About two and a half years ago, my dog Spencer had a ruptured anal gland. This is probably about as bad as you think. Dogs have these glands right around their rear ends that secrete liquid that was once used somehow for marking territory. This is why dogs sniff butts and crotches when they meet. It's sort of like exchanging business cards.
Modern dogs have no use for these glands anymore, but they still have them. About 10% of dogs will develop a problem back there, where the liquid develops into something to thick and viscous to naturally pass like it should. If it builds up long enough, the gland will rupture and the dog is left with a pretty messy hinder and a sore that needs to be cleaned and medicated twice daily for fourteen days. Yes, I speak from experience. Spencer falls into this 10%.
He's doing much better these days -- he can go three months at a time without starting to scoot around the house, which is the sign that the pressure is bothering him and it's time to call the vet for another butt squeeze. The procedure is actually called expressing the anal glands, but let's call it what it is -- a butt squeeze. And a foul-smelling one at that. Since it's been about three months since the last visit and since Spencer was due for some shots this summer anyway, we went in to take care of business today.
Spencer's vet is a guy who very obviously has the well-being of his patients in mind. He loves the animals. He's kind and gentle, and I've even seen him walking through the office with red eyes and tears after having to put someone's pet to sleep. I'm happy that through one incidental visit many years back, he became the guy we regularly see. He's been the guy who has given Spencer the majority of his butt squeezes over the past two years.
We went in the early afternoon, and I swear we were the only person/pet combo in the place. But it still took a little longer to get the squeeze portion of the visit done today. See, my boy is no dummy. When his doctor and the vet tech brought him back out after he'd been cleaned out and cleaned up, the doctor seemed a little amused.
"I've done this procedure to him too many times," he said with a subtle grin. "He won't let me get behind him anymore. As soon as I try to reach around him, he watches me and counters my moves like he's in a boxing ring. He won't let me back there. If I didn't have some help," he nodded toward the vet tech, "we might not have gotten the job done."
My boy is no dummy. And apparently not a fan of the butt squeezing.
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