anal glands - oat bran or weetabix?

[Ben's mum]

Just a quick question, Ben has always been pretty much fine with his glands and has a weetabix every day which we were told helps. 
Harry scoots fairly often and I have had to take him to have his glands empted a couple of times despite also being on weetabix, in some of your posts about glands I have noticed people mention oat bran, is this better for them than weetabix, and if so where do I buy it - is it something from a health food shop, have to confess to never having seen/heard of it 

thank you 

[Sarah1985]

Oat bran is available from most supermarkets. Tends to be with the rolled oats and porridge. It comes in a packet rather than a box. I use the brand morn flake

I use oat bran because it's a fine powder that I can sprinkle on their food so I can vary how much I sprinkle on to suit. Also when i first started using it dexter was quite young and I heard that lots of dogs are allergic to wheat and not so much to oats. Turns out he allergic to neither but im happy with the oat bran. if your dog is allergic to neither either I don't suppose it matters which you use as they will both add fibre to your dogs diet.

To add to you dilemma I pretty sure you can get wheat bran.

[Ben's mum]

thank you! 
Do you know if wheat bran or oat bran is suppsed to be better?

 

[hoggar]

When Indie had her glad trouble we were advised to give her wheat bran ( we used Jordan's wheat bran )not with every meal but a small cup full twice a week to give a good clear out !  Indie had to have her glands removed in the end , but not all dogs have to have this done .

[hedgehog]

I think I will go with the weetabix with milk and sugar, not keen on oat bran and most definitely not anal glands Oh sorry we weren't talking about breakfast choices     

[ali2010]

Our Albert had lots of problems with his anal glands and the vet told us to put Allbran mixed with water in his food - unfortunately he since has had to have his anal glands removed as apparently his anal glands had lots of scarring.  Not convinced allbran really was the way forward as I'm sure most breakfast cereals contain sugar and salt, but apparently you can buy plain bran from Holland and Barrett

[8 Hairy Feet]

Ellie has coarse wheat bran on her
breakfast and tea because we had loads
of trubbles with her when she arrived.
I get it from Holland and Barrett, it's
cheap and lasts ages.
As a bonus she now does what mr steff
refers to as "lovely poos" 
steffxxx
ps they do rice bran too but I haven't
tried it and would be intrested if someone
has.
steffxxx

[silke]

I'm very interested in this! Charlie seems to have full glands at the minute.  I was going to take him to the vet to have them emptied, but wonder if I should give him some bran now to sort it.

[bluemoonrose]

We use Oatibix because we found wheat products make Ollie's skin itchy, and we changed over to Raw feeding which has been improved things - but have to admit we still have to take Ollie to have his glands emptied from time to time.  One side always seems to be more full than others.

Some advice we were given has been to be careful about not having the glands emptied too frequently, and to only take off the excess not squeeze them empty, as there's a danger that this just promotes them to produce more fluid, so you can end up with a bit of a vicious circle. 

[Sarah.H]

I find chicken wings a couple of times per week and sardines with a weetabix a couple of times per week does the trick for Millie 

[Jan/Billy]

I'm very interested in this! Charlie seems to have full glands at the minute.  I was going to take him to the vet to have them emptied, but wonder if I should give him some bran now to sort it.

With Billy when they are full nothing but a trip to the vets will empty them 

[max15]

I add a small amount of bran to Jessie's food each day and it seems to help for a while but then it's back to the vet.  On our last visit for her check up (about her breathing), the vet did mention the possibility of removing them.  I notice a couple of you have said that your dogs have had them removed and I wondered if there have been any problems (incontinence etc) after removal.  We haven't made a decision yet and would be grateful for any additional information.

[Kaz]

Hi everyone, we're still looking for a puppy, and as I've never owned a cocker I have a quick question. I've been reading on here about anal gland problems, do cockers suffer more than other breeds? Can anyone give me a bit more info on this, any help/advice always appreciated,

Thx guys x

[kalami]

Bella has weetabix, it's not helped at all, think might try oat bran.

[Sarah.H]

I add a small amount of bran to Jessie's food each day and it seems to help for a while but then it's back to the vet.  On our last visit for her check up (about her breathing), the vet did mention the possibility of removing them.  I notice a couple of you have said that your dogs have had them removed and I wondered if there have been any problems (incontinence etc) after removal.  We haven't made a decision yet and would be grateful for any additional information.

Our old boy had them removed without problems. Although the scrub they used to clean the area pooled around his testicles and burnt the skin  he was in more pain from that than the operation  .