Uh-Oh....Shes scootin'....

[Lexi_Lover]

Lexi started scooting last night. My parents just thought she got an itchy bum( ), LOL, I thought of the other thing immediatly. Now this morning, she ran to the carpet, and started scooting. I looked at her and she chased her tail. Then scooted on tile, then the carpet again. I starting to think that her 'anal sacs'(I think thats what they're called) are filled or something along those lines. Now, I'm not sure if its that, or something else...but whenever I go to touch her bum, tail or the area around there, she looks at me and snaps(lightly) at my hand as if to say "Back away from there.."

What do you think it is? Any other symptoms or signs I should look for? Do I have to bring her to the vet?

Thanks,
Paula and a desperate Lex

PS...Also, she whines occasionally and keeps her tail low...

[jesse_3]

There is a worm that effects this area and dogs start scooting..If you take her to the vet, I believe that the test for them is easy, and so is the treatment!

Good luck Lexi!-
Steph, Jesse, and Splinter

[Tollers-n-Dobes]

Poor Lex, she's sure gone through quite a bit this year I was about to say it's probably just her anal glands or whatever they're called but I'm not sure why she'd be whining and holding her tail low if that was the case. Hopefully it's nothing too serious! I'd definitley try to get her into the Vet though....

[Giselle]

Did she have a bout of diarrhea? Healthy, happy dogs often scoot their bums around not because of worms but because their anal sacs are filled due to diarrhea. My Peke has a sensitive GI tract and often gets the Big D if he eats anything abnormal. The next day, he'll scoot his bum around because his feces were too soft to excrete the anal sac fluid...stuff... If she did have the Big D, give her some canned pumpkin (not the pie filling), yogurt, and/or rice and her poops should firm up. After that, her bum scooting should disappear. You could just go to the vet and have her checked for worms, but odds are she probably doesn't

[lv4dogs]

It's probably her anal glands, and they can get sore when they get full, if not emptied they can become impacted which requires meds & more emptying & soreness.

I'd bring her to your vet, for about $10-$20 they will express them and even show you how to do it of you want.

I'm sure she'll be fine! Good luck sweetie!

[jesse_3]

Hey, how is Lexi today? Is she still scootin'?

Steph, Jesse, and Splinter

[felinefuture]

The usual reason that dogs 'scoot' is due to impacted anal glands. The cause of impacted anal glands is diet. The stool is too soft, due to the grain content or carbohydrate content of the commercial pet food diet. If you were to feed a biologically correct diet of raw meat, this problem should disappear. The stool becomes harder, and smaller, and it expresses the anal sacs more effectively, when the dog eliminates. This anal gland problem can become rather serious, as it can cause infection, and rupture, so a trip to the vet is in order, they know how to express these sacs. Keep in mind, however, that your vet may scare you away from the species-appropriate diet of raw meat, as they have been educated by commercial pet food companies, with regard to nutrition, and these companies have done a very good job of teaching that this kind of diet is 'dangerous'!

If you need any more information about this type of feeding, I would be happy to share my experience.

Good luck.
Gayle

[Jessika]

felinefuture, vets also have to recommend commercial pet foods because oftentimes a large company such as IAMS or Purina will sponsor that specific clinic, so they "have" to recommend that brand of food to all their patients, eventhough that particular line of food may not be "good quality" food!

Anyway it can be one of two things as mentioned above -- worms, or anal glands.

If its worms, you need to check your pup's stools. If applicable, pick it up in a plastic baggie, zip it up tight, and "mush" the poo to look for white worms. Nasty I know but sometimes it saves a trip to the vet office.. If its worms then you can pick up some dewormer at your local pet shop, its relatively inexpensive to buy, I do believe even Walmart carries some, though I don't know how good it is.

If its the anal glands, unless you are an expert in knowing how to do it yourself, bring your pup in to the vet to have it done. You CAN do it yourself, but if you are a novice then I do not recommend doing it by yourself without supervision.

[K9karen]

PU! I'd never want to learn to express them myself! Cody used to "let go" once in a while, especially in the car on the way to the vet! I made SURE I stood by his head when the vet worked on him! Anyway, the few times I took him for "that problem" he stopped scooting immediately. Is it more prominent in males than females?

[beeniesmom]

This was probably made up too.

[Jessika]

Originally posted by beeniesmom
This was probably made up too.

Whether its made up or not isn't the issue; the fact still remains that this is something that happens very commonly among dogs, so if someone was searching through the forums and found this thread and found their pup had similar symptons, took them to the vet and found out that's what it was, then we helped someone out!

[felinefuture]

I'm going to go out on a limb here, Jessika, and make the assumption that the vets don't know what goes into these pet foods? If they did, they may not be so apt to sponsor some of these corporate giants. Pet food was developed as a result of the garbage that was left from the human food industry - the garbage couldn't be burned (too expensive), and it couldn't be buried (illegal), so it went into pet foods. Now we are faced with sick animals because what they're eating is 'unfit for human consumption', from dead (and rotting) factory farm animals, to mouldy grains, rancid fat (from fast-food restaurant grease), euthanized cats and dogs (by the thousands of tonnes). They even use peanut hulls, which have absolutely no nutritional value, and actually draw nutrients out of the bodyl Peanuts are also the most contaminated crop, because they are rotated with cotton, and cotton is the very heavily sprayed with insecticides.

The pet food industry is a very convenient dumping ground for human food garbage, the rendering plants are actually paid to pick up the garbage, so what we are buying in a bag of pet food has no value at all!

Is it any wonder that our animals get sick?

Thank you for listening, we all do our best with what we have!

Gayle

[labrado_retriever123]

Worms

OR

Blocked anal glands