Hey everyone, I was looking for some advice if anyone has time. My Labrador is female, 2 years old and has had anal gland issues for the last year. She started squirting or leaking, and being in pain at a year old. We would empty them at the vets every 6 weeks at the start. Now we're down to a week and half before she's flinching and biting herself again. She's had a couple of small infections. The vet says it may be allergies, so she's having some treatment for that right now. But the vet also says her anal glands are deep and are either not emptying at all anymore and/or they are over producing. We give her a daily fibre supplement. They have raised the prospect of removing the glands surgically because they worry about putting her through fortnightly removal for the rest of her life. They have given me warnings about the risk of incontinence and painful recovery but I know we are headed in the surgical direction because she has worsened so much in a year and we can't keep doing this forever, it must be so rubbish for her and she's so young. I tried to go away and do as much research as I could. The problem is the common theme online seems to be person after person posting about their dog's awful recovery, all the terrible pain and distress they were in, and complications. The stories have really upset me and I dread the thought of putting her through that. Has anyone been through this procedure with their labrador? Could you talk to me about what it was like for you? Any advice?
My only thought would be what food is she on currently? My lab sounds just like her but after a few months on raw his anal glands have gone to normal. They sit far back too and our vet was sceptical and said it wouldn't work. 5 months now since his last anal glands emptying and he used to have them done every 2 months. Normally if they have firmer stools it encourages them to be expressed naturally which is better with raw as it has a higher bone content to firm the stools.
I just read up on this ,they said never get them removed,it does damage to your dog ,they said give your dog daily exercise,and add pro biotics,they also said do not have the vet or groomer drain them this also may damage your puppy ,I’m having the same issues , my chocolate also has loose stools ,I’m thinking of changing his food,I have had labs for 30 years and have never experienced this so that’s why I’m reading up on this issue as well ,they also said that when the stool hardens it will naturally expel on it own (the anal glands)
Have you had any success with treating this yourself? My dog has just started leaking small amounts occasionally. Having read that a harder stool helps I think I will switch him back to raw. He came off whilst sorting out allergies but now those appear to be environmental we can try again
