Why Is My Dog Suddenly Licking Her Bottom Raw?
Posted by: Alan in Contact Dermatitis, tags: Bottom, Licking, Suddenly
My 1-1/2 year old female maltese started licking her back end after being groomed yesterday. She was spayed at age 8 mos. I don’t know if she was doing it yesterday after we got her back home, but she is non-stop licking it today. The area around her anus is bright pink and swollen. Her rectum is actually dilated – the opening is enlarged. There is no bleeding. There is no discharge. They did shave around that area to make it cleaner for her after eliminating. I noticed that when she isn’t licking herself, she likes to sit on the cool tile kitchen floor, which I’m assuming the cool tile makes it feel better. Could this be a fungal infection she picked up from the groomer? Can I use a monistat type cream on her to help it? I have an appointment with her vet for Tuesday. She is not whining or crying or whimpering. I don’t know if I should put a shield thing on her or not. I don’t want this to spread if its a contact dermatitis or fungal infection as I plan to go out of town next week and place her in a kennel while I’m gone.
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January 13th, 2010 at 7:56 am
lt sounds like they expressed her anal glands, and did it badly.
ln my opinion the groomers shouldn’t do this, it should only be done by a vet who knows exactly what he’s doing.
The vet can give you an antiseptic cooling spray to help ease the itching and cleanse the bottom.
l use Virbac Derma Cool spray for my Lab who suffers from allergies, it helps ease the itching of the hot spots and her bottom when her glands are needing expressing.
Some groomers will always express the glands, but not all dogs need this doing, they naturally empty their marking fluid when they poo, having them expressed is uncomfortable for the dog and also unnecessary. The vet should be the judge as to whether they need expressing or not.
January 13th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
its probably her anal gland. when you take your dog to the groomers they usually squeeze it to release some kind of juice, maybe it got infected when they did so. take her to the doctor immediately this happened to my grandparents dog she is a cockapoo. they will give it medicine or find out whats really wrong
January 13th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
She may need her anal glands emptying. Is she dragging her bum along the floor too? Phone the vet & ask him.
It only takes five minutes & the relief is instant.
January 13th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Sounds like something the groomer used on her irritated her. I’d put a cone on her to keep her from causing futher injury to the area.
I wouldn’t be guessing anal glands from the story you’ve told.
I’d ask the vet if there was anything you could do in the meantime to make her feel better. Can you wash the area with cool water?
**edit – just thought – if they expressed her anal glands, but didn’t clean her off properly afterwards the anal gland secretions can burn like the dickens (I’ve been told similar pH to hydrochloric acid). This might explain things.
Definitely compress with cold water, if possible put a cone on her.