Canine Anal Glands

Question
My dog (terrier mix/mutt) is about a year old and we have noticed that he needs to have his anal glands expressed about every 6 days. We can tell when he needs to have them done not only because of the smell, but he also gets very droopy and lazy. In the short month since we have adopted him we have changed his food 3 times. We started with Blue Buffalo Organic dog food and changed it to Iams when he had horrible diarrhea. When the anal gland and gas problem continued we switched to the Iams Lamb and Rice for sensitive stomachs. His gas issue and diarrhea issue have cleared up, but yet it has been only 6 days since his anal glands were expressed and the smell is back. We feed him one cup in the morning around 8 AM and another cup around 5:30 PM. My main question is it is normal or is it something we need to have addressed by our vet and possibly look into removing his anal glands?

Answer
His anal glands are supposed to smell horrible! That is normal for them.
No dog should have them need to have expressed that often. What you feed your dog will have no effect on the smell. That is a natural secretion that the dog produces to mark territory with.

The glands themselves are expressed every time the dog has a BM.
Changing his food three times in one month is a ticket to a dog with terrible diarrhea, pickiness and obesity. You are feeding him way too much unless he weighs 35 lbs. A terrier should only be getting about one and a 1/4 cups of food a day, depending on their size. For instance,a 20 lb dog on Science Diet will only need about 1 1/4 cups once a day to maintain their weight and give them optimal nutrition.

Foods that are not balanced will not meet a dogs energy needs and they will over eat trying to get those needs met. I call it the pound of steak in a box of saltine crackers syndrome.

You should take this dog into the vets to have his anal's looked at but he only needs to have them expressed when they look like they are bulging and his bowel movements are not expressing them out.

Any more than that and you run the risk of making him fecally incontinent. Removing the anal glands runs an even higher risk for that.
Keep him on one food, lower the amount and if that isn't working for him then get him on the Science Diet Sensitive Stomach slowly and keep him on it. He needs his vaccinations and to be tested for heartworms and put on prevention.
Good luck and let me know what the vet says.