Anal gland impaction, infection, and rupture are common, painful conditions in dogs that cause chronic welfare compromise when not adequately diagnosed and managed.
Anal gland disease causes chronic pain and discomfort that significantly affects daily welfare. Impaction causes increasing pressure and pain, seen behaviourally as scooting, tail chasing, and reluctance to defecate. Untreated impaction progresses to infection and abscess formation causing acute, severe pain. Rupture requires surgical management and causes significant suffering. Regular anal gland expression in affected dogs prevents impaction — identifying and managing the underlying cause (dietary fibre, body weight, breed anatomy) provides more durable relief than repeated manual expression alone. High-fibre diets can help with natural gland emptying in mildly affected dogs.