Dog licking its rear end - Answered by Dr. Van Lienden
 

Basically my dog was licking her rear end and we thought well we better look because that is signs of worms.....when we looked we found this swollen red ball of skin?????? What is this??? is it dangerous? does she need to get vet help or is there something we can do to help this problem?
We think it may be bleeding too? :confused:

Sounds like to need to get your dog to the vet, FAST. Anything involving bleeding is potentially serious.

Could it be a hemorrhoid? I would take your dog into the vet and have it looked at. In the meantime "try" to keep your dog from picking at it.

You would go to the doctor if you had this thing hanging from your bottom! How long has it been there? I would take her to the vet ASAP, dogs spend a lot of time sitting on their bottoms and it could be causing her a lot of pain. It could be infected anal glands or something that she has tried to pass through and it's got stuck and infected on the inside.
Hope you get it sorted out soon and keep us all informed!

Sounds like an impacted anal gland................go to the vets ASAP, before it ruptures. Once ruptured, surgery is likely. :(

This may be a tumor or a hemorrhoid, or even a polyp, among other things.

Have your veterinarian examine your pet.

Dr. Van Lienden

Dr. Raymond Van Lienden DVM
The Animal Clinic of Clifton
12702 Chapel Road, Clifton
Virginia, U.S.A. 20124
703-802-0490

Emergency vet or wait until Monday?
 

I'm pretty sure my sheltie ate something bad off the ground a couple of days ago. She's eating and drinking well, in good spirits, very active, seems to be in no pain at all no matter where I squeeze, but she's having diarrhea and straining, with no blood but some mucous. When I washed her off I saw a 4-5mm ball of pink tissue that seems to be pouching out of her anus. It's Saturday night and I could take her to an emergency clinic, but if it's a hemorroid I'd rather take her to her regular vet Monday morning. Is that reasonable?

If you had diarrhea and a 'roid from Thursday to Monday, would you see a doctor? If you are really worried, don't take chances. Also, if you see your dog straining, try to stop her. My big Boo has diarrhea often and I taught him, "It's finished" so he would stop before he bled.

Is the bump on the anus or is it directly beside it?

Emergency vet or wait until Monday?
 

Sure I'd see a Dr... but not in an ER, and especially not on a weekend when [I]the moon is full! [/I] They've got plenty of real emergencies to deal with and a 'roid just doesn't rate. I didn't even know dogs could have hemorroids until I found this thread. If it *could* be something more serious, I'd certainly take her in. But given her very healthy behaviour, it *seems* reasonable to me to wait another day. Of course, since I didn't know about doggy hemorroids, I've no doubt there's plenty of other things I don't know about that might be pertinent.

The bubble seems to be coming out of the anus -- it's definitely not beside it.

If this was your child, would you be debating on going to the doctor?

At least it's not beside it... If it was an impacted anal gland (which is usually bigger than you described), that would have been a really serious emergency. If the diarrhea continues or gets worse, the doggy may need to go to the vet sooner. You don't want the dog to get dehydrated. :eek: Really try to stop the doggy from forcing too...

I just remembered-- are you in the States? Yes, eh? Because in Canada, it's a long weekend, so you'd have to wait till Tuesday to go to a regular vet...

[I]If this was your child, would you be debating on going to the doctor?[/I]

I'm not debating going to a doctor -- I'm debating going to the [B][I]ER[/I][/B]! And YES, I HAVE debated taking my child, my husband, myself, my cats, & my dog to the ER. I've taken all of them to the ER at one time or another -- it's a chaotic place to be, particularly on weekends and ESPECIALLY during full moons (it's not an urban myth, ask anyone who's worked in an ER, whether for beasties or humans). Not only do I think non-emergency cases should hold out for regular hours, but I don't think the quality of care is as good with harried ER staff as with your regular doc.

Frankly, I think this is an obnoxious rule of thumb/question (it's already in the forums guidelines, btw). I can't imagine anyone would be here searching for answers if they didn't consider their 4-legged companions a part of the family. My own daughter (now 23) jokingly tells everyone I replaced her with a dog when she left home -- but my family knows it's not all that much of a joke :-) The thing is, whenever I debated taking my child to an ER, I had a better understanding of what constituted dire emergencies vs. urgent conditions that could wait 2 days vs. conditions that could wait for her regular doc's next convenient availability vs. conditions better treated at home, because I LOOKED THE SYMPTOMS UP. And that's just what I'm doing here. I simply can't imagine "If this were your child" ever being much of a constructive question.

:usa: Yep, I'm in the States (though actively looking at emigration options! No joke, but that's a discussion for another forum ;-) ).

[B]Follow-up[/B]: the 'bubble' remains but seems a little smaller (or is more inside than out); the Pepto Bismal I've been giving her seems to be helping the diarrhea; she's still drinking fine; I'll try the "it's finished" tack today...