Anal gland problem with dogs - can anyone recommend something to add to dry dog food to help with stools?

My Weimaraner is often emptying her anal glands indoors, normally when she is asleep. She has no infection or distress. She is on a good dry dog food, but her stools are quite loose. I have heard that making the stools harder would be good for this problem, and increase the expulsion of the anal gland whilst defacating. What can I add to her food to help this?

Raw bones. If you don't fancy using those, you could try adding around a dessertspoon of bran.

Loose stools are one of the signs of poor diet.The crap you feed disagrees with your dogs digestive system.Seek an alternative. Chances are you are in for a rough ride for a while.

Take the dog to your vet, problem sorted then I feel.

You have to expel the gland yourself under controlled conditions. If her stools are loose, then she has a problem, dog stool should be firm. Change her diet or see your vet.Pooping and anal glands aren 't related.

You are right, you could try changing her food all together, her stools shouldn't be sloppy at all, this is a sign that the food you get her doesn't 'agree' with her tummy.She needs more roughage so like i said change her food all together or add bran flakes to her food, this will help clear the glands when she goes to the toilet.

Try adding a probiotic, one that contains Lactobacillus Acidophillus. Commonly used is natural, unflavoured yoghurt, or a himan probiotic. There are also dog ones available.

Hi we feed our weimie on natures diet or natures menu and we have never had any problems with this, the stools are always solid, the more natural the feed the better, these two are an alternative to the BARF diet.

a good groomer will expel anal glands for you or vet groomer probably cheaper option change food for loose stools

i had a corgi yrs ago that had anal gland problems where he would yelp and cry until they were squeezed out. back them flucort was used to help with the pain.as they get excited or scared etc it can cause the glands to get filled with fluid. sometimes they are removed when it is a constant bother.they need moisture to keep everything moving and a dry hard stool can cause rectal bleeding and sores. try putting 1/2 tsp of olive oil in her food every day so the stool will slide out easyly along with the fluid from the glands when she goes.a change in diet might be the best bet if she has runny poop and added fiber will bulk up the intestines. ask ur vet and mention this and see what he can advice u on which is a good nutritious diet for ur dog. good luck

Put her on a good nutritional diet. Avoderm for sensitive belly is good one for hardening stools and very digestible. Of course it is all natural so she will use everything in it, which is why she will poop less. You can also add canned plain pumpkin in her dry food.

try the vitagravey the have

dry food is not good for animals all the time its sounds like you need some advise from the vet what to feed heri give my dog a handfull of biscuits in the morning with plenty of water, at night he has some canned meat, and i buy a plain brand of mixed frozen vegetables and cook up a few to mix in his food, they need veggies just like us, also a vet will recommend rice cooked with food, and a little chicken occaisionally if your dog has loose stools a bit of chicken and rice for a few days will fix the problem and it certainly has a problem with loose bowels that is not normal

If your dog has soft or loose stools the food you feed her is not what she needs.My lab had this problem constantly.I changed her diet to the nature diet.Her stools are fine now her coat looks good etc.It has no cereals etc in it all good stuff.A temp measure would be some bran in her food.

If she has soft stools on dry food then she may have an allergies to something in it. (lactose perhaps) A good quality dog food and dog-meal/kibble. I add dry bran to my dog's food when she gets windy/upset. It firms every thing up, if you get what I mean! You can also get dog pre-biotic/pro-biotic (from vet) this may help.

You need to increase the amt of fiber in her food. The most simply way to do this is by adding canned plain pumpkin to her food, do so for her size 4 TBSP twice daily. Also, by the way anal gland problems need to be expressed every two weeks if they are posing a problem for your Weimaraner. You can take her to a vet clinic-state that you need AG and usually don't have to pay for a office visit.

How loose are her stools? If sloppy, her food may not agree with her, but loose stools dont mean a poor diet.Try giving her some bran and a daily pro biotic like acidophullus to avoid tummy upsets. I dont 'do' bones, too much risk of choking and/or blockages.

I had to answer this one. My dog had horrific problems with her AG's, she simply could not expel the contents. (I appreciated that your dog does not have this problem.) Her stools were very soft and I tried everything that I could think of to firm them up.I tried changing her diet (slowly) to no avail. Then I discovered through my investigations of the Internet, that the experts now say that its the grain in the dog food that causes digestion problems and that we should exclude this. BINGO her stools are now so firm that I have problems deciding if I should frame them or bin them. I have saved some info of this which I will paste. Sorry some of this repeats what I have already typed above.I have learnt by my mistakes. My present dog had dreadful problems because of the food which I gave her, I experimented with dog food, I tried raw diets, cooked diets and over the years I tried various dog foods. She did not like the raw diets and the dog food that I gave her resulted in diarrhea. As an experienced dog owner I introduced any changes gradually. Nevertheless my dog still had problems. She was eight years old before I resolved her problem. Eventually, because of my researches on the Internet I found that the experts have discovered that GRAIN in our dog’s diet causes many problems. I now know that grain creates acidity in the blood. This causes skin problems, sickness, diarrhea, anal gland problems etc., if your dog has skin problems or any of the above problems PLEASE CHANGE THE DIET. Avoid Grain, rice, beef derivatives and dairy food I now give my dog a dried food which uses beet for fiber and fish. It’s called Fish4Dogs and I buy it on the Internet. Look on the Internet and investigate yourself. Gluten free dog food is not enough to help our dogs, it MUST BE GRAIN FREE.A rapid change of diet will upset your dog; any change of diet must be done gradually. Do please change to a grain free diet. I have had sixteen dogs throughout the years and they have had various problems. Perhaps if I had known about the dangers of GRAIN they would have had fewer problems. There will be other grain free food on the Internet, Google it.

I had this same problem with my oldest Shih Tzu and it just started this past winter.. I was taking her to the groomer 2 - 3 times a week to have her anal glands emptied. Thank goodness she didn't charge me for this. Then I had her stools examined for worms and other parasites but they were negative. I took her in for a thorough exam and the vet cleaned her anal glands. He recommended that I buy Metamucil, coarse, unflavored, and add a tsp to her wet/dry food. By golly it worked. Her stools firmed up and she no longer scoots on the carpet. She weighs 16 lbs so you have to be careful if you try this. The amount of metamucil is dependant on the dogs weight.

The only way I know to firm up a dog's stools is feeding RMBs (raw meaty bones). I raw feed, give my dogs plenty of RMBs and their stools are small and firm.