Empty Your Dog’s Anal Sacs the Natural Way

Of late you notice your dog has been dragging his rear across the room, more frequently after he defecated. When you come close to him, there is this foul odor near his rear. Then, he becomes obsess in licking his rectal area. Upon scrutiny, you discovered a patch of baldness around it, and it is swollen or inflamed or there is a discharge emitted from the anal. Usually, these behaviors and signs indicate that your dog has a problem with his anal glands.
What Is the Function of Dog’s Anal Glands?
Dogs have two anal sacs located on each side of the anus (5 and 7 o’clock position). The sacs contain a strong-smelling liquid which is unique to each individual dog. They use it to mark their territory (I’m was here!) or when frightened, and also to identify each other—which you often see dogs sniffing each other’s rear end when they say hello. =|
What Is the Cause of Anal Sacs Problem?
The sacs normally release a little fluid (grayish or brown in color) through tiny openings whenever your dog defecates. They are then refilled every day. When the stools aren’t firm enough, they can’t exert enough pressure to empty the sacs. When this happens, the fluid will accumulate in the sacs and eventually becomes overfull and impacted, making the anal area itchy and sore.

Anal sacs problems are more common among smaller breed dogs, which many vets aren’t sure why it is so.

Tips to Ease your Dog’s Anal Sacs Woes

• Stop feeding table scraps. Not all human food is suitable for dog consumption. Some food will cause stools to be unusually soft—result in more fluid built-up.
• Change Diet. If you are feeding low-quality dog food, try introducing a higher quality dog food that has at least two meat sources in the top 3 ingredients listed.
• Increase fiber intake. If you’re feeding your dog homemade food, give an additional half to one serving of vegetables as fiber absorbs large amounts of water in the intestine making the stools become larger. Hence it will put more pressure to empty the sacs.
• Walk regularly and more. As I said in my constipation topic, exercise helps “things” moving in the right direction. Regular exercise strengthens the rectal and abdominal muscles.
• Epsom salts. It is said that soaking your dog’s butt with Epsom salts water will help liquefy the fluid in the anal sacs so that it will flows more easily. It also reduce swelling, relaxes muscles and among many other benefits. If your dog is not willing to rest his butt in a tub filled with two inches height of water for 10 minutes twice daily, then you may have to bring Epsom salt to his rear by using hand towel. First, pour a tablespoon of Epsom salt into a small basin filled with 1 liter of lukewarm water. Let the salt dissolved before soaking the hand towel. Wring it lightly and cup it to your dog’s rear for 10 minutes, twice daily. Thrice daily, if it is a severe anal sac problem.
• Silica (Silicon dioxide). Silica is a homeopathic remedy that can help to treat anal sacs problems—swollen glands. It’s very useful especially for dogs who have frequent recurrence. Please consult your vet for the proper dosage for your dog. Alternatively, you may want to try AnalGlandz remedy which also contains Silica as one of the ingredients. It’s easy to use and very effective.

Steps to Express the Anal Sacs

For immediate relief, you may have to express your dog’s anal sacs. It is best to have your vet or groomer showed you once before attempting the following techniques.

Warning: The fluid has an exquisite smell (some think it’s worse than skunk stink), so it’s best done before bath. Folks with long nails please do not attempt to do it yourself. Though we only use the sides of our finger tips, inexperience owners may accidentally use their nails to express the glands. So don’t traumatize your dog any further.

1. Have your dog’s rear face 45 degree away from your face.
2. Lift his tail up with one hand and place a folded paper towel on the other palm to catch the secretions. (Personally, I use my bare hand to catch the secretions as it’s much easier and faster than having to worry about the paper slicing off my palm.)
3. Place your thumb and forefinger at the 5 and 7 o’clock position, slightly outside the circumference of the anus.
4. Gently press inward on the sacs until the fluids are released.
5. If nothing comes out the first time, slightly adjust the position of your fingers and retry. If you still can’t get any secretion out, stop trying. Pushing too hard can be painful for your dog and may also damage the sacs.

After you have tried all the above methods with no success (extremely rare but it happens), you may have to bring your dog to the vet immediately when…

• Your dog cringes whenever you touch the anal area.
• You notice large swelling or growths and it’s very sore.
• You notice the fluid contain blood or it has a gluey black substance.

Your dog could have anal-gland abscess which has become infected or ruptured. Your vet may suggest surgery to remove the sacs if all the above steps taken and failed.