Anyone feed Orijen? Or have an OES with anal gland issues?
Dudley has also been having what we believe is an anal gland issue of not expressing them.. since we brought him home. We have brought the issue up to the Vet, and he had them expressed once last month. Since then, he still has some episodes and we have also been adding pumpkin and giving him sweet potatoes for treats. When we brought Dudley home from his breeder, he was on IAMs large breed puppy and had irregular stools. He usually has diarrhea in the afternoon, after going to the bathroom- he does a fast run and a hard sit, sort of scoots his butt (however not nearly as much as other dogs I've seen, and he doesn't have that anal gland "fish smell" at all). We switched to Orijen Large Breed slowly, and he still has irregular stools, and a few times a week, still does his fast run and hard sit which we are relating to the anal gland issue. Any feedback?? Thanks guys! |
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| Just a comment about foods in general, and anal glands. Dogs naturally express their anal glands with bowel movements - not a lot, but it is the way they are intended to function. A little bit of expressing done with each BM. The volume or size of the BM is what causes the gland to secrete a little - think of it like pressure. Bigger BM's put more pressure, causing the gland to express better than a small BM. Now to the food component. Feeds with more grains are less well digested, resulting in more fecal matter. It's just like us eating a higher roughage diet for better colon health. The grain free foods are more well digested, resulting in less roughage and smaller stools. Good for us with cleanup...but NOT good for expressing the anal glands.  So if you have a dog with anal gland issues, a grain free diet is going to make the issue worse. Now I know you mentioned allergies as well - so one more thing to factor in. But I just wanted to put the food/anal gland relationship out there. Orijen is a high protein, grain free food. I rotate foods for allergy prevention and good GI health in my dogs. One of the components of my rotation is also alternating grain free with foods that contain grains. OES aren't prone to anal gland issues more than other breeds. One thing to watch out for however, is if you take your dog to a groomer - and if they express the glands routinely. They should not be doing this. It leads to sluggish and malfunctioning anal glands from over expressing. It can actually create a dependency on having them manually expressed. |
| Thanks. Just got back from the vet, she was saying that possibly the anal glands and dermatitis in his groin could be related to an allergy. She wants us to compare the ingredients in the IAMS and Orijen. Dudley was given medicine for the rash. I think we should just take him to our other bigger vet clinic in town which has vets who do allergy testing. |
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