Abscess in anal sac

[MHMama]

Last night Ricky starting scooting around the floor and was acting real strange. When I checked the area, it was red and swollen. By midnight, Ricky was furiously licking and biting at the area so I stayed up with him to try to keep him from doing that. By 2:30 am, he was in so much pain, that I gave him some liquid benedryl and just held him while he finally got some sleep.
This morning I took him to the Vets and he had an abscess anal sac that must have burst some time last night. Now he has a gaping hole there.
He got a shot of antibiotics, shot for something else (maybe pain) and we have to put ointment in that hole twice a day plus give him antibiotic pills.
He won't go to the bathroom and he won't eat but the Vet said to just leave him alone for now and let him sleep it off so I am.
Poor baby keeps looking at me like I should be able to fix it faster but at least we know we are doing all we can to help relieve him of this painful situation.
Does anyone know how to extract the anal sac? I know I have seen our Vet doing it but I wasn't really paying attention. I think I should ask him to show me how so I can do it before another situation comes up. How often should this be done?

[ramanth]

This just happened to Kia about a month ago. Though with Kia, there was no warning... no scooting or licking.... Just one day she had blood dripping off of her butt.

Vet said I'll just have to have her anal sacs checked during her yearly checkups... I'm not sure I'd want to try and check it myself.

:)

The gaping hole is disturbing, but it does heal up fast. :)

[MHMama]

The reason I asked is I have seen ads for pet grooming such as PetSmart and it mentions extracting anal sacs along with grooming so I was wondering if this is something the owner should be doing or what

[Logan]

My parent's Boston Terrier, Mr. Darcy, had the same thing happen. The only good thing I can tell you is that he is doing just fine now and recovered beautifully. That boy has had some serious health issues (loss of an eye, the anal sac issue) in his short, 3 year life. I do hope that Ricky will recover quickly, MHMama. I'm sorry that both of you are having to deal with this now.

Logan

[ramanth]

I would definately ask your vet. I'm sure anyone could check or extract it.

Myself personally, I'm going to let the vet take care of it.

I just decided that I'll keep an eye on that area, but I'm not going to mess with it.

I've had Kia for almost 3 years and this is the first time it happened. I guess in some dogs it's more common.

[tatsxxx11]

I have no experience in this area MHMama. I'd check back with your vet and I'm sure she/he will instruct you on how to do it, if you're willing. Poor Ricky...it sounds so painful! Glad to hear the little guy's doing so much better:) Hugs to you Ricky!

[binka_nugget]

I had to get Kaedyn's emptied last month. I was trying to read up and see if I could find tips on how but after reading about it, I decided I was better off handing ten bucks to the vet to do it.

I've never done it myself but I know you can do it by either squeezing the two sacs externally or inserting a finger to squeeze them inside which is supposed to be much easier.

[wolf_Q]

Reggie actually had the same thing happen to him, with the yucky hole and everything. That was years ago. I didn't know anything about anal glands when it happened. He recovered fine.

I've expressed many anal glands on dogs (at work). It's really quite simple to do but it's rather messy and SMELLY. When you lift the tail you can feel the sacs on either side of the anus and just gently squeeze them. Of course it's easier to describe then do lol. Some dogs you can't feel the sacs because they are not full. Most dogs empty them on their own. It seems that small dogs and overweight dogs have a problem with it more often.

I've heard that emptying the sacs too often can cause the dog to not be able to empty them on their own. I'm not positive on any of these things though so check with a vet.

[Kater]

Originally posted by MHMama
Does anyone know how to extract the anal sac? I know I have seen our Vet doing it but I wasn't really paying attention. I think I should ask him to show me how so I can do it before another situation comes up.
Expressing the anal sacs is something that you can do yourself. BUT - you need to have your vet SHOW YOU HOW and explain it first, there are probably wrong ways to do it. You vet should also be able to answer any questions you may have about it.

[lv4dogs]

You can do it yourself but please have your vet show you how, If you do it the wrong way you could actually burst the sacs.

Is is very smelly & messy. Raustyk used to have to have hers done all the time, I did it myself when the weather was nice, during the winter though we went to the vet. I did not want that in my house! LOL
I switched her diet & she has never had a problem since (along with many other major problems from that food)

If you add more fiber to their diet that seems to help too, although you want to add it gradually & never give too much, it could become really messy haha