Dog's anal glands!!

[Buntyjones]

Hi everyone, looking for some advice/experience if possible!

We have a nearly 2 year old male cocker spaniel who keeps having problems with his anal glands! They get really full and need squeezing roughly every month by the vet and they make him really uncomfortable it's getting worse though - he literally had them squeezed last Tuesday and he's already showing signs of needing to go again - scooting around, chewing his feet and there's the telltale fishy smell coming from his bum (sorry, TMI!)

The vet is hesitant to go down the surgery route because he's so young and instead has said we need to look at changing his diet, but every dog is different so it's a case of trial and error! We already give him a fibre supplement (prescribed by the vet) but it's clearly not having much of an impact. We currently feed him on the cocker spaniel Royal Canin with the fibre supplement sprinkled on top. He's not overweight either as I know that can have an impact.

Just wondering if anyone has any experience and whether a change of diet helped at all? And if so, what did you change to?

Sorry for the long post!

I'd try a better quality food, personally. Royal Canin is expensive but not the best (and cocker spaniels don't need a specific type of food, it's just marketing). Look for something grain-free and high meat content. If you want to stick with dry, Millies Wolfheart is well worth a go.

This is a useful website for comparing foods.

www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/

You could even try switching to wet. My own cocker does better on it.

Your vet has already given you the advice. Try changing the diet. No discussion.

As for what to change it to, there are a million better foods than royal canin (which in my opinion is over priced crap food).
Try www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/ for a guide to some actual good quality food. Plus there’s always the raw side to consider.

If he's chewing his feet as well I would think the scooting is possibly an allergy.
Our dog has allergies to beef, wheat, rice, corn, peas, soy and house dust!
So even wheat free food did not work for her due to the rice content.
She does need her glands sorting quite often but in between the itchiness is due to the allergies.

@KitchenConfidential We are changing his diet - that's the point of this post haha! Great thanks everyone, I'll check out that website and also look at some hypoallergenic options!

We now use Butternut Box.

Make sure you use WSAVA guidelines when choosing a food. Many boutique foods do not have all nutrients in a bio available form.

Hi. My mini poodle has similar issues. He was needing doing every 5-6 weeks. I added fibre at the same time as changing diet (not the most scientific way to see what it was that helped but I just wanted things to settle down). He now has only been done at the vets once in about 20 weeks. It's all about bulking and firming up the poo (sorry).

We changed to Millie's Wolfheart. He was already on a very good quality food but I had been told by a few people and the veterinary nurse to change anyway as sometimes it's just about finding the right one for them.

As a previous poster says - foot chewing is a common sign of allergies, as can be anal gland issues. Maybe that's worth looking into too.

I read somewhere that raw carrot helps them (I imagine they don't chew it well and the pointy bits help squash things out

My vet recommended raw carrots to chew & switching to a dog food with less protein but more fibre - but obviously you will keep having to try things til something worked.
Ours did fine on the new diet, we thought at one point we would need surgery, but luckily they didn't.

I have a cocker spaniel who had the same issues too, he's been on raw food for nearly a year now and not had any problems since, not only that his coat is shinier, his breath is loads better, no digestive issues and just looks in much better health. I was put off at the idea first but am lucky to have a local raw food shop which does the unbranded frozen packets that you defrost each night so not as expensive as expected and it just looks like raw mince meat. Not for everyone but worked wonders for mine.