unusual symptoms

Question
QUESTION: Do worms cause a dog to arch her back and and loose front muscle control?  She
seems to have these arching back spasms once a month.  She's also licking her
anus and dragging her butt across the carpet .   My dog is  a 5 year old lab who
seems to be constantly hungry.  Are these symptoms related?

ANSWER: She is licking her anal glands because they are impacted. She needs to see a vet and have them cleaned out or expressed.

Worms do not cause a dog to loose any kind of muscle control unless she has some kind of infestation in her CNS, or central nervous system or her brain.

The symptoms in the front end are not related to the symptoms in the back end.

She is constantly hungry because whatever you are feeding her is not meeting her energy needs and she is craving nutrition that she isn't getting from her diet. What are you feeding her?

If you feed a dog food such as Old Roy or Purina, Pedigree, or any other grocery store brand, her body is going to try and get her energy needs met by eating more and more of the same food. It's like trying to get a pound of steak protein from a box of saltine crackers. It's not going to happen and she will just become obese if you keep feeding her the same food with no nutritional value.

When I say energy needs, I am talking about her resting and maintenance energy required to live, not energy to move around although they are related.

So tell me what she is eating and I will point you in a better direction for her.


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

QUESTION: I give her Beneful which is a store brand.  Cost is a major consideration.

Answer
I understand about cost being a major consideration.
But consider this Julie.
If your dog weighs 45 lbs and you are feeding her 3-4 cups a day of your food, and you are buying a bag every three weeks or so, you are spending about $2.70 a feeding on your dog.
Take the bag of food, divide that by how many feedings you get out of it, and then you will know how much it is costing you per feeding.

If you take a bag of Hills adult formula, say a 40lb bag, and you only feed 3 cups measured out in an eight ounce cup, three of those, and the food lasts you a month and a half or longer, (should last about three or more) then you are paying about 41 cents a feeding. The bag costs more at the start but you are saving a lot of money over all. That and she will get her energy needs met.

It takes three weeks for a new bag of food to affect the dog- any food, so give it that much time at least.  To start her on it, mix it in slowly over a seven day period so that its mostly old food and 1/4 new food until you have mostly new food and then all new food.

Trust me on this, your dog and your pocket book will both benefit from it.
I have seen this over and over for over 28 yrs, so I know it works.

Think about it, get the food and let me know how she is doing in three weeks. Hill's foods are 100% guaranteed, so if she isn't doing well or better on it you can take back the empty bag and get 100 % of your money back. No other food will do that for you.
Let me know how she does ok?