s/o Dog grooming thread - expressing anal glands?

I have never ever had this done to any of my dogs

I think it might depend on the breed.

I never had a dog that needed gland attention either. I thought it was a small dog issue and we always had big dogs. However, our last love was part Rottweiler and part Newfoundland who blew her anal gland out twice before we were smart enough to notice her signs that her glands were full and needed to be expressed. I can not over emphasize how gross a whole in her gland/butt area and how obviously painful it was for her. Blood and fluid everywhere. We had to wash the area with medicated soap to keep it clean until it healed. Again, it took us two times. Terrible dog parents that allowed it to happen twice. We considered having it removed but like I said, we figured out her warning signs and were more regimented about getting them expressed.

It does depend on the breed. We never had to have it done for any of our smooth coated dogs but we did/do have to have it done for our poodles. For some reason, the dogs that don’t shed have more problems with the glands getting blocked and when that happens they can get infected and/or even burst which is painful for the dog and disgusting for you.

My last poodle that I had 20 years ago had one burst and it was so gross. The stuff that comes out is horrifically putrid smelling, the dog had to have antibiotics and also needed salve put on his butt while the gland healed.

With my current poodle, she had a slight problem with it once when we first had taken her to the groomer (probably because I forgot to tell them NOT to do it) and our vet told us to just have them do it because they will do it from the inside. 

Butt-scooting is sometimes a sign that anal glands are full or compacted. My shitzu’s anal glands used to get compacted, even though the groomer always did it. Like someone else said, the vet can do a more thorough job. It’s definitely more common in smaller breeds, and a healthy, high fiber diet can prevent impacted glands.

My boy's groomer does it and they do it at the vet on his yearly check up. He is a Havenese just FYI.

The only dog we've had that's needed his glands expressed is our chug. A vet tech does it at his annual checkup and out vet said it's very common for pugs to have anal gland issues, especially when they are *coughcoughfatcoughcough* bigger boned. If he needs it again during the year our groomer, who is also a licensed vet tech, does it when he gets his mani pedi. He scoots and the streak marks let me know when it's time

I started the other thread so I will say I asked my vet if we need to bring our dog in or can the groomer do it. Her reply was “we are glad to do it for you, the groomer can do it or we can even show you how to do it in your own at home”. I gave a hard no to the final option!!!

My friend has a retriever. Her dog had anal gland issues that were extreme. It filled in a weekly basis. She had to have surgery in her dog to have it removed. It is the worst god awful smell there is. For those unaware of what this is....give thanks!

Never had a dog with this problem. The butt scooting they did is when they had worms.

Our boy is a Maltese and is checked by the groomer but recently he had an anal gland abscess which obviously the vet had to treat but we have had dogs all our married life (48 years) and have never had to do anything with any of the others. 

Checked out Google and it is something that most dogs 'do' themselves! Sounds disgusting to do so I will continue to leave it to those that know what they are doing. 

My dog needs his glands milked about every 4-6 weeks. He starts licking his ass like crazy, almost in a panicky way. After a few times to the vet office I asked the vet technician that I want to watch the process and she asked me if i want to learn it because she is happy to teach me. So since than I'm the one who is doing it. I'm a trained nurse so it doesn't gross me out. But I'm saving almost $40.
I cook for my dog so I'm happier to spend that money on the food.

We have a Morkie (Maltese/Yorkie mix) and she has problems expressing her anal glands. She would normally get them done at the groomer, but one time it seemed like she was having issues shortly after her grooming appt so I called to make sure they expressed them and I was told the groomer will do it externally but the vet can do a more thorough job by doing it internally. In between grooming visits she would have moments when she would 'skunk' us. HORRIBLE smell! She also acts as though having them full is uncomfortable. Our vet told us that dogs normally express them themselves with their bowel movements and in fact we changed our pups food to give her more fiber to see if that helped. Probably helped some, but still an issue.

Since the pandemic I did not like the way our groomer was trying to retrieve pets to bring them in for their grooming appt, and I learned that our vet had a groomer on site a few days per week so this last time I took her there and will probably continue to do so. One of the vet techs told me she had to do her dog once a week.