While the exact cause of anal glad disorders is not known, there are some noted risk factors and potential remedies.
The two main risk factors are overweight dogs and small breed dogs, but anal gland disease can be present in large breed dogs that have a normal body condition score.
Remedies:
Even though the cause is not known, we can make some modifications to your dog's routine. The first thing to do is to target overweight dogs. These dogs can be placed on a restrictive diet to begin a weight loss regimen. This can be accomplished in two ways. The first is measuring and regulating the amount of food that your dog can eat in any given day. To know how much to feed your dog, look on the bag of food. In general, you should be feeding about 80% of the recommended daily amount. We recommend feeding the food in two feedings, roughly 12 hours apart. The second way to try to begin weight loss is to discontinue both treats and people food. People food is too fatty in general for dogs. Treats are also high in calories for the amount of food that is contained within them (similar to you eating a candy bar).
The second step to trying to alleviate anal gland disorders is to increase the fiber in the diet. We recommend feeding either canned pumpkin or canned green beans. Both of these can be used as treats to replace any other treats that you are giving to your dog. This allows the routine to remain rather consistent. For the canned pumpkin, it is best to take a cookie sheet and line it with wax paper. Then take the canned pumpkin and make tablespoon-sized treats and then freeze them in the freezer. You can then give a large dog 3 or 4 tablespoon-sized treats per day. For a smaller dog, you may make teaspoon-sized treats and give 3 or 4 per day.
These are some general ideas and guidelines for dealing with anal gland disorders. It is not likely that this will eliminate anal gland disorders all together, but it will likely help to make the condition better in general.
