[Ysabella J]

Hey everyone,

I have a 3 year old, 65 pound Golden Retriever. For about the past 4 months or so I have noticed her licking her behind a lot more than usual. I would say about 3-4 days out of the week and usually when it happens it is multiple times during the day. I know that she is licking back there due to anal glands because every time she does it, out comes the nasty smell.. I took her to the vet, they expressed her anal glands and said they were small, nothing abnormal about them.. She had never had this done before. Well 2 days after I brought her in she started licking again. I started adding pumpkin to her diet regularly with no help. She is fed Orijen kibble & Merrick canned food for breakfast and Stella & Chewy’s raw for dinner. I haven’t switched her diet in over a year. I am really not a big fan of bringing her in every 3 weeks to get her anal glands expressed after reading an article published by Dr. Becker. She doesn’t scoot at all whatsoever, it’s just the licking… I can’t find much information about this online, so now I am here.

Anyone have any advice? I am open to anything… Thanks in advance!!

[Ysabella J]

Bumping up… Anyone??

[DogFoodie]

She might have a food intolerance to one of the ingredients in the food she’s eating. When my Golden, who has food intolerance issues, is exposed to a food to which he’s sensitive, it’s not unusual for one of the first symptoms to be anal gland issues.

He’s eating the one food he can tolerate without any issues currently and the anal gland are fine.

I bought a product called Firm Up! It’s all natural and contains pumpkin and apple pectin. It’s dehydrated. You add water to it and offer it with their food. But, since you’ve tried pumpkin already, that might not help either.

I think I’d take a look at changing foods. My guess would be that it’s one of the breakfast foods, probably Orijen. They reformulated a while ago (more than 4 or 5 months), but it could be something in the reformulated version, possibly legumes.

[Ysabella J]

Thanks Betsy. I ordered the Firm Up product off amazon. Just awaiting it in the mail. Even though she never has loose stools, and they are consistently firm, do you still think this could be the issue? I forgot to mention in my post above, we did send out a fecal sample that came back negative as well.

[Ysabella J]

Wow, so… Upon me searching food intolerance in dogs on the web, I got to thinking.. I am very fortunate enough to take my dog to work with me.. On the front counter we have a jar full of treats for dogs (they are allowed in the office). My golden generally gets a few of them throughout the day from customers visiting.. Now I usually notice her licking at work more often, but have noticed it at home too.. I am not fond of the treats that are put in the jar but also didn’t want to be a stickler about them. I just recently found out they are the science diet hypoallergenic treats – yuck! My boss bought them thinking they would be perfect for all dogs that come in since they are “hypoallergenic”. I don’t have the kind of funds to be buying treats for everyone’s dog who comes in (I spend too much money on my dog as it is) and have already told my boss that they aren’t the best treats to be giving out. She of course doesn’t believe me because the vet said they are great! What to do? Do you think by her getting a few of these treats 4 days out of the week, that it is causing this issue? And how to stop it? Tell everyone there that she has a food allergy? What if it happens behind my back?

• This reply was modified 10 years, 4 months ago by Ysabella J.

[Harpers Mom]

Ysabella,

I can understand your frustration. I work at a Doggy Spa and Boutique and I take Harper, my English bull terrier/ border collie mix, with me to work very often. We have a cookie jar that sits on the counter full of assorted treats- mostly homemade. Harper is allergic to grains and chicken so I have to be very careful of what she gets, even treats. So many people would just toss her a treat if she was out roaming in the boutique, I got to the point where I put a sign on the cookie jar saying to ask before treating, and overall it has worked, if people want to give Harper a treat we have a little stash that are just for her, we use orijen dehydrated treats and she loves them and you can’t get much better than that.

So I would she tell everyone that she does have food allergies, and just put a sign on the jar stating that one of the dogs has allergies and to ask before treating.

Hope this helps, I know it can be hard to deal with eliminating all allergines.

~ Harper’s Mom

[Author]

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