Anal Gland Expression by Pet Groomers

REPORT ON ANAL GLAND (SAC) EXPRESSION
BY PROFESSIONAL PET GROOMERS
IS ANAL GLAND EXPRESSION A STANDARD PRACTICE?

Method: The question of whether or not groomers’ express anal glands was posted to two prominent Internet groomers’ discussion boards, Groomers.org and Petgroomer.com. The archives of a third group, Groom_TNT@Yahoogroups were searched for posts about issues related to the practice.

Results: Of forty one direct responses, fourteen groomers (34%) stated that they always check the situation and express as necessary; ten groomers (24%) stated that they express anal glands (sacs) only upon specific request of the pet owner or when obviously needed , and seventeen (41%) stated that they do not express anal glands.

Sample Responses:
I actually NEVER do it, was never taught in school plus after talking with the local vet clinic, the vet said IF anything happens in that area *I* am liable. Plus she feels it is inside the dog and I am not trained to deal with anything inside...therefore it is her jurisdiction. Good enough! I let people know to go to the vet, I am not medically trained and they are. Only lost 2 customers in over 1.5 years.

I only do it if the dog has problems. I've even had folks come in with a few month old puppy asking for it because someone told them to have it done, I said no way if there was no problems. Have the vet check on next exam.

I hate doing it, and only did them by special request. I figure a healthy dog does it naturally, and an unhealthy one should be done by a vet. Unfortunately they don't agree where I'm working now, so I'll have to start doing them again.

As a rule I do not do it unless owner requests it, I think out of all my clients there are only two that I do.

I rent space from a vet clinic. Many procedures were discussed w/ the
vet at the start of our business relationship. Anal glands were one of those discussions. He would prefer that I express (externally) anal glands at the request of the owner or if I feel that it's a problem and the dog is uncomfortable. I charge extra for this service as it is a gross, stinky job that the owner will gladly pay extra for.

I no longer express anal sacs and haven't for years. If asked (which is extremely rare) I tell people I work on areas on the outside of the dog...the vet can take care of the inside structures. I also tell them that I am a doggie hairstylist...and remind them they wouldn't go to their hairstylist and have them check their bottom...that's their doctor's realm of expertise. This makes sense to the client, in my experience.

There are two major issues that relate to groomer reluctance to engage in this practice: physical complications and legality/ liability.

Comments re physical complications from anal sac expression:
I groom for a Doxie breeder and she's a firm believer that manual
expression causes a dependence and doesn't do it.

What I was told by my vet and the vet I am located nearest is that the only way to truly express the anal glands is internally, which is a vet's job. To do it externally can rupture glands and even cause bowel problems, and once you start doing it on some dogs, they will always need it done.

I do not express glands because of the liability. Both to the dog and myself- I do believe that manual expression brings eventual reliance on them having it done for the dog. I know that completely emptying the gland also stimulates it to refill more quickly the next time- and this "hyper-extends" the wall of the gland making it more likely to rupture and the fluid more likely to be too thick to pass by itself. I also know that stretching the opening of the gland with force to quickly displace all the contents (far too) rapidly makes it unable to retract and shrink back properly. And, I know that the dock tailed breeds seem to need it more due to nerve damage from the act of tail dock, as well as the overweight dogs and dogs on high fat diets or poor quality protein sourced diets- but, I tell them to have the Vet look at them…
I explained to her that MANY vets, not all, feel that expressing them each time caused the dog to be unable to express the glands themselves overtime. So my customer went to her vet and asked and the vet had never heard of such a thing, so he went and researched it for himself and found out that I was right! That many vets are now discouraging anal glands from being expressed on a routine basis. The vet told this owner she had a very smart groomer and told her to thank me for passing along this new info!
Just because a vet says it's OK, doesn't always mean they are right…

It's really hard when we want info and we ask the vets and we get conflicting information. It's so hard to know who is right and who isn't, but as with just about everything there is rarely a black and white answer. I only do anal glands on request and I do not charge any extra for it. I educate my owners on what i feel is the best way to handle them. I have worked in salons that expressed the anal glands on EVERY dog and within a few years I saw more dogs that needed surgery for anal gland ruptures or other issues. Since I have stopped expressing them routinely, the past 9 years or so, I have yet to see one of my clients with this issue. To me that is proof enough that unless the dog has a special need, the anal glands do not need to be done. Everyone has their own opinion on this of course, but this is mine and what I tell my clients.

On the Subject of Injuries:
On numerous occasions I have had clients tell me NOT to do the glands, due to injured tissues from prior expression at anothershop, verified by their vet... yes it does happen.

I worked at a vet's and saw ruptured anals that came
straight from a grooming shop, now no one will ever know if they were simply
ready to rupture or if the groomer cause d it, I do not do anals ever since,
unless asked.

My neighbor's IG had to have surgery to repair the anal gland which was
injured when the Vet himself tried to express the anal glands. No
waiver involved there and the neighbor didn't sue her vet.

On the Subject of Legality/Liability:
In some parts of the country it is not "legal" for a groomer to do
the anal glands...Arizona is one such place...many years ago this discussion
came up on a list, and in passing I mentioned it to several other groomers
in passing (at an APPGA meeting) ..well, much to my surprise I found out
then that in AZ, even a certified vet tech could not do glands even with a
vet watching...that led to more discussion where I was surprised to find
out that many of the high end shop in the Scottsdale/Paradise Valley (again
high end areas) did NOT do gland in the salons...I found this difficult to
comprehend since coming in from WA, that was just something I thought all
groomers did...boy was I wrong...guess there are several "regions" of the
country where groomers and vet tech can not do this...even the external ...

So to clarify APPGA sent the AZ Vet board a query...first of all was it
could groomer do anal glands , and to what degree if they could?

It took several meetings [of the vet board] before APPGA got an answer...yes
it was illegal, no they were not going to enforce it, but if an owner of a
pet that had had it glands done at a shop were to sue, the Vet Board would
support the law, in that the groomer was at fault...whoa!

So at that point APPGA took the stance that members should be aware of this,
and that by doing anal glands they were in violation ...so, we did up a
waiver for clients to sign. Basically alerting clients to the dangers of
incorrectly doing anals, and that the groomers were to be held harmless if
the client still wanted the groomer to do this procedure. BTW, many shops
stopped doing them altogether...Once alerted to the facts most clients did
go to the vets for this procedure. The vets were split about 50/50 on
having groomers do the anals, that's why the decision they handed down...

Pam Julian, former Vice President, Arizona Professional Pet Groomers Association

In Ontario, only groomer's who are "employees" of the vet., the vet. has
to be on the premises and have knowledge that the groomer is expresssing
anal sacs - are allowed to express them. The ruling is that it takes a
veterinary diagnosis to tell whether they need expressing.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Although common, manual expression of anal glands by professional pet groomers does not appear to be overwhelmingly accepted as a standard practice among groomers who share on the Internet. Forty one percent of those responding to the question, “Do you routinely express anal glands?” stated that they do not provide this service. Another twenty four percent responded that they express glands only when specifically requested, which is infrequent.

For some groomers there seems to be a lack of clarity as to whether injury to the pet can occur as a result of gland expression and their liability for any subsequent problems. Others expressed that they had heard from mentors, breeders, or vets, that manual expression might lead to dependency. While there seems to be some anecdotal support for this matter, it is unknown whether there is scientific evidence. The general trend, which seems to have some veterinary support, is that the procedure might be helpful for those individual dogs that have an identified problem with natural anal gland expression, but that for the healthy majority, less expression is better. Because the anal glands are internal organs, some pet groomers, as well as some veterinary associations have defined this as not appropriate for pet grooming. Schools of grooming do not universally teach how to do this, some do, some do not, and others teach it is not appropriate. While the practice is still quite common, it is by no means universal.