Anal Glands/Scooting. When to get care?

[5DH]

My cat suffers from constipation issues so we have him on Miralax per the vet. We give him 1/8 to 1/4 tsp every other day which has been working well to keep him regular.

So now, we monitor him for scooting. Doesn’t happen all of the time. Sometimes it’ll be a 2 months sometimes like 6. (Although, this would be when we happen to see him doing it, which would occur immediately after taking a bowel movement).

The vet said to just bring him in for an anal gland expression whenever we see him scooting. But 80% of the time we bring him in the vet tech remarks that it was “not too bad.” Of course I’m paranoid about the 2 times we brought him in and they said the fluid was really thick and needed to be done.

All this to say, I’m looking for advice on a few questions.

1. Should I rush him to the vet as soon as I see him scooting? Or can I wait and see if it happens again? (How quickly does this situation deteriorate? I know it’s not an emergency situation.)
2. Other than scooting, he doesn’t appear to show other symptoms that I can see. No biting or licking his rear end, for example. Is there any other way to verify his anal glands are full or blocked? He’s a dark gray cat so it’s really impossible to try to visually inspect and see if the glands are enlarged.
3. Blocked anal glands seem like they might partially be related to the miralax. If I throttle back on it when I notice him scoot, won’t that bulk up his stool a bit and allow his glands to express naturally? Nothing to drastic just basically skip a single dose whenever we see him scoot.

Perhaps another complicating factor, he will also scoot if we overdo it on the Miralax and he just has wet feces on his rear after using the litter box. That makes it additionally hard to tell if it’s anal glands or just general irritation.

Oy! Really just want him to be in a good place. I don’t mind paying the vet $25 to do the expression every so often, but hate putting him through it needlessly. A vet tech also told me the more expressions you do, the more likely he will need manual expressions in the future… something about it thickening the sac walls.

 

[stephanietx]

What are you feeding him? I had a girl who used to scoot and I changed her to mostly grain free wet food and added pumpkin and it helped stop that.

 

[Jcatbird]

A little off topic but has he been regularly checked/treated for worms? That can make them scoot too.

 

[5DH]

A little off topic but has he been regularly checked/treated for worms? That can make them scoot too.

Good thought - we did a fecal sample check a couple years ago, hasn’t gotten worse since then.

 

[5DH]

What are you feeding him? I had a girl who used to scoot and I changed her to mostly grain free wet food and added pumpkin and it helped stop that.

We’ve gone through a couple different foods including a grain-free, soy-free, corn-free option. Doesn’t seem to be related. He’s now on Purina Pro Sensitive Lamb and Rice. Thought being that the probiotics can’t hurt, it seems like a pretty good quality food. Also getting wet food daily.

I bet the pumpkin helped. That’s my predicament. He’s prone to constipation but my guess is the miralax is making his stools smaller/softer and preventing his glands from expressing naturally. But 1/8 tsp every other day really isn’t a lot!

 

[LTS3]

You can express the glands at home. Ask the vet to show you how. That would save an unnecessary costly trip to the vet.

 

[5DH]

You can express the glands at home. Ask the vet to show you how. That would save an unnecessary costly trip to the vet.

It's on my list to ask about. It started a couple years ago around the same time as the constipation so my vet has been very much on the COVID train of keeping owners in the waiting room.

That said, even if I did it at home, I'd still need to learn when it needs to be done, not just the how.

 

[LTS3]

You can check weekly or so. Anal gland secretions smell really bad so if the back end starts to smell, might be time to empty the glands before scooting happens.

There are online videos and articles on how to express a cat's anal glands.

 

[5DH]

You can check weekly or so. Anal gland secretions smell really bad so if the back end starts to smell, might be time to empty the glands before scooting happens.

Hmm that adds complication. I smelled his rear and it doesn't really smell, but as mentioned I did see him scoot across the carpet yesterday, so now I don't really know what to do. There's a very mild odor but that's probably true if you get too close to anyone's anus!

 

[LTS3]

For my cat, when his back end starts to smell really rancid it's time to check his glands. Usually only a small amount of good comes out but that's enough to make the odor go away for awhile.

 

[5DH]

For my cat, when his back end starts to smell really rancid it's time to check his glands. Usually only a small amount of good comes out but that's enough to make the odor go away for awhile.

OK. I'm continuing to monitor. He pooped yesterday, it was a bit bulkier than the day before, and he didn't scoot afterward (unless he did it much later, usually it's right after he uses the box). So maybe that was enough to empty them even if they didn't get emptied the day before.

I think I'm going to just keep an eye on it rather than rushing him to the vet for 1 scooting incident. If he does it multiple times or if I sense a foul smell maybe that'll be the trigger.