Anal gland issues?

New here, and hoping I can get some advice for my girl. She's a 6.5 year old toy poodle, and she suddenly began having anal gland issues in August this year. Until this came up, she had never had her glands manually expressed.

In early August, we took her to the vet because she'd been scooting. Her glands were full of very thick fluid, but it was expressed and she was given antibiotics. From there, we had to bring her back every 2 weeks for expression. Half the time the fluid was called "normal", the other times they felt it was abnormal and possibly infected. We finally had her glands flushed and packed with antibiotic ointment in mid-October. At her check-up two weeks ago, everything looked normal.

And now... we're back to square one. I'll have to bring her into the vet again tomorrow or Tuesday. ):


The vet has had me giving her pumpkin and psyllium fiber, but it's not helping the issue. It does make her poo larger and firmer, but it's still not expressing the overly thick fluid in her glands. If anyone here has similar issues, I'd really appreciate some advice.

Sorry your dog is having such issues. One of my German shepherds had a short term problem with his anal glands and had them flushed and packed with antibiotics and we have never had a problem since, thankfully.

Has the vet discussed removing the anal glands altogether with you?

My girl is seven, and has had a septic left hand anal gland for about 3 months. She as had two courses of antibiotics, which clear it for a few weeks, but then it comes back. The vet says that there could be a narrower duct on that side, but surely it would have been narrow for longer than 3 months. At present I am trying to keep the sac as empty as possible, which has worked before, but I think I am just buying time and will end up having to have the sac removed.

The vet has mentioned removing them, but doesn't want to resort to that yet. Honey has a minor bleeding issue, so surgery is something we want to avoid if possible. I've set her up to have them packed with antibiotics again on Thursday. It gave her relief for about a month instead of the 8-10 days we get with just expression.

I'd been hoping a change in food would help. Because 5-6 months prior to this starting, I had put her on a lower quality kibble than she was used to. No improvement so far. ):