Hello all,
Our 12 year old collie X saluki seems to have an ongoing issue with his anal glands - and I'm not sure I trust our vet to sort it out. I will get a 2nd vets opinion but just wondered if any of you had ideas.
He is generally in excellent health. Back in August 2016 we changed his food from working dog muesli to James Wellbeloved, because he needs less energy and we wanted to 'upgrade' his food on account of his age. That's when the AG issue seemed to start (we realised retrospectively). We first noticed the smell, and small drops of blood on his, otherwise fine, poo. The vet said there was an infection, gave him antibiotics and cleared his glands. All was well until December. Then it all started again and this time he went through three types of antibiotic before the smell and blood went.
In January some new super expert doggy friends advised we should add more fibre to his diet, explaining the new food has less fibre and therefore produces smaller poos so they glands don't get squeezed enough and infection gets in. Thinking about it I realised they had shrunk a bit! So now he's on Pro Fibre which has got them back to normal (at least I think they are, alas, I can quite remember exactly what their dimensions were back in the muesli days!)... But in the last week or so, the blood is back - just a few drops, no more than would cover a thumbnail. The strange thing is, I'm glad to say, he's not in any apparent pain (what I've read suggests AG infection = pain). He is a bit of a wimp generally so I'm pretty sure we'd know if he was. There's no scooting, scratching, licking, nothing. To be honest we're a bit reluctant to take to the vet for another round of hugely expensive antibiotics (December alone cost us £500!).
Has your dog had similar issues? What was the diagnosis? What did you do? What solved it?
Thank you very much for reading all this detail about poo!!
Rosie x
Our 12 year old collie X saluki seems to have an ongoing issue with his anal glands - and I'm not sure I trust our vet to sort it out. I will get a 2nd vets opinion but just wondered if any of you had ideas.
He is generally in excellent health. Back in August 2016 we changed his food from working dog muesli to James Wellbeloved, because he needs less energy and we wanted to 'upgrade' his food on account of his age. That's when the AG issue seemed to start (we realised retrospectively). We first noticed the smell, and small drops of blood on his, otherwise fine, poo. The vet said there was an infection, gave him antibiotics and cleared his glands. All was well until December. Then it all started again and this time he went through three types of antibiotic before the smell and blood went.
In January some new super expert doggy friends advised we should add more fibre to his diet, explaining the new food has less fibre and therefore produces smaller poos so they glands don't get squeezed enough and infection gets in. Thinking about it I realised they had shrunk a bit! So now he's on Pro Fibre which has got them back to normal (at least I think they are, alas, I can quite remember exactly what their dimensions were back in the muesli days!)... But in the last week or so, the blood is back - just a few drops, no more than would cover a thumbnail. The strange thing is, I'm glad to say, he's not in any apparent pain (what I've read suggests AG infection = pain). He is a bit of a wimp generally so I'm pretty sure we'd know if he was. There's no scooting, scratching, licking, nothing. To be honest we're a bit reluctant to take to the vet for another round of hugely expensive antibiotics (December alone cost us £500!).
Has your dog had similar issues? What was the diagnosis? What did you do? What solved it?
Thank you very much for reading all this detail about poo!!
Rosie x
