Hi, I haven't been around for ages but hope everyone's well. I am posting on behalf of a very distressed friend asking your valued opinions/advice. She has a two year old Shar Pei bitch 'Bella' who constantly leaks anal gland secretions around the house. As you can imagine, she is finding this very distressing as Bella has the run of the house and anal secretions are awful - it drips onto the floor, smears her bed etc... Bella seems distressed by it too as she is constantly rubbing her bottom along the floor and spinning round trying to lick her bottom :0(
The vet has said this is completely normal and something that they have to learn to live with but its making everyone so unhappy - my friend is concerned about house hygiene and her families health - this is anal secretion and must be full of bacteria. How would you deal with this? Is there anything that can be done to stop this and would removing the glands be an option?

T I A

Hayley

Hello.I had this recurrent  problem with my dog and we actually resolved it with   a protocol my vet suggested.
We  first emptied the sacs.....for how to....http://www.marvistavet.com/html/anal_sacs.html
Next for the following ten days I had to put an antibacterial cream*we used fucidin.....into the  anus with a gloved finger*gross I know,but it works to disinfect the leaking,infected glands.
If you are not comfortable with doing this,your vet should be able to help you. In my dogs case we have had two years of  leak free glands and it really did make a huge difference.

It's certainly not normal for anal glands to leak constantly; poor Bella must be very uncomfortable. I'd be tempted to get a second opinion from another vet.

I had a dog that had no end of infections in the anal glands. After countless treatment the vet suggested we stop it once and for all. So we had them removed and its been the best thing we ever did.

Diet may be the problem, if her stools are too soft then they are not making the anal gland empty normally hence the leaking[some become impacted]I would be looking for another vet if one told me this was normal.

I have read on here that adding raw bone to the diet can firm up the stools