Not for the Squeamish

Anyone who wants to keep thinking of Meiby as a perfect, cute-all-the-time puppy, stop reading here! (or click here)




She'd be mad if she knew I posted about this (hehehe) but it might be helpful to other pup owners out there...
Last Thursday when I got home from work I noticed Meiby scooting her butt across the floor so I checked it out and she had a red swollen bump under her tail. I had heard about some pugs needing to have their anal glands expressed so I figured it was Meiby's turn. I pointed it out to Nick when he got home and we looked up some info and tutorials on how to deal with this. We put her in the tub and attempted to squeeze. We must not have been doing it right because nothing came out except a little red (uh ohh) so we called the vet thinking she might have an infection. In the meantime, I held a warm washcloth on her rear to soothe the swelling. She seemed greatful for this!

Nick took her to the vet the next morning and they "expressed" her properly and showed Nick how to do it (darn, I missed it!) We had been a little worried that we weren't feeding her the right stuff or something. They explained that we weren't doing anything wrong, some dogs just need this done occassionally. She seemed much more comfortable when she came home, though maybe a bit violated. We figured we could just do this at home when needed, and sure we can, but it's only $16 to have it done at the vet and we know they'll do it properly and thoroughly so we'll probably just stick to that unless it's needed very often. Supposedly feeding dogs pumpkin will help them to "express naturally" so I'm going to whip up some of these pumpkin treats for Meiby.