weeks it'll be worth it. I'll give the prunes until my boy's next tech appointment and go in for his 'treatment.'The tech always tells me how 'full' he was. If the prunes are doing it, then I'm signed up.

The prune idea sounds great. Just wondering ( I am sure this is a dumb question) BUTT, is a prune related to a grape? Just nervous of the "grape - raisin family" of treats.

Good question. No, prunes are not related to the grape. Although they look alike,(dried and shriveled)prunes grow on trees and grapes grow on vines.

Labmom,
I just had to chuckle at your "prunes grow on trees", although a plum could become a prune of left on the tree long enough! I know what you meant though, just thought it was funny hee hee!

I belive prunes and plums are the same fruit as the last time I bought some plums at Costco on the plastic box they come in it said plums/prunes... I was quite surprized as I didn't know they make prunes out of plums! And I don't believe prunes are the same as grapes at all.
Aloha,
Jackie

I talked to another vet yesterday and it was recommended to add some W/D (this is a Hill's formula) high fiber food to her regular diet. It sounds like the prunes would add that fiber, also, which should put more pressure on the glands as the stool is eliminated. She did not think it was allergy related.

PS - this pups' stools are on the small side - maybe that is an indication that fiber would help.

Thanks so much for your comments.