Sunday, March 18, 2007

Cleaning Out the Tail Pocket

So as an update to the last post--about anal glands--I dug around her business with a pet wipe. We used to just wipe around her anus, but this time I tucked up closer to where the tail meets her behind.

It was a bit--nasty. There was some reddish-brown caked hair up there, that I finally cleaned out with four wipes. Out came some tufts of gunky hair, and the area was soon cleaned up. The skin around there looked a bit red, but nothing too bad. Looks like we might have caught it just in time.

I then searched around for her anal glands. You can feel them, but I won't say they feel "swollen." I'm just going to keep up on cleaning her, watching her scooting, and seeing if her anal glands feel any bigger. (I think the anal glands are on the inside of the anus--or the rectum--at about 2 and 10 o'clock. They feel about the size of raisins on our bulldog puppy.)

2 comments:

"Yardbunny" said...

I have a bulldog puppy. He's about 4 months now. Tonight I was cleaning him up and you have described the same thing under the tail pocket. It was gross and smelled nasty! Poor pup. Its a bit red now to. I want to do some research on anal glands cuz I hope I don't have to milk them. Yuck! My weiner dog got a shot last year and "anal juiced" me! I would rather get sprayed by a skunk. It was bad!

Anonymous said...

My little Ava (Eng Bulldog) had LOTS of tail issues when we first got her. When I told the vet she always scooted her butt across the carpet all the time he expressed her anal glands. Within an hour after coming home from the vet, she did the butt scoot over & over again. It was very hard to watch because I knew it was bothering her & that bothered me. I took her back to the vet office & the tail pocket was REALLY infected & she was sent home with antibiotics. The antibiotics lasted 3 weeks & still no relief for my little Ava. I took her back to the vet office, different vet in office, & he recommended using 1 cup warm water w/ 1/4 cup of white vinegar. I was using a terry cloth towel but that seemed too rough on her sore tail pocket, so I switched to cotton balls. I give her a good cleaning with the water/vinegar solution & dry the area very well with dry cotton balls. After it’s dry, I put hydrocortisone 1 percent cream (rite-aid store brand…cheaper than name brand) deep in the pocket (every other day). Within 3 days of the water/vinegar solution I saw amazing results & my Ava is comfortable & not suffering. She’s also more comfortable with me going in that area now because it’s no longer sore & she knows I’m helping her. My sister also has an English bulldog with a tail re-infection problem & she started using the solution w/ hydrocortisone cream & she saw a quick clear up as well. The acidic environment produced by the vinegar greatly discourages the growth of the fungus/bacteria as they can’t grow in these conditions