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Post by bindiferret89 on Apr 20, 2010 7:35:33 GMT -5
Sorry if this has been covered, but I somehow JUST discovered this subforum! I was reading the Raw Fit Pet survey results and the last question was: If you have dogs, have they ever had to have their anal glands expressed since being on a raw diet? to which 81% of people answered "No." I have a 15-year-old husky/malamute mix who has had to have his anal glands expressed every few years during most of his life. We've always taken him to the vet for this, as my mom is a little squeamish about doing it herself, though our vet offered to teach her. Had I known this could be helped, I might have talked to her about changing his diet years ago, but he's been a kibble/canned food puppy all his life, and I don't think she'd allow me to change that at his age. He is also taken to a different vet from my ferrets, one who unfortunately doesn't support raw diets. I'm just curious as to why a raw diet helps the anal glands. To be perfectly honest, my mom has always dealt with the dog issues and been the main person responsible for him, so I'm not even sure what causes the glands to flare up the way his do. Anyone know why it happens and how a natural diet helps?
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Post by Chelsea on Apr 20, 2010 10:55:24 GMT -5
Bailey has been eating raw for 3+ years now. He has only had to have his anal glads expressed once in his whole life. It was a year or 2 ago. He had a flare up of his allergy issues, and that just kind of came along with it. I have no idea if they were connected or not. He has not had any problems with them since then.
What kind of kibble is this dog eating? Anal glad issues are very common with dogs eating a low quality kibble, because their stools are huge and generally loose, compared to raw when their poop is hard compact little "nuggets". When their poop is loose, it doesnt express their glads naturaly on the way out as it should.
Also, there is no problem with switching a dog to raw diet at an older age. Dogs are MUCH easier to switch than ferrets.
Could you convince your mother to let you just try him on raw for a while, to see if it helps?
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Post by bindiferret89 on Apr 20, 2010 21:59:02 GMT -5
Thanks Chelsea! He actually only eats canned food, which I think is horrible, although at least the moisture content is higher than kibble. He's hated kibble all his life and in the past few years, dental issues has made chewing hard kibble difficult for him.
I just joined dogster.com to learn more about dog raw diets on their forums and have been reading different websites about it since last night. I am actually thinking about asking my mom if I could try it.
Shadow would be so easy to switch. If it LOOKS like something humans would eat, he wants it! He loves getting the occasional scraps I throw him when I'm preparing raw ferret meals. Hehe.
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Post by Heather on Apr 20, 2010 23:45:07 GMT -5
Chelsey's correct in her assumption. The harder stools will express those glands naturally. I had a Gr Pyrenees who for the first 3 yrs of his life was on various types of kibbles (which he hated). It didn't matter what kibble he ate he would eventually have loose icky, smelly stools and eventually we would be taking him to the vet's to get his anal glands expressed. He got to the point where, if the vet walked into the office with her white vet's gown he'd back his butt into a corner and refuse to move. Once we switched him onto raw, that proceedure was never performed again (not that he ever forgot either). It turned out to be a grain allergy, once the grains were removed then the loose stools went away and also the need to have his glands expressed. The only problem that we encountered was that he required a very high bone content to keep his stools solid. ciao
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