Apologies I’m not entirely sure if the right section to ask for advice or not regarding my mothers dogs ‘issue’ which is she has a recurring problem her anal gland.
The problem was first noticed roughly when she was 15 months old, she displayed typical symptoms and has since had to have it emptied at least 5-6 times over very short period of time.
When this issue started she was fed on ‘Ava adult medium breed (chicken) and Lovejoys Adult Wet Dog Food’ my apologies I can’t remember the exact amounts but did calculate it correctly at the time. However her ‘poos’ were never great on Ava and we subsequently started switching her very slowly (10g increments over 3 days each) to ‘Redmills Go Native Duck with Apple & Cranberry’ but amount two days before completely switching over she had quite bad by diarrhoea and we started feeding her purely on boiled chicken breast and white rice and slowly introduced the Redmills Go Native Duck with Apple & Cranberry back into her diet, her ‘poos’ are far better on Go Native not to mention she has clamed down a lot compared to the Ava diet however it’s been about 3-4 months and her anal gland issue has persisted, not as bad but still an issue.
So far the vet has suggested we put her on probiotic and, give her a fibre supplement. But last visit it was suggested by the nurse that we might change her to a kibble with higher fibre and the one she suggested was ‘Pooch & Mutt - GASTROINTESTINAL’ but we could really use some advice as dog food in general is a mine field of numbers and it honestly feels like we need a degree to understand it all.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, many thanks
(Apologies for the wall of text below but looked at the ‘information needed sticky’, just didn’t know how to work it into explaining the issue and wanted to give as much information just encase)
Breed of dog: English Springer Spaniel
Sex: Female
Age: 22 months
Diet - ‘Eukanuba puppy food medium (chicken)’ and spoonful of ‘Chappie’ till around 5-6 months of age
‘Ava Puppy medium breed (chicken)’ and spoonful of ‘AVA Veterinary Approved Optimum Health Wet Puppy Food Chicken Pate’ until 12 'ish months of age, followed by Ava adult medium breed (chicken) and Lovejoys Adult Wet Dog Food until around 17-18 months of age
Current food ‘Redmills Go Native Duck with Apple & Cranberry’ recommended for current weight is 177 grams a day and is on roughly 200 grams a day
With regards to feeding amount we went by the brands recommendations in relations to current weight at the time of feeding, only deviation to this was when she was a puppy and was recommend to feed a spoonful of wet food on top of kibble without adjusting kibble amount.
Again regards to treats over the course of nearly two years she has had various, too many to list, but always fed in moderation and since the problem started everything food related was cut out and she was placed on a diet boiled chicken and white rice and slowly reintroduced to everything food wise to see if it suited her.
Current weight 14.5kg and with regards to ideal weight I’m unsure, when she was spayed she was around 16.5kg and but ever since she has hovered around the 15kg mark
Supplements she is on are as follows: Yumove Digestive Care, Protexin Pro-Fibre Advanced, Purina PRO PLAN Multivitamin, YuMOVE Calming Care and ProDen PlaqueOff Powder
(encase it’s relevant)
Nature of the problem, including how long your dog has had it.
A recurring anal gland issue over the last 3-4 months,
Known allergies/intolerances:
None that we known of.
General health
Overall her general health is fine, she is a healthy and quite active dog both physically and mentally , she is however extremely nervous in general. Her only issue is the same reason which led me to post on the forum, she has a recurring anal gland problem
Veterinary consultations - include any advice and medication that was given.
The initial advice of vets was to put her on a probiotic, followed by a fibre supplement. (Protexin Pro-Fibre Advanced)