Healthy Dog for Life

Regardless if one has been a dog owner all his or her life, seeing a dog scooting its rear end across the yard or living room carpet always tends to be an unsettling sight. However, experienced dog owners know this is an issue that should never be ignored; especially since it is a symptom of a worm or flea infestation. Yet when the scooting is accompanied with excessive licking of the anal area or difficulty defecating, it is likely a different but very important health issue: impacted anal glands. Left unchecked, impacted anal glands can lead to serious infections in addition to painful abscesses for a canine companion.

The anal glands are two sacs that are located on both sides of a dog’s anal opening. The secretions inside them are what a dog uses to leave his or her scent behind. When a proper sized stool of the correct hardness is passed, it presses up against these glands that then leave a deposit as the dog defecates. However, when a dog’s stool is consistently soft, the anal glands can become backed up and that’s when pet owners see their dog scooting around on its rear end. Backed up anal glands are uncomfortable for a dog and recurrent problems leave the door wide open for bacterial infections.

It is not uncommon for dog owners to take their canine companion to a vet or groomer to have a blocked anal gland expressed. While this certainly brings relief for a dog, there are pet owners that find themselves having to have this procedure done nearly every two weeks. This is an indicator that something is seriously wrong in a dog’s diet. About 70% of the time, it is because a dog subsists on a diet of canned commercial pet food. The inability to form a hard stool while ingesting such a diet is what has a dog scooting around its rear end in hopes of unblocking the gland and finding some relief.

Rather than putting a canine companion through a constant, uncomfortable cycle, the better kindness pet owners can offer is a diet change to natural raw meat on the bone. A diet of raw meat and bone is not only the key to healing a vast number of canine ailments, dogs on this type of natural diet pass firm, odorless stools. Within weeks, a dog and it’s owner can see the end of this costly and unpleasant cycle for good.

As stated by Dr. Tom Lonsdale, BVet Med, MRCVS, “A natural diet acts as food and medicine for pet carnivores. It works wonders and minor miracles. We need those benefits now.”

Unlike commercial pet foods where much of their diet passes undigested, dogs on a diet based around raw meat and bone will use every bit of what they eat. Firm stools properly work the anal glands, which means infections and abscesses become a non issue. Most importantly, thanks to a diet of raw meat and bone, dog owners no longer have to see the unsettling sight of their dog scooting their rear end on the new living room carpet.