About my little Dog (also in vets)

[Bay_Beasty]

My elderly JRT has bad anal gland problems. She has to have them cleared about once every 6 weeks but she has been suffering from an infection in one of then for over 3 months now and been on and off anti b's. WE thought she was just getting really old, but with the last lot of anti b's she has reverted to her naughty little self. I have asked the vet if we can have them removed as it just seems to come back once the course is finished but they say she is too old to go under the knife. We can have her PTS as she is perfectly happy and is very very well when the infection is being treated!

Surely the sensible thing would be to remove the offending anal gland or am I being to simple!!! We don't know her age as she is a rescue but she could be as young as 11 or as old as 15!! She is around 10lbs in weight never more or less regardless of if she is on a diet or in she gets fed huge amounts (like now as the builder are in) and she keeps herself fit by pottering around are garden

here is a photo

what would you do???

 

[sloulou]

Give her some bones - either raw bones for her to chew or you can buy powdered ground bone - that should help them empty naturally

My parents have had success in adding all bran to each meal (about a desert spoon twice a day) - which sorted the prob for their collie. I wouldn't personally... but if it works, might be an option? I recommend bones first tho

Plus they clean their teeth

 

[MurphysMinder]

All I would say is that the operation to remove anal glands is very nasty and they can be in a lot of pain afterwards. Maybe your vet feels if the problem can be controlled by antibiotics it is too big an operation to put an older dog through. Perhaps it is worth discussing it with your vet again and see if it is just her age or some other reason. I have to admit if she is possibly 15 I think I would be inclined to avoid the surgery.

 

[Bay_Beasty]

should also say she has bran in food twice a day and cant eat bones as has minimal teeth and has in the passed had a chop bone stuck in her throat which when pulled out caused a lot of scar tissue in the aesophagus!

 

[sloulou]

Was the chop bone raw? How horrible for her...

Try ground bone then? Also ground egg shells?

Bone meal it is usually called - thre is some here: Zoo Plus

 

[Bay_Beasty]

no! it was a cooked chop bone, we gave it to her as a treat about a week after she had about 7 teeth out, stupid stupid stupid thing to do and she nearly died! luckily the vets in our area our amazing and got it out!!!!! also whinnie was clever enough to climb on my dads bed in the middle of the night to express her pain! thanks I will try the bone meal though and I bet she will prefer it to the bran, i feel mean giving that to her, its can;t be very nice!!!

 

[sloulou]

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no! it was a cooked chop bone, we gave it to her as a treat about a week after she had about 7 teeth out, stupid stupid stupid thing to do and she nearly died! luckily the vets in our area our amazing and got it out!!!!! also whinnie was clever enough to climb on my dads bed in the middle of the night to express her pain! thanks I will try the bone meal though and I bet she will prefer it to the bran, i feel mean giving that to her, its can;t be very nice!!!

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Ahh that explains it - what a horrible thing to happen. Am sure you now know they should only eat raw bones. The bone meal is worth a try - can imagine the surgery would not be nice.

I guess another option is to be taught how to empty the glands yourself

Not that I'd fancy it personally!

 

[CAYLA]

She looks like the biggest part of a westi, in your picci, she is cute

is she a westi x j.r.t?

Agree, re diet....have a word with your vet, a good diet could help to improve with the anal glands.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

If they listened to her heart, then maybe the vet heard something that suggested she would have problems with the anaesthetic? Difficult to say anything about if she's fit or not from the photo, from that I can only decide she looks VERY cute

, but in general if you can feel her ribs without struggling to find them, she probably isn't overweight.


Haven't tried feeding bran, but my dogs always have had plenty of bones to gnaw at.
Still have had one dog who had her glands removed (rather timid personality and the vet thought she simply didn't want to use them and inform the neighbourhood dogs about her presence) but she was like around 3 years old when she had the operation. As I understand it is both a simple and a tricky operation on the same time sort of. One thing is the obvious fact that all the faeces still have no where else to pass after the operation and it is everything from very uncomfortable to painful for a few days, then the when faeces pass they can cause infections in the operation wound and a few other things.

Another dog I had could go a year, two or more without a problem and then have a period when they really needed emptying. So I just got used to checking/emptying them myself with regular intervals, gloves and some sort of paper towel, stood over her with one leg on each side just before where her behind begun so my legs held her on place, one hand held the tail and one hand squeezed according to how vet and books had showed me how to squeeze. Very easy, fast and definitely my first choice of treatment if I would have a new dog with that problem.
Because since I did it regularly it never came much and little amount to me = odor I could tolerate, actually if I didn't put my nose to close (something I presume most people would try to avoid), there wasn't much odor at all.




You could also try to very carefully cut away some of her fur around the "hole", sometimes if they have much fur in that area it can by some reason, somehow be more likely that the glands becomes obstructed, infected.

 

[Bay_Beasty]

Thanks for all your help!!! She is a rescue so we are uncertain as to breeding. believe it or not when we got her she looked like a short haired JRT, had kennel cough, pissed and shitted everywhere and after 3 weeks gave birth to 6 very odd looking puppies (she had been raped we think). she also didn't have the ears, they came up after 2 weeks of owning her!!!! I think she is a JRT x westie x something. She is in fact an acondroplastic (sp) dwarf, she has the short bandy legs, and came from Wales!! Best dog I have ever had to deal with!!!

I would do it myself but she has to be muzzled to have it done now, as it hurts a lot and if you take her to the vet she shakes the whole time your there so I couldnt put her through it at home. and it would be me that has to do it and I already do the bad jobs like cleaning her teeth, cutting her claws and brushing and bathing her!!!! my mum only does cuddling and she loves her best!! Sods law eh????

I will ask the vet and see what they say! thankyou for giving me your thoughts they have been very helpful!

 

[FinnishLapphund]

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I already do the bad jobs like cleaning her teeth, cutting her claws and brushing and bathing her!!!! my mum only does cuddling and she loves her best!! Sods law eh?

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You have my sympathies. One of the cats I can actually do everything except ear-cleaning on alone, but all our other cats and mostly Berta also because it's easier, my mother holds and I do the "dirty" work. And no matter how much I tell them that "Look, SHE is doing the holding of you, if SHE didn't hold you could escape" but have they listened? No, it's always me they look at as if I was out to get them. I'm the evil, cat-torturing, untrustworthy person of the household and there's not a cat-treat in this world that can make them forget it completely.

Not to mention if I do ear-cleaning on my own and wrap them up in a towel, then for weeks if they see me carrying anything with the slightest resemblance with a towel they run as if their life depends on it. They really like having clean ears, but the one that does the cleaning...