Took my 9month old gsd to vets today thinking she had fleas. Vet said it was not fleas but that she needed her anal glands draining. She emptied them and gave anti biotic injection and mild steroids for the areas that had dermatitus.

My question is why do they not empty themselves? Is there anything I can do to prevent this situation happening again? She has never had any trouble with her bowels. I feed her on Royal Canin. Any help would be appreciated.

They should drain themselves naturally when the dog eliminates, but some dogs do seem to have problems with them.  If your dog's stool is normally soft then it may not put sufficient pressure on the gland. 

My vet has a theory based on the operations he's done to remove anal glands.   He said that he's noticed that the duct from the gland is slightly longer than the textbooks say it should be and his theory is that this is what causes the problem.  In other words, the fluid in the glands has a longer way to travel out of the body and some just cannot get out.  Obviously, if he's correct then diet could help but it could not entirely correct the problem.  

However, I never heard of full anal glands causing dermatitus - unless what your dog was doing was chewing around the base of her tail or back legs trying to get at the irritated glands.

Stacey

One of my dogs is at the vets every 3 months or so to have his emptied-I am not brave enough to try and do it myself!  Anyway, what Stacy said is correct with regards to if his stools are not firm enough, this will cause the glands to fill up.  I was recommended to try adding bran to his diet, changing his diet and trying raw bones to help bulk up the stools.  And indeed they did firm up, but the anal glands still need emptying!  Unfortunately we have come to the conclusion that he's just one of those dogs who is prone to the problem and we manage it by keeping a careful watch out for the signs! (or the smell... :( )  I would have thought the dermatitis would have caused by your dog trying to relieve the irritation-I've seen how upset my Sam gets when his are full!  Hopefully this will just have been a one off for your dog-you say he doesn't have problems with loose bowels? Good luck for you both. :)

Thanks for the replies. Yes the dermititus was caused by the biting and scratching. Will have to keep a more watchfull eye in future. I have never had a dog with this problem before. Mind you our last dog was some 15years ago things have changed a lot in that time. We always fed our dogs on mince and meal with an occasional bone thrown in to chew on. These days it seems bones are taboo because of the splinters and told that to get a balanced meal we must feed complete formulas.

I have started giving her garlic once a day as I recollect someone on this forum recommending it. Fenugreek was also mentioned. Could this be the dried variety that I use for cookery or is it different? How much should be given?

She is 31.6 kilo's and other than this problem she has also suffered from cystitus twice in the last 7 months.The last time was following her first season 6 wks ago. This makes 4 lots of anti biotics in the 7 months. This seems quite excessive to me. Maybe a change of diet back to the old way of feeding might help. What do you all think? 

>These days it seems bones are taboo because of the splinters and told that to get a balanced meal we must feed complete formulas.

Hi Gaby,

Most of us that raw feed give our dogs bones but they must be raw, it's the cooked ones that splinter. Bones are great for firming up their poo (as well as being very nutritious).  Bess had to have her glands emptied a number of times but since she's been fed raw (about a year now) she's been  Ok.

One of our cats had trouble with recurring cystitis and I've treated it very successfully with homeopathy. It does come back occasionally but at least I'm not having to give her antibiotics. :-)

Kath.

I can't get hold of raw bones. The local pet store sells huge roasted bones but not raw. I've also asked my butcher but no luck. Would the roasted ones be ok? They sell loads of them.

I buy chicken wings / drumsticks / thighs, lamb chops etc from the supermarket.  You can also get chicken wings and turkey necks from AMP (my local petshop sells them)  I also get lamb bones, chicken backs and big marrow bones from my butcher :)

personally i would stay away from roasted bones, these are cooked and obviously contain lots of fat.

HTH

I would stay away from them as well!  I first tried my lot out on chicken wings, drumsticks, ribs etc as a supplement to see how they got on, and I just bought the large packs from the supermarket and popped them in the freezer.  And infact still do!  I also had to try a few different butchers before finding one that had what I was looking for as regards recreational bones-one piece of advice that I learned from here is not to tell a butcher you are looking for bones for your dog-avoids offending them!  If you do a search on the forum for BARF, you'll get ideas of what to try your dog on if you're thinking about going down that road.  HTH :)