Back from the Vet (anal glands alert)

May 15, 2008 at 2:17 pm Leave a comment

Posted Date: : May 15, 2008 2:17 PM

The wait wasn’t too long today, thank goodness… and in the small waiting room, Boogie did his playbow thing with a friendly pitbull who had his leg in a cast.

Dr. Reina suggested trying Pepcid for the nausea & vomitting and keeping Boogie on Hills i/d or a “sensitive stomach” or “hypoallergenic” diet. I already expected this response. He said that if I decide to get into serious diagnosis of Boogie’s tummy issues, we’re talking about ultrasounds (hundreds of dollars) and/or biopsies (over a thousand dollars) and Dr Reina doesn’t think we should go there for now if there is a chance that the food is working out for him. After hearing the figures, I almost don’t want to go there myself.

And then he had a look at Boogie’s anal glands and expressed them. I now take back what I said about wanting to learn how to check/express a dog’s anal glands. Nope. I don’t think I want to do this. I think I’ll be fine not knowing!!!

Me: “How can you tell when the glands are full? Can you feel them easily?”
Dr: “It takes experience”. (and he drew me the 4 o’clock & 8 o’clock diagram, which I already knew about)

Well, the bad news is that the Boogs has an anal gland infection.

Dr: “It should be brown liquid. See the color?”

There was gooey whitish puss coming out of his rear end.

Dr: “And there’s the smell”.
Me: “I’ve been smelling it all week!” (hah! And Wes thought I was imagining this!)

So what they did was pack Boogie’s anal glands with antibiotics (some sort of white liquid which I hope won’t be secreted onto my furniture – eeek!) and in two weeks I have to bring him back for a check-up. No oral medication. They said that anal glad infections are not uncommon… some dogs get them some dogs don’t. I asked Dr Reina what causes the infection and he said that the glands get clogged up/backed up and bacteria builds up. That’s all there is to it. Me, I am not feeling thoroughly convinced. I hope we don’t have to go through this on a regular basis…

Dr. Reina also suggested that I feed Boogie three smaller meals a day, and keep a diary for signs of vomiting etc. Good idea. I should have been doing this anyway.