My dog licks her anal glands. Can I add psyllium to her pumpkin?

Pumpkin is good because it adds fiber to the diet leading to regular defecation, and when a dog has regular stools, that helps express the anal sacs. In fact, pumpkin is recommended to give to dogs when they are constipated. For her digestive health and anal sacs, pumpkin would be the best to give her, but as a treat, you can switch out to another tablespoon of veggies every now and then :-)

I'm sorry Bella isn't doing well! Yes, licking her back end can be a sign something is wrong, such as impacted or infected anal sacs. Those could be preventing her from passing feces. Certainly you can try adding a tablespoon of canned pumpkin puree to see if that helps, but if she still hasn't passed feces by Monday morning, I would take her into the vet. I hope this helps!

I typically recommend one tablespoon of pumpkin for each meal, so it's given twice a day. It's fine, however, to give it to her once a day with two tablespoons, but I would not add any more to her diet. Too much fiber can cause constipation, so it's best to stick with a maximum of two tablespoons today.

If you think Kinsley Nicole has an anal gland problem, you may want to add some canned pumpkin to her food over a few weeks. It will make the stool more voluminous and it will press on the anal sacs as it comes our, hopefully emptying them. Should Kinsley still have problems after a while, you should schedule an anal sac expression with your new vet. It would be a great way to introduce yourself and her to the practice.

Hi and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Many vets recommend the canned pumpkin to continue on emperically-so just every now and then if she is now well maintained, while others ok it to be discontinued entirely. In my personal clients, I will often tell them it is ok to skip every day addition of this and go to about once a week to see if that will help maintain. However-if Chloe has had trouble with her glands, I always recommend having them checked by your veterinarian every 3-4 weeks to avoid any potential rupture, etc. Your doctor will palpate the glands for any sign of scar tissue (old ruptures), as well as abnormal consistency etc of the glandular material to assess any further problems. I hope this helps, and I'm very glad that Chloe is doing much better!

Sometimes increasing the fiber in the diet can help the anal glands express on their own, so supplementing the diet with Metamucil could help. I typically recommend starting at 1/2 to 1 tsp of unflavored Metamucil per day.

Yes, you need either a high fibre diet such as "fibre response" from royal canin or a fibre supplement such as Pro Fibre from Protexin, this should help solidify the faeces and should solve the anal gland issue.