HI

I have a 10 year old Westie , who has a problem

her anal glands keep getting swollen to the point where she scoots on the ground, over the last 5 months this has happened 4 separate occasion, each time she has been to the vets had a dose of steroids and antibiotics , it goes away , and she seems fine , they have taken blood on the last time , but nothing has shown up , she has had them drained on the 3rd occasion this didnt cure it.

anybody had any experience of this.

She has a allergy to white meat and has been on a diet on Johnsons well beloved for the last 4 years , so hopefully can rule out DIet issues, was on normal , up until about 18 months ago when she moved onto the senior food.

am trying to keep ontop of this , as during the 2nd period of this , she bit herself a couple of times and caused her hind quarters to bleed, where she had been biting.

Any advice you can offer would be appreciated .

many thanks

Friends of ours had this with a westie too, not sure if it is more common in that breed ? Anyway they had the anal glands removed as the dog was constantly on meds of one sort or another to sort it out. Long term it has been successful but it took a long time to heal, so long they said they would think twice before agreeing to it again.

Our old Benny had the problem to a lesser degree and we found more roughage was the answer, so plenty of veg in his food worked well. So well he was virtually vegetarian for the last 6 years of his life, did quite well on it too.

A lot of groomers will clear them out, maybe worth getting them done regularly to prevent what ever is causing th build up?

My parents' first Westie always had trouble with his glands in his later years and they had to be regularly squeezed empty.

I used to have the job of taking him to the vet after school. He would walk fine with me anywhere, but, as soon as we turned to walk along the street to the vets, he knew exactly where he was going and had to be dragged the length of the street.

The vet had to start muzzling him after underestimating just how quick a Westie can turn and bite when getting it's glands squeezed!

Their last Westie didn't have this problem and their current one is still young.

Agree with others, enquire at a groomers about having him cleared out regularly.

Also, don't dismiss dietary issues, manufacturers change the recipe regularly without tell consumers and take a look at what treats he is getting.

Sorry I can't be more help, my older dog had to have hers emptied frequently (learned to do it myself) before I switched to raw feeding.

Many thanks for all you replies , much appreciated , will try some veg in her food , and fingers crossed

Raw bones can be very good for anal gland problems as can a handful of bran in their dinner.

Unfortunately I found this all out after my dog having to have his totally removed. He had a very persistent infection that wouldn't clear, and found regular visits to the vet to get his glands emptied very distressful so the vet recommended removing them. We have had no problems since. There is a very slight risk of incontinence after anal gland removal, but we haven't had any problems with this.