Gadget’s Butt Problems
Happy New Year! Gizmo is playing the role of “Baby New Year” in the swing! He really likes it in there. Unfortunately, he’s going to get booted from the baby things soon for our HUMAN baby.
Last year was filled with excitement, up until the end. I migrated the blog from using Flickr to self-hosting images in the Urban Pug Picture Gallery (which anyone can upload pictures to). Then, I created Urban Pug TV, which shows all the cutest / funniest Pug videos from YouTube. Also, of course, Tricia became pregnant along the way! However, relating back to Pugs, we had some excitement just yesterday!
Yesterday, we had to take Gadget to the vet for a rather embarrassing problem. The day before yesterday, the tissue around his butt became inflamed — and started oozing a thick fluid mixed with some blood! I suspected it might be a problem with his anal glands, so I called Tricia’s parents (who know more about pug physiology than I do) and they confirmed that 1) it was probably a problem w/ his anal glands and 2) he probably needed to see the vet.
So, we got him into the vet yesterday, and they basically confirmed the diagnosis. To treat him, they gave him a quick sedative, flushed out his glands, and then gave him another shot to wake him up. He was out for about 10 minutes. They also gave us some antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication to give him to prevent infection and reduce the swelling. He’s feeling better now, and he’ll hopefully be 100% back to normal by tomorrow.
“Why did this happen?” we asked the vet. Neither Gizmo nor Gadget have ever had their anal glands expressed, and neither has ever had a problem like this before. We were told that some dogs do not excrete all the fluid they produce in their anal glands and that over time the fluid can “back up” and cause problems. Second, sometimes the gland can get “blocked” and get backed up. This is what probably happened to Gadget. We probably don’t need to regularly express his glands, and this is probably (hopefully) a one-time occurrence.
Anyway, hopefully he’ll be 100% back to normal soon (he was already feeling well enough to beg *really well* for some New Year’s Day Bacon)
Happy New Year!
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