Siamese Anal Glands

Question
I have a seven year old, finicky Siamese cat.  18 months ago, he developed a ruptured anal gland resulting in a weekend at our local ER.  (and a $2000 bill)  Since then, this has happened two more times, each time causing the same gland to rupture.  The "fluid" in his anal glands is NOT fluid-ish, it is dark and paste-y.  We've tried changing his diet, trying to convince him to eat fiber to bulk up his diet (and try to naturally work some of that out) but nothing changes the..  er.. texture - only annoyed my cat.  I really, really don't want to put him through surgery due to the risk of incontinence and my current vet is not thrilled with expressing those glands on a regular basis.  (to me, that seems like the least invasive/stressful option)  Have you encountered this problem before and do you have any insight for me?

Answer
The secretions of the anal glands is supposed to be darkish and pasty, not fluidy. If it is then there is something wrong with them. They should be the consistency of thickened cream.

If your vet has an issue with expressing them find another vet. Sometimes this is the only answer to your problem. Since cats and dogs express the anal glands when they have a bowel movement, fiber in the diet does help- but it doesn't necessarily affect the consistency of what is in the glands.

I don't blame you for not wanting to do the surgery- it is very risky. I would learn to express these myself if I were you. It isn't easy with a cat but it isn't hard either. You can have the vet teach you or find a groomer that knows how to do it for cats and do it right. Groomers can hurt the animal if they don't know what they are doing.

You can try canned pumpkin in his food. Now some cats love it, some hate it. There is also a capsule you can sprinkle on the food called Vetasyl that the vets have. It is for fiber too. That might be the second best way to control this next to expressing them.

Your vet is not thinking of this cat, only himself and that is wrong. NO one LOVES to do anal glands, but if that is all that can be done for this poor boy- then his comfort and health.

I hope you can convince your vet that your cat is what is important here or learn to do them yourself.
Let me know how it goes in a while.