Clogged Anal Gland

Submitted by onslowsmom on February 16, 2012 - 5:32pm

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Onslow will be six this April and he never had a single anal gland issue until he turned 5. So far this year we have had to drain it 3 times and each time it is only the one side that is "clogged" as the vet said. We have not changed foods or anything. I'm just wondering if anyone has any info on why it could be clogging up on the one side and what I can do to help him besides having it expressed once every month or so. This is a fairly new issue for us.

Thanks in advance!

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wishing you luck!

Submitted by Shannon and Winston on February 16, 2012 - 5:54pm.

The one time we had this issue Winston was crashing at his grandparent's house while I was post-op (and my dad had been sneaking him a LOT of cheese) for shoulder surgery...so I had to "handle" the issue one handed...

I'm sure someone will have some ideas for causes of "chronic" issues. Speaking of...how's the lump on his front shoulder? Did you have it removed?

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Shannon and Winston :)

My swimming bully buddy!

Ugh Lump is still there, still have to do the surgery

Submitted by onslowsmom on February 17, 2012 - 3:15pm.

I was holding off on that because my boyfriend had hernia surgery right before xmas and I wanted him to recover before we did Onslows. Well Sam just had his 2nd check up yesterday post surgery and we found out he has another one. *sigh*. He is going back in for surgery probably next week. So bummed and haven't decided if I'm just going to go ahead with Onslows too. Its hard to take care of them both by myself. =( Thanks for asking about him.

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Poor Sam and Poor you!

Submitted by Shannon and Winston on February 20, 2012 - 5:23pm.

I hope both your guys get sorted out quickly and on the mend soon!

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Shannon and Winston :)

My swimming bully buddy!

I've only had Sissy for a

Submitted by JenandSissy on February 19, 2012 - 11:58pm.

I've only had Sissy for a year now (she's 5 also) so I couldn't say what her history with this issue is, but since we've had her we've had to have her anal glands expressed a couple times now. My vet says it's not something that's normally common in Bulldogs but obviously it happens. She said the theory is that in the wild, the canine's natural diet would produce larger stools that express the anal glands on their own but since dog food is designed to make the stool smaller, it doesn't always express the glands on its own. Fortunately with Sissy there have been no issues of infection so I just take her to the doctor when the smell becomes noticeable.

Well thanks to an informational anal gland video

Submitted by onslowsmom on February 23, 2012 - 12:35pm.

we learned how to express them ourselves. For anyone with this issue here is what I have learned. If you don't want to express, a warm compress a few times a day will help open up the glands.

Also, 2 tsp of Flax twice a day will help as it will firm them up with fiber. Might as well share since nobody seemed to know this.

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ha!

Submitted by Shannon and Winston on March 2, 2012 - 1:59pm.

I'm glad you got it figured out! :)

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Shannon and Winston :)

My swimming bully buddy!