Anal Sacs: How soon?

[DavidJ]

We have an 11-week old mini-Dachs and we're just curious about when other mini-Dachs owners first had to worry about "expressing" their puppy's anal sacs or doing preventative things so that "expressing" wouldn't be necessary... Our vet here in Japan said it would be "awhile" (he was a little vague about how long that is) before we would have to worry about that but I would like to hear from actual owners.

If you have a mini-Dachs (don't know if it would be any different with standard Dachs), how old was s/he when you noticed some discomfort? And how did you deal with it?

Thank you in advance!



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David, Saori and Bogey
Tsukuba, Japan

[Owen's Mom]

Owen was about a year before he started scooting. Some dachsie NEVER have a problem with their anal sacks, some have chronic problems, some need to have them removed at some point (very very rarely). No one can really tell you. The best thing to do is leave them alone unless you see your pupper scooting or really paying too much attention to it's bootie...espeically licking there. If you notice it, take the pup to the vet and have them check the anal glands and be sure that's what it is... it could be worms instead.

Your vet can express them, a properly trained groomer can, or you can learn to do it yourself with the help of your vet. In my mind, it's not a big deal, I do Owen's when I notice him scooting, maybe every 4-6 weeks.

My vet explained it this way to me... small dogs were bred down from big dogs, unfortunately, their anal sacs stayed a bit large in that transition, so it makes it difficult for them to evacuate them naturally. That's why you see many small dogs needing to have their anal glads expressed manually.

Hope that helps


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~~Amy & Owen~~
22.8 lbs of Black and Tan Standard Muscle!!
www.dachshundrescue.org

[Mandy]

Hopefully it won't even be a concern (not that it would be a big deal if you needed to deal with it). Henry is 3 yrs. and almost 2 mos. and has never needed this done. Jakey is 16 mos. and has never needed this. So, keep with the same advice....don't worry about it until you cross that bridge, and when you do, take a trip to your local friendly vet and let them do and show you how to do it....

[Penny's Aunt]

Mandy is right. Millions of dogs have never had a problem in their entire lives. Don't do ANY "preventive maintenance" regarding this, or you could cause a problem that didn't need to be.

As far as I've ever heard, there is no real prevention for the problem. They either have the problem or they don't. If they have it, it may just be occasional, or it can be chronic.