Hello all,
I'm not sure which details are relevant, and which may not be, but I'll overdo it for now. Thanks for your patience.
My girl is 8 years old, spayed. She's generally on the healthy, hale side and always has been. Minor episodes in her youth- at 4 or so she had an incidence of bleeding diarrhea. The vet thought it colitis. She generally has a pretty strong stomach and good appetite, usually poos 3-5 times a day. In the last 2-3 years she will periodically have days where she passes on one meal, will have a loud, girgly belly for part of the day, and then go back on her food for the next meal. Because of this she eats 3 meals a day, 1 cup each of NutriSource grain free chicken. Our vet suggested it, and she does seem to do best when she does not go too long between meals. In the last 6-12ish months she has had a few accidents in her sleep. She had a couple small urine accidents at first. More recently they have been the small hard poo pebbles. These only occur every few weeks. We have seen this with our previous Dane, and did not panic.
She also had one enlarged hock, the vet pronounced arthritis. It slows down her activity but only somewhat. She is occasionally a bit stiff getting up or after strenuous exercise, but does not seem to be in pain generally. As a result, however, she does favor the non injured side when getting on the couch, in the truck, or in the tub. I'd overall say her rear is not as strong as it once was, but I had largely attributed that to her one bad hock. It does seem less and less strong, however.
So the reason for my post is that since around January, so about 2 months, she has had a constant odor in her rear area. At first I thought it was less anal glandy and more poo-y. I thought perhaps she had not been cleaning herself. I started to clean her up after every trip outside. I've tried baby wipes, adult butt wipes, and witch hazel. None have even improved the smell. I have also seen her groom herself since, so strike that theory. I started to think I was wrong, maybe it was the glands. I have been giving her yogurt, though the stools are generally consistently firm. No change, always stinky. I gave her a thorough bath and she stunk before she was dry.
I took her to the vet on Friday. He said her glands were full. He expressed them. She pooed all over him as he did so. He did not think it was a dietary issue, and thought we should start manually expressing them weekly. I did note that she still smelled as we left. No change at all. Saturday after a nap, her whole butt area was drenched in gland juice. Wipes did not improve smell. Today she had diarrhea all over the van.
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do. She does not seem at all uncomfortable, but it just doesn't seem normal that she now smells at all times and there is nothing to be done about it. Thoughts?
Thanks to anyone patient enough to get this far!
I'm not sure which details are relevant, and which may not be, but I'll overdo it for now. Thanks for your patience.
My girl is 8 years old, spayed. She's generally on the healthy, hale side and always has been. Minor episodes in her youth- at 4 or so she had an incidence of bleeding diarrhea. The vet thought it colitis. She generally has a pretty strong stomach and good appetite, usually poos 3-5 times a day. In the last 2-3 years she will periodically have days where she passes on one meal, will have a loud, girgly belly for part of the day, and then go back on her food for the next meal. Because of this she eats 3 meals a day, 1 cup each of NutriSource grain free chicken. Our vet suggested it, and she does seem to do best when she does not go too long between meals. In the last 6-12ish months she has had a few accidents in her sleep. She had a couple small urine accidents at first. More recently they have been the small hard poo pebbles. These only occur every few weeks. We have seen this with our previous Dane, and did not panic.
She also had one enlarged hock, the vet pronounced arthritis. It slows down her activity but only somewhat. She is occasionally a bit stiff getting up or after strenuous exercise, but does not seem to be in pain generally. As a result, however, she does favor the non injured side when getting on the couch, in the truck, or in the tub. I'd overall say her rear is not as strong as it once was, but I had largely attributed that to her one bad hock. It does seem less and less strong, however.
So the reason for my post is that since around January, so about 2 months, she has had a constant odor in her rear area. At first I thought it was less anal glandy and more poo-y. I thought perhaps she had not been cleaning herself. I started to clean her up after every trip outside. I've tried baby wipes, adult butt wipes, and witch hazel. None have even improved the smell. I have also seen her groom herself since, so strike that theory. I started to think I was wrong, maybe it was the glands. I have been giving her yogurt, though the stools are generally consistently firm. No change, always stinky. I gave her a thorough bath and she stunk before she was dry.
I took her to the vet on Friday. He said her glands were full. He expressed them. She pooed all over him as he did so. He did not think it was a dietary issue, and thought we should start manually expressing them weekly. I did note that she still smelled as we left. No change at all. Saturday after a nap, her whole butt area was drenched in gland juice. Wipes did not improve smell. Today she had diarrhea all over the van.
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do. She does not seem at all uncomfortable, but it just doesn't seem normal that she now smells at all times and there is nothing to be done about it. Thoughts?
Thanks to anyone patient enough to get this far!
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