Why does my dog need to have his anal glands expressed so frequently?

Infected anal sacs will often cause a systemic infection, that makes the dog smell fishy. Your vet may prescribe a round of antibiotics to treat his whole body.

My little mixed breed needs Canidae Platinum to keep her bowels from being too lose. The other dogs are fine with Canidae, but it is too rich for her digestion. The Platinum works just fine, and helps to control her weight, as well.

Find out if the food you are feeding has a weight control formula, as it will likely produce a firmer stool. .

If your dogs not scooting then she more then likely doesn't have a problem. It all depends on the dog how often you have to do it. Some fill up quicker then others. Normally the anal glands release there oily nasty smelling secretions into the stool so they don't fill up but some dogs get impacted and have to manually be released from time to time. If your dog is having problems take her to the vet who can show you how to properly express the glands yourself. You do not want to do it externally (some groomers do it this way) as this can cause issues.

Soft stools do not give enough pressure to help express the glands during defecation. However, food allergies can cause frequent anal sac problems. The other possibility is that you are not emptying them enough. The only way to tell is to do a digital rectal exam: stick your finger in the rectum and FEEL the anal sac. The person that needs to do this is the vet.

Food allergies are developed to the food that is being fed, no matter how "high quality" it is. Discuss this with your vet.

I am fostering a chihuahua who seems to have a problem in that area, so I just read up on it. Apparently soft stools are a factor, but some dogs just have a structural problem. The glands can be removed.

I have had any number of dogs before this one, and only one of them EVER had to have the glands expressed, so no, I would say it is not normal.

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AHA - I just read the response that talked about a connection with food allergies. My foster dog had a skin condition when she came to me, and it appeared to be tied to food allergies. She is now on a lamb-based, non allergen dog food, and her skin is clearing up. We'll see if it helps the anal gland problem, too.

Some dogs are just that way. Out of my 5 dogs, 2 seem to need their anal glands expressed every few weeks. The soft stool could be part of it, but it could also just be the dog's physiology.

Change the dogs diet, if the stools stay soft then they are not fully passed out when he or she poops..

this is mainly caused by the food they are eating......

Per our vet, it's in the diet,and you need to change it to something else to get the dogs stool a little harder and then the glands won't have to be cleaned out so often,....

put some more veggies into the dogs diet, not really soft soft cooked, leave little less than really cooked too soft and watch the difference in your dogs stools.

I give all my boys, carrots, cooked on full boil for 10 mins, and they love them...no loose stools......the veggies will firm the stools.

and do not put water on their dog food, this will also cause loose stools, you may want to read the ingredients on their dog food, if not enough protein and veggies in it, you may want to change their dog food.

I feed Taste of the Wild, 70% protein and 30% veggies...makes for less stools and firmer stools

good luck

Having soft stools may be part of the problem. Firmer stools, when passing, can help the anal glands to express by putting more pressure on them.

Some veterinarians will remove the anal glands. Talk with your vet about it.

Try changing his diet. Raw meaty bones will help.

my beagle was like that it sucks but it's not necessarily abnormal