Why does my dog rub his rear on the ground?

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Originally Posted by janmovies11

why does my dog rub his rear on the ground?

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If your dog is dragging his rear end along the ground, and there aren't signs of worms hanging out of his butt or in his stool, it is most likely that his anal glands need to be expressed. Anal glands are two tiny pea shaped sacs immediately inside his anus. They can fill up with fluid from defecation. Try lifting his tail and smell for an extremely unpleasant odor. Some dogs never have a problem their whole lives. Others need to have their sacs emptied often. A good groomer, vet tech or vet can empty the sacs for you. It is a quick job and shouldn't cost that much. Please don't wait too long. If your dog continues to have this problem and the sacs don't empty themselves from a hard bowel movement, they can become impacted and infected.

Please let us know how he is doing.

Does anyone know how to empty the anal sacs?

There are two sacs,one is at 9'oclock and the other is at 3 o'clock of the anus.It's not easy to do on your first time,so I recommend a vet showing you,so you can do it yourself there after.There are how to sites on the internet,perhaps you can check them out to give you an idea of what's going on.Prepare yourself,Ihope you don't have a weak stoma:eek: ch.

I agree with pompano. Doberman if you haven't been shown how to do this properly, it is not an easy task and you run the chance of hurting your dog by digging around too much in her anus. On a dobie, you will need another person to hold her while you empty the sacs. My rescued pitbull has a permanent intestinal problem due to a poor start in life. She requires special food. Being on that higher fiber food still has not completely solved the problem and I need to get her anal sacs expressed about 4 times a year. She doesn't like it. As soon as I put on the rubber gloves, she runs in the other direction. So, instead of trying to chase her down, I bring her to a tech vet that is very gentle with her. I am the one holding her and talking calmly to her while the other person does the job. It costs me $20. So, see if you can find a vet tech or a good groomer if you don't want to pay to have the vet do it. By the way, my vet charges $25 for that. As I stated above, it isn't that expensive. Most dogs that have this problem don't need it done more than once or twice a year.

My puppy has done this a lot. The first time I knew it was round worms (saw them!) the last time I just gave her a worm tablet anyway. Ive been told problems with the anal sacs is only likely if the dog is old... dont know how true it is, but that didn't seem to be my dogs issue. I tried expressing it myself anyway and nothing came out.

A vet will carefully sort out worms/anal glands and apply an effective remedy. If it turns out he has continuing problems, then you can look at learning how to do it yourself.

Doberman,

Expressing anal glands is something an expert should do. You could take a chance of rupturing the anal glands if they are impacted. Some dogs just have ongoing issues with them, and others can have the issue from stress or their diet. Anal glands are expressed onto the stool as a scent to identify the dog to other dogs. If your dog has a poor diet, stressed or is allergic to their diet the stool could be soft, thus not firm enough to push on the anal glands and express them when they defecate. Hope this information is educating for you.

Thank you so much for the help... I'm taking her to the vet tomorrow! :]