NASTY: expressing bird dog's glands

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I give my dog beef leg bones. They seem to hold up well. I have heard of a lot of broken teeth from antlers so I stopped giving them. Every once in a while he does get a Bully Stick. Mine also likes the synthetic bones. This one is his favorite.

We baby sit dogs for foster parents in the rescue with which we are affiliated. Gives the foster parents a place to keep their dogs if going out of town. We`ve kept several pits. Just about the sweetest dogs I`ve ever come across. They all deferred to our dog and were never aggressive towards her. I do, however, have a healthy respect for those jaws! One big, young male (beautiful black and white ) we had merrily crushed a whole pig leg bone into pieces prior to chewing it to nothing in about 15 minutes! Just shattered it.
 
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We baby sit dogs for foster parents in the rescue with which we are affiliated. Gives the foster parents a place to keep their dogs if going out of town. We`ve kept several pits. Just about the sweetest dogs I`ve ever come across. They all deferred to our dog and were never aggressive towards her. I do, however, have a healthy respect for those jaws! One big, young male (beautiful black and white ) we had merrily crushed a whole pig leg bone into pieces prior to chewing it to nothing in about 15 minutes! Just shattered it.
I bought a pig bone once when the beef were out. My Weim boke it into pieces pretty quickly. I dont buy the pig bones anymore.
 
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jjohnsonElknewbie
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As a head's up, I had to take Oscar to the vet today for a pretty severe ear infection. While we were there I had them express his anal glands that were pretty damn full. I asked about doing it at home and whether penetration is required. She said that to do it right and not potentially cause more problems, penetration is absolutely required. She recommended we bring him in every few months or when they get acutely bad.

After bird season ended, I noticed he was starting to get heavier and lose his waist. Well, he got heavier all right and down right chubby. He was 65 in beginning of October and 78 today. No more open feeding. Moving to 2x daily and will be throwing down the glandex for the glands. Need to get back down to hunting weight asap.
 

TaperPin

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I have no idea how applicable this information is to big dogs, but we were really tired of one little dog constantly getting her glands plugged up and it causing an infection. Looking through normal internet stuff, one vet had the advice of making sure you’re dog has big firm turds to naturally push out the glands - and use of fiber supplement like was mentioned, but also cut out excess oil. We were giving the dogs cat food with their dry for the extra oil - their coats really looked good - and that was causing soft thin turds in the problem dog. Stopped the cat food, added a carpet runner just for them to slide their cheeks on if need be and so far that seems to have solved the problem. The dogs love rawhide and luckily they didn’t have to give them up.
 

Smallie

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My current lab had it bad as a pup and always seemed to express it on the couch or the rug. Asked the breeder what to do about it and she said mix in a good scoop of canned pumpkin with her food every night. Never had a problem since then in 7 years and never had to have the vet do it
 

TSAMP

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I feed mine Oinkies from Menards. I think Hartz makes them. They aren't rawhides. He gets one a week maybe. Usually can eat it in 15 minutes, so might not be a competitor to a traditional rawhide.
 

fwafwow

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I had a Lab who needed this periodically when they became impacted. I had my vet show me how to do it. As others have said, use rubber gloves and a paper towel. Pro Tip - the vet said he got shot in the mouth once, so I used to straddle my dog’s back so that his butt faced away from me in the yard, then pull up the tail and aim away from me. I used to get them to shoot several feet. I only used the paper towels for the residue. I never had to insert a finger, as a big dog with a raised tail allowed me to squeeze one side, then the other.

Nice.
 
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My Weim, named Dane, is a massive chicken, scared of everything that goes bump in the night, or day. I had him at a dog sitters and she told me her dad came over. Her dad didn't knock and just walked in. He came around the corner and startled Dane who instantly panicked. Must have puckered Dane up pretty good as the sitter said Dane expressed his anal gland on the wall.

I guess thats one reason I havent had to have it done at the vet.
 

WCB

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I had a dog or two that needed it done on a rare occasion....nothing regular at all....
 
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