Video: How to Express a Dog's Anal Gland

Learn tips and techniques on how to clean, drain or express the anal glands of your dog in this free video.

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677531120 May 23, 2012

Hopefully she isn't late for her shift at McDonalds...

christopher.mcrae3 Nov 19, 2011

dogs anal glands be stinking yo.

meghan.lavallee Nov 15, 2011

Ruth, you'll know your dog needs this if he is dragging his behind, licking the area, or chasing his tail frequently. My dog has been doing this for a little while now and I had no idea.

noel.briggstracy Nov 11, 2011

thank you for the demo on anal cleaning. it worked. what a great web site.

Shelley Oct 25, 2011

You're still the best, AMF. Many thanks for the refresher course. I miss the romps in P. Park with Molly and Bacchie, et al.

Video Transcript

Hi! I am Anne-Marie and today we are learning basic dog grooming. In this series we are going to touch upon a subject, it is not so pretty, but necessary. All dogs have glands that they have right back in their anal area call their anal glands. That’s why they smell each other’s butts when they say hello. Every dog has their own smell kind of like a finger print. When grooming a dog it is important to check the anal glands and express them if there is anything in them. The reason for this is to empty up the glands, the sacs will collect fluid and it they are not emptied that’s you run the chance of them becoming impacted or even worse infected, which could be very painful and will lead to more intense veterinary care. So an ounce of prevention is worth it, even though it is not pretty. So here we go. We are going in. We are going to check this area in here. The anal sacs are located right at 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock on the dog obviously inside and underneath the skin. There are two sacs that come down one on either side and there are openings here and here. Our goal is to get sort of behind the sac inch forward and up and pull out the fluid, I mean push out the fluid really. Now if you try to do it and you cannot do it, don’t go crazy trying to push it. It’s better to call your veterinarian and have your veterinarian and do it. It is not an area that you want to get involved with, if you not sure of what you are doing. I like to use a paper towel sometimes I will use a baby wipe if the dog has sensitive skin. But a lot of time you can also do the step in the tub. So what we are going to do is, we are going to actually… probably block your view little bit with a paper towel for necessary reasons and we will squeeze, we will hold the tail up and we will squeeze in and out and as you see the dog expressed a little fluid, which is the anal gland juice. This is a pretty normal color if you get a thicker paste you would want to, may be talk to your vet about an impaction, if you get blood or pus you definitely need your vet for an infection. So well it is not pretty and it does not smell a nice something we have to do and we will clean it all up the tub.

How to Express a Dog's Anal Gland

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