I did not expect or anticipate that I’d be blogging about my dogs butt, but here we are. In the middle of a pandemic, with butt problems.

I love my dog more than anything in the world, she’s been there with me through thick and thin. I truly would do anything for this little pooch. When I was faced with the quick decision to put her in for surgery to have her anal glands removed, it was an overwhelming but definite yes. I wish I had more information before having to make this decision, and I still wish I knew what to expect in the coming weeks. I decided to write this post after receiving so many messages on instagram about people’s own experiences with this issue (their pets anal glands, not theirs…to be clear). I wanted to share my journey, in hopes that it becomes a road map for anyone else dealing with the same troubles for their beloved pet(s).

Where It Began…

So let’s start at the beginning shall we? Chlo is 6 and a half years old now. She’s a toy poodle and she’s had issues expressing her anal glands for as long as I can remember. In turn she’s been scooting her tush for as long as I can remember too. I’ve always just dealt with it and been told that the best thing to do is to make sure I’m getting her groomed regularly and keeping her bum clean.

Around March of 2019 we realized that she was really having some issues with her bum. It was getting really red and inflamed. But what did that actually mean? Since then, we’ve been trying to find ways to heal/fix the problem only to end up here, removing her anal glands.

What We Tried Before Surgery

As I mentioned before, I wish I’d had a road map trying to navigate what she experienced and I, like many, are completely clueless when it comes to veterinary care. It’s doubly frustrating that our poor pets can’t tell us what they’re feeling or what’s hurting them.

What she struggled with before we ended up in surgery:

Irritation, red, raw, swollen bum area
Scooting
Soft Stools

About a year ago she went into the vet (I go to Laurel Vet Clinic in Westminster. Dr. Schuster is fabulous there!) We were trying to express her glands due to her constant scooting and irritation, they said they were totally empty, except she had a hardened pea sized nodule in her left gland. At the time, we didn't know what it was or what it meant.

Her bum continued to become red, inflamed and irritated. We then tried to flush out the glands which the vet was unsuccessful in doing. The inflammation and bacterial infection (that she also had in that area) was so bad that it ruptured, causing a gross and unfortunate wound. This created scar tissue around the duct and gland area that later became part of the challenge of her surgery.

We put her onto allergy medicine (apoquil) in hopes of eliminating seasonal allergies in the bum area. We got her tested for infections, we put her on amoxicillin to clear up the infections, we gave her anti-inflammatory medicine, we tested her poop for bacterias, we did a swab of her bum and sent it off to the lab for further testing. Nothing gave us a ton of answers.

I was so frustrated I decided to get a second opinion. I went to South Boulder Animal Hospital. They were extremely kind there, told me her glands felt empty and offered a CBD oil to help with her anxiety. Again, a dead end.

External vs. Internal

The question we continued to run into was, is this an external allergy problem or an internal issue (i.e. food allergy, bacterial infection) causing the redness/swelling/soreness problem?

The only other option we hadn’t tried was to have her seen by a pet dermatologist in hopes of getting some internal versus external answers.

I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Dell at Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital about a month out (he books out so far in advance!) I took Chlo in to see him and he told me that her glands are quite tricky. While one person could think they were completely empty, another may think they’re really full. This can be dependent on the material within them (is it hardened or not) and also the individual dog itself. Unfortunately they can be different in every single pup so whomever is expressing them may or may not believe they’re empty. The material inside of an anal gland should be liquid-like and able to spray out (think of a skunk). Chloey hadn’t been able to express them properly for however many months or years that the material in there had hardened (explaining the hardened pea size nodule that Dr. Schuster felt previously). This caused a lot of discomfort to my poor sweet pooch and explained ALL the other symptoms she’d been experiencing.

The next step as Dr. Dell suggested, was to flush them out in a procedure where she’s sedated. More moolah, but so worth it to finally provide her some relief!

Except, they were unsuccessful in removing the material. He even had 3 other doctors attempt while she was sedated. No such luck. Ugh.

That left me no other choice but to surgically have them removed, and fast. Otherwise they were only going to get worse and worse leaving her in more discomfort which eventually would lead to more infections and problems down the road.

A week and a half later, she was admitted to Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital to have an anal sacculectomy.

Need to Have This Surgery Done on Your Pet?

Here’s A Few Tips I Learned…

Find a board certified surgeon to do this!! I repeat, find a BOARD CERTIFIED surgeon to perform this surgery. It’s also important to ask the surgeon if this is a procedure they’ve done successfully before and if so how many times. I know that seems a little rude to ask, but the biggest risk in this whole thing is the surgery itself. It’s an incredibly intricate and detailed surgery around a lot of really important nerve areas. It’s CRUCIAL that the surgeon is comfortable with this type of surgery. If you have a small pet, find someone who specializes in small pet surgery too.

Need a recommendation? Check out Dr. Allen at Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital. That’s who I use and heard from my vet as well as the dermatologist that she was the best in the biz for what we needed.

Take some time off of work to be with your pet. They need a lot of attention following this surgery. It’s important to have time to focus your undivided attention to them. Offer to work from home, or take some paid time off. Not only is it important to monitor them but you’ll also need to make sure they’re not licking, scooting, jumping or having a lot of activity.
Understanding risk in surgery. The good news is that dogs (and I believe cats) do not need their anal glands, they literally serve no purpose. Dr. Allen explained to me that many, many years ago, people believed that dogs needed them for territorial purposes, but now they serve us no good aside from causing infections and tumors. Pets do need to be put under anesthesia for this procedure so of course there’s a little risk in that always.
The biggest downside to this surgery is the impact it has on the nerves surrounding the bum area. For two to three weeks following the surgery, your animal will experience incontinence (they can’t hold their poop because the muscles don’t recognize that they need to hold it). In a worse case scenario, there is permanent damage done to those nerves during the surgery which can cause this accident-happening circumstance for the rest of their life. This is why it’s SOOOOO important to find someone who is extremely familiar with this surgery especially in a small pet where all those components are so close together.

Cost & Insurance

This type of surgery is NOT cheap, but we love our pets so much don’t we?! And realistically, if I wouldn’t have had the surgery done, we would’ve spent far more down the road dealing with the problems that would’ve come up. I got two quotes to do this surgery. The one from my vet’s traveling surgeon that does periodical surgeries at their facility came in around $1,800, and then the one from Wheat Ridge Animal Hospital came in at $4,300. I feel like this span of price is a typical range for a board certified surgeon to do the procedure from what I understand. I ended up going with the more expensive option because of the referrals I received for Dr. Allen.

I bought insurance with Trupanion when Chloey was 8 weeks old. I’ve paid approximately $30 - 40 per month (it’s not the cheapest) but in this case, I was extremely grateful to have the insurance. They paid me 90% back for the surgery and medicine associated with the surgery.