Hi all
As usual bank holidays arrive it must be time for a vet visit

I always felt mine knew when it was a Sunday.     However, most vets these days have a 24/7 emergency service so if your dog is in trouble (and I fail to understand how the anal glands can be 'seen' externally) call your vet's usual number and their service should pick up.   They will then take your information and call the vet on duty who should call you back with advice or an arrangement to meet you at the Practice.   I suspect what's happened is the glands have become impacted and probably infected which will be giving your dog discomfort, if not actual pain.    If left they can rupture which you do NOT want to happen!

Get professional help - asap.

Thank you, waiting at the out of hours vets now,

Were you able to find out what this was?
I am only asking because my boy grows tumours in his rectum and they can prolapse from time to time. He has had to have four bowel operations for this since 2013, (sigh!).

Well the out of hours vet s agreed with me that it looked like it a blockage,but she was unable to get anything out of it at all, which is very unusual for her to say the least
Advised us to keep a eye on it and if gets worse take back to our own vet,
Thanks for the heads up on poss other things it may be

> Advised us to keep a eye on it and if gets worse take back to our own vet,

Again IF this is an impaction (both or just one) and probably infection, please don't just leave this as eventually the gland(s) will probably rupture meaning a nasty operation.

I dont have experience of blocked anal glands but surely if there are visual signs and vet says impacted it must be very uncomfortable for the dog or even painful and needs treatment now.not if it gets worse?
Not blaming op but personnaly I would be down to the usual vet ASAP for a further discussion

Hi again
After reading your comments I rang our own vet who looked at her this afternoon,he confirmed anal glands are empty but the swelling could be a number of different things, he is doing a fine needle aspiration Monday morning to try and get to the bottom of it so to speak,
So thanks guys for giving me a heads up, , my family think I’m a worrywart wen my dogs are concerned

I hope she'll be ok, but unless your vet actually drained the glands, they should not be 'empty'.  These glands, which will refil if manually drained, should release a small amount of what's in them with the passing of every regular stool.  Which I'm sure you know.