Sidestep the Need for Anal Gland Squeezing
Give your dog a bone: the case for a raw food diet
“Can you round up George and Millie? I’m taking them for their anal gland squeezing appointment,” my housemate called out.
Say what now? Did I hear what I thought I heard?
Anal gland squeezing. It didn’t sound pleasant. It probably didn’t smell pretty, either. Count me out, I was staying home!
Over the next three years, the two Staffies I lived with would have their anal glands squeezed regularly. As a teenager, I guessed it was a purebred thing. I knew purebred dogs often came with inherited problems. I’d only ever had melting pot mongrels before. Tough and sturdy dogs that lived off scraps and bones.
George and Millie were pampered pooches, dining on a premium tinned dog food menu. I thought it looked and smelt foul, but to George and Millie, it was a feast. After gobbling their dinner, George and Milli would leave sloppy cow pats all over the backyard.
It never occurred to me that George and Millie’s anal gland squeezing issues had a diet-related basis. They were being fed a scientific formula containing all their nutritional requirements. Furthermore, the slop-in-a-can had a shiny endorsement from celebrity veterinarians. Although, to be honest, the smell that wafted up from the can seemed more like a science experiment gone sideways.
But really what could go wrong with a diet based on science?
Manual anal gland squeezing, that’s what.
Give Your Dog a Bone
Monkey and Floyd were my next doggy twosome. I was in my twenties, broke, and the only responsible adult in the house. The tinned food George and Millie dined on was waaaaay out of my price range.
Back to food scraps and bones! The cheap stuff. Monkey and Floyd thrived, and apart from their annual vaccinations, rarely needed to see a veterinarian.
They were usually pretty regular with their toileting habits — unless the mulberry tree was in season. Monkey was a most sensible dog, and she’d occasionally have a little nibble on a mulberry or two. Floyd, on the other paw, could not control himself. He would lose his little puppy mind and go on a gobble feast.
The result: sloppy purple cow pats all over the lawn. Floyd also developed a tendency to butt-scoot all over the place — in effect, the butt-scooting squeezed his anal glands.
A direct correlation between what went in and what came out.
Biologically appropriate raw food — BARF
By the time Pepsi arrived in my household, BARF was the biggest buzzword in dog food.
BARF approaches feeding dogs (and cats) with the foods nature intended them to eat. Ditch the precooked meals and go raw. But getting your hands on a complete balanced diet still came with a hefty price tag if you shopped at the local pet store.
So my husband and I started making our own blend of raw food.
Our Homemade BARF recipe
Ingredients:
- One kilo (2lbs & 2 oz) Steak
- 500 grams Livers (lamb or chicken)
- Four-five kilos of Carrots
- Three Apples
- Two Silverbeets
- One Celery
- One Garlic
- One Kale
- Two Asian greens (not Bok Choy)
- One English spinach
- Three Eggs
- Three tablespoons of flaxseed oil
- Three teaspoons of kelp powder
- One small pot of Greek Yogurt
Method:
First, we wash and roughly chop everything. Then it all goes into the blender until it’s finely chopped. We bag the blended mix into meal-sized portions and freeze them.
Each mix makes roughly enough for between 4–6 weeks.
Trial and error:
Our recipe was originally based on the one included in Dr. Ian Billinghurst’s book, Give Your Dog a Bone. Over the years, we’ve fine-tuned our ingredients to what best suits our dogs.
We soon learned that 2 x celery makes the mixture too wet and juicy. Bok Choy reacts with something in the mix and creates a strong odor (both in the food mix and on the dogs), but other Asian greens are okay (including Pak Choy).
Mix and match:
To gain the ‘complete and balanced’ part of the diet, Rotto and Chilli eat a varied diet with ‘staples’.
- Two chicken drummies for breakfast or brisket bones.
- Dried kangaroo or pork ears for snacks/treats.
- Occasionally a dried kangaroo bone or a marrow bone.
- Eukanuba dried dog biscuits.
- Deer antlers for prolonged chewing pleasure.
We make sure they don’t eat much processed human food, but sometimes you just can’t resist sharing a treat. They love a good bit of watermelon, and Rotto the Rotten will help himself to the basil plants if left unattended.
The proof is in the pudding
Bones provide “bulk” throughout the gut — they act a bit like fibre to keep food moving through the gut and help to express the anal glands to prevent your dog becoming constipated or “scooting” its bottom along the ground. — BARF Australia
My various dogs have always been healthy while eating a raw food diet — no manual anal gland squeezing in our household!
As a bonus, raw or dried uncooked bones make sure their teeth stay in tip-top condition and, as a general rule, their breath is pretty good.
Sandi Parsons is the author of "Pepsi the Problem Puppy," a chapter book based on the real-life shenanigans of her own puppy, Pepsi. She lives with her favorite husband and a house full of problem puppies.
