Anal glands and skin itching

Question
QUESTION: My 10 year old yorkie never had problems wit her anal glands until about 4 months ago, she started haveing problems I took her in to my vet and had them squeezed.
2 months later I took her again again, that evening she started itching on her back and with in the next few days a rash appeared, rash with a few small bumps. I shaved her down, and tis week I took her back to the vet. She said something about fusing the anal glands, have you ever heard of this? And if so, how safe is it? She has heart problems and collapsing trachea.
I also read on the internet that anal glands problems can lead to skin problems, I am wondering if this is what is happening to my Brittany. My vet called it Schnauzer crud, Brittany has never had skin problems.
Could you give me insight on what is happening with my baby.
And I thank you a head of time.

ANSWER: Hi Dorothy,
I have never heard of anal gland fusing. There is a surgery to remove the anal glands but that is a last resort surgery that can have serious complications, the most common one being fecal incontinence. Having to clean them out once a month or so is nothing compared to the horror of a dog that can no longer hold in her stool.

Diet plays a large part in not only anal gland issues but skin conditions. A life time of bad dog food can catch up to a dog and start making their coats bad and the skin start breaking down.

This is very true in dogs fed things like Pedigree, Purina, and store bought foods.
The first thing you should do is get the dog on a high quality diet like Science Diet.
Get her on the Sensitive skin formula and give it three weeks to start making changes in her skin and coat.

You should have it on it at least a month before you can see if it is helping. It has all the nutrients she needs for healthy skin and a healthy, shiny coat.

It will also help with her anal glands because it is formulated to be highly digestible which means a smaller stool which helps push out the anal secretions when she has a bowel movement.

If the vet cannot find anything else wrong with her such as abscesses or infections in the anal glands then the dietary change may do the trick.

Keep the treats from her and let her body heal with some good food so that her skin can heal also.

Don't forget that a ten year old dog is a senior citizen and she needs to be fed accordingly. High protein diets are not good for a dog this age nor are the junk food treats that are sold.

Try the Science Diet Sensitive skin and see how it goes. If you try the three bag challenge you can get coupons for dollars off the food.
Here is a link to the three bag challenge.

http://www.feedingisbelieving.com/believe/3BagChallengeForm.jsp

I hope that this helps her. Make sure you transition her off of the old food onto the new slowly over seven days.

Please let me know in three weeks how she is doing.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: It doesn't make sense. Brittany has beautiful hair, not dry and not oily, it shines. I am a dog groomer, and I deal with all types of hair.
My cats are on Science diet, and Adam still has skin problems even after the allergy tests and put onto the proper science diet cat food.
It wouldn't be bad to put them all over on this food, but they are over priced, in situations like mine. I am in animal rescue, and i deal with a lot of dogs and cats. The cat food at my vets clinic is $46.00 for a 20 pound bag. I have Sugar on R/D from science diet and then I have Max my other yorkie on Z/D. One would have to be a very rich person to be able to afford all these foods. Which I don't have, because rescue itself takes just about all I have, let alone these high priced foods.
To be honest, i wished my vet had never put my cats over onto this. Do you know how long a 20 pound bag last with 13 cats? It doesn't.
This is sad, the pet food company's price their foods above what a usual person can afford, and to top it off they have cut back on the poundage. What I don't understand is why they dont lower their prices so animal can have a decent chance of being taken care of.
I see vets pushing science diet, I know there is a pretty good mark up on it. And there you go again, it's all about the money and how much they can make. My question back to you is, when are they going to think about the people who want to take care of their animals and when are they going to lower the prices and quit thinking about themselves and their pockets? This is ridiculas. Sorry I wasted my time emailing you

Answer
I am sorry you feel that way Dorothy, but let me ask you this; if you go to a restaurant and pay $20 for a meal, how would you feel if all you got was a bowl of top ramen and salad? You would be pretty disappointed and feel cheated. Your 'perceived value' of the meal compared to the price would not be in alignment at all.

The same holds true for pet food. Value is perceived by things such as quality, name of brand, ingredients and cost. But most consumers are not privvy to the things that go on behind the scenes in pet food manufacturing and for good reason. Most of the companies don't want you know what really goes into their food. Why? Because then you would know that the value of the food does not agree with the ingredients.

The point I am trying to make here is this. You said yourself that Science Diet is good food, but then you say it is overpriced. Would you expect to pay $2 for a big fat New York steak at a restaurant? No, you would not. Does Hill's charge more than their food is worth? No, they don't and I will tell you the reason why.

First of all, most veterinarians do NOT push Hill's foods to make money. They encourage their clients and patients to eat this food for good reason. It is one of the best wellness foods on the market. Forget about profit. Most vets make as little a 89 cents on some bags of food. Some have a larger profit of about $3.70. That's about it. There is no 50% mark-up. Yes, Hill's foods are more expensive- by the bag- but if the food is fed according to directions (which it rarely is) then this food is actually less PER FEEDING for most pets then the cheaper brands.
Why? Because the food is so nutrient dense that pets don't require as much food intake to meet their needs for energy, for daily living.

The two foods your dog and cat are on are Prescription Diets. These are diets that are prescribed to help with certain medical conditions. Z/D is for extreme allergies and R/D is for overweight pets. My own dog is on W/D for life. Yes it costs more than Science Diet Adult dog food even, but she is living proof that it works. She is 12 yrs old, but is only 2 lbs over her one-year old weight, has no allergies at all, and runs like a 5 year old dog. She is very, very healthy.

Try the pet food store to buy your Science Diet. You cannot buy Prescription Diet there, only at the vets. The reason for this is not money- it's because many prescription diets are not meant to be on for life. Some are and some are not- but only the vet can monitor that.

Rescuing animals is a commendable endeavor and I applaud you for that. Hill's donates MILLIONS of pounds of food to shelters all over this country for free. Every year they do this without fail. So while Nutro might be cheaper in price and absolutely in quality, they are not donating millions in food or dollars like Hill's is to these shelters. They charge a bit more for their food, yes, but they give back much, much more.

I can only speak from my 30 years of selling and feeding this food. The pets we had come into the vet's that live on Hill's Science Diet foods are the ones that had fewer illnesses, less trips to the vet except for annual shots and heartworm tests, and lived the longest in that healthy state than the pets that our clients fed Old Roy, Pedigree and other junk foods to. My own pets live to be well past their normal life span. My cat Floyd lived to be 19, Crouton 15 (cats) and my rescue dog Cameo lived to be almost 16 yrs old and she was a neglected dog full of heartworms when I got her. She lived her life on R/D and had the shiniest coat the vet has ever seen. Even the Hill's rep said she was a poster child for R/D. But she was so very healthy.

So tell me Dorothy, since you are a groomer- what causes Schnauzer crud on a dog? I really am curious as we only deal with skin conditions and not hair coat issues. Hair of course reflects the state and health of the skin, but I really don't know much about this condition.

If you think the vet is wrong about Brittany's coat, then what could be causing this? As I said, I see no clear connection between anal glands and her coat unless it is tied in with diet.

So in answer to your question back to me-"My question back to you is, when are they going to think about the people who want to take care of their animals and when are they going to lower the prices and quit thinking about themselves and their pockets?"- my answer to you is that if people feed Science Diet according to the directions, which means using an 8 ounce cup to measure the food, and feed it once a day- their pocket books would reflect the savings because you would not be going off to buy food every week or so. One bag of Science Diet Sensitive skin (#4) lasts my one cat over two or three months. When I had two cats they were eating the senior brand and a twenty pound bag lasted them almost 6 months. That is a long time.

I feed with an 8 ounce cup but the cats really ate very little food. Yet they are extremely healthy, have soft, shiny coats and clear,bright eyes. I do not bring my one cat in the vets except for shots because she is never sick.

So the proof is in the feeding Dorothy- which is why I do recommend this food. I have seen remarkable results and so have the people that have bought this food and switched their pets. I have almost 1500 letters and feed backs from people that have told me so. I don't work for Hills. I do feed it and I do believe in it.

I understand that it is difficult to feed 13 cats no matter what. Hills does work with rescues and maybe you can get a bulk discount with them. Ask your vet to ask the sales rep from Hills. It is worth a try.

I hope that you don't still feel like you wasted your time in writing to me. While I am not a vet I do strive to give suggestions to people based on what they are asking me. If you feel that the anal gland issue is related to the skin condition then I suggest you ask your vet to do a skin scraping or something to diagnose this further.

Thanks for your time.