Help!!!! My dog expresses her glands all the time!!!!

Ok, so I've read about the dog's need to have their anal glands expressed, but is there such thing as them expressing too much? Quite often, especially in the morning after she wakes up, I will smell this pungent fishy smell(yeah, nice to wake up to) and see my sheepie going to town on her rear end. She seems to clean herself up quickly, but why does it happen so often? Should I be concerned as oppossed to just annoyed and mildly disgusted? Everyone talks about blockage and the neeed to have their dog's glands exdpressed and mine just seems to do it herself??!!! Is that odd? It does seem like it happens when she gets excited..sometimes during play,...mostly when she greets us in the morning. PLEASE, anyone with advice? HELP!
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my girl does this too -not all the time but whenever she is nervous (sometimes when I am grooming her :cry: ) or another dog barks at her or a host of other occassions.

is your girl a nervous nelly?

I would talk to vet about it.
both of my 2 dogs are always washing their backsides I am sure none of the others did it quite so much!
She may not be expressing them completely... just a bit of anal gland secretion is enough to make a big smell.

Ask the vet if adding more bulk/fiber to your dog's diet might help her to express her anal glands naturally when she does her business.

You might also ask them to show you how to express them for her... I have one that needs to be done every 2-4 weeks... more like 4 now. We do it at home... it's better than having "the stuff" on the furniture or carpet.
Baloo seems to just have this happen when he gets startled or surprised and jumps up to bark... one day he was napping and the boys came barging into the house from school all loud... Baloo jumped up and was barking mad - Stinking all the way!
I'd go with the advice on a visit to the vet.
This happens with my dalmation whenever one anal gland gets impacted.
Manually emptying it stops the problem.
Try more fibre in her diet to help her able to express it all when she goes.

Grated Raw Carrot, about half a cup mixed in with her dinner once a day will help and make the stools more solid so should help her empty out completely.

Also next time your at the vets or a groomer get them to show you how to express them, not pleasant but when you need too it will be a relief for her and you too knowing she is completely emptied out in the anal sack.

I had it once with a young girl sheepie, the vet expressed it, told me to add more fibre to her diet and have not had to worry about it since. :wink:

Sometimes too if they get stessed or highly exciteable they can partially express then but a lot do grow out of it as they get older. :wink: In very rare cases they do, do surgery to remove the anal sacks, but that is a last resort after everything else has failed.
Fiber can bulk up the stools, but higher protein or even a food that just agrees with your dog better and produces firmer stools should eliminate this problem.
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