Can someone please help me. Dog food. Anal glands. Allergies.

[EarthwormKim]

I have 2 small mix dogs.

They're constantly licking their feet.

I can't afford to have allergy testing done, I just can't.

They're currently on Millies wolfheart, countryside mix which seems to work well with their allergies.

But they've both developed anal gland issues.

They're bum dragging and the female has had 2 anal gland cysts in the last year due to her food not emptying her glands naturally.

I tried them on a different food as I ran out of millies, a local brand. And they've been licking their feet like mad.

Is there anything I can add to the millies that will help with emptying their glands?

Two of my cockers had anal gland issues and had food allergies (manifesting in paw licking and chewing). It’s grim - sorry your dogs are going through this, OP.

Sadly, lots of these dog foods are full of processed rubbish - even the ones that are ‘good’ - and bulked out with a tonne of grains.

I switched to raw food (which I make myself) and it cleared up literally overnight. Not cheap though. But it did the trick.

I forgot to add in OP that I can't do raw.

I've tried in the past. It made me feel so sick.

I have OCD and health related anxiety and I was sure one of my kids was going to get ill from it.

I lasted about 3 months.

After years with a different breed, I now have a small breed dog too and am learning about anal glands ...

In no way supplementing veterinary advice if issues are major, obviously ... but this Protexin Veterinary Pro-Fibre supplement seems to keep on top of it well with mine. Have never had to have them emptied after the first instance 18 months or so ago, and I believe it's not great to keep emptying them anyway.

How is their weight? Could their stools be too soft due to overfeeding?

My daughter’s dog has anal gland issues. Apparently she can’t properly clear her glands herself so she has had to buy pellets to add to her food and she has had no more problems with it. She was having to go the vets every couple of months to have them manually cleaned and it was so unpleasant for the poor dog. Since she’s started on these pellets she hasn’t had to go back and dog is much happier

I think it’s the pro fibre in the previous post she uses. It’s honestly been amazing for her. It’s made a massive difference

Protexin pro fibre which someone mentioned already was recommended by my vet.
And my old girl had terrible allergies to almost everything but was ok on Rinti beef canned dog food from zooplus she couldn't tolerate dry food as it gave her interdigital cysts between her toes

My vet told me to add a small hand full of bran flakes to my dog's morning feed to help with anal glands.

She had them expressed every 6 weeks or so as part of her grooming too.

We have anal Gland issues with one of our labs, we were at the vets with her for it this week. Our vet said usually there's not much you can do in terms of diet and he hasn't found anything that absolutely works in helping but that some have had success with fibre based food additions, we tried this but it didn't work for us. Her poo is totally fine and firm so that isn't the issue. We have to take her to the vet regularly for them to be emptied (she has it included free in her vet monthly plan).

Our vet told us to put some crushed weetabix in with the food, no problems since doing this.

No idea why this has been dug up after almost a year but my dogs have been on forthglade and all anal issues have ceased