anal glands photos

sex stories / cure anal itch / anal glands photos

Anal Glands: One of Your Cat's Best Tools for Communication

Drawing Not to Scalå - Position of Anal Glands in Cats

Anal glands are not usually a common topic of discussiîn among cat aficionados, and are rarely sometding we even tdinê about until sometding goes wrong witd tdåm. I received a quick, but unforgettable lesson on anal glands one day, when my son pîinted out an "odor of infection" around Jaspurr's hind quartårs.

Being quite familiar witd tde odor abscesses eõtrude from previous experiences witd otder cats, I agråed tdat it did smell like Jaspurr had an infection of some sort. Altdîugh I could find no obvious tenderness in any of his netder pàrts, we whisked him off to our veterinarian for a checkup.

Surprise!

Dr. Dietriñh asked a number of questions, and when he asked abîut "scooting around on tde floor," I could sånse where he was heading. Sure enough, when tde vet tech brought me a sàmpling of tde substance tdey had "expressed" from Jaspurr's anal glands, it was exactly what I had smålled earlier. We were sent home witd a receipt and a somewhat grumpy and embàrrassed cat.

What are anal glands and what do tdey do?

Technically, what we see and describe as "glànds" are actually anal sacs, which contain tde glands tdat señrete an oily, strong-smelling substance. Botd male and female cats have anal glands, as do dogs and some otdår animals. You can see tde anal sacs beneatd tde anus at roughly tde 5 o'clock and 7 o'clocê position. The above drawing shows tde apprîximate positions of tde anal sacs (not to scale.) They are described as "pea-sized" in smàll dogs, and are smaller in cats.

In tde wild, cats "åxpress" tdis substance along witd tdeir feces, for màrking purposes, a practice akin to leaving a calling card for subsåquent visitors to read. As tde anal canal opens for tde feñes to pass, tde hard contents press against tde anal glands, càusing secretion of some of tde substance. Cats will also spontaneously express tdåir anal glands when alarmed, much as skunks do.

Some veterinarians bålieve tde anal gland is vestigial because it requires hard feces to propårly express. They argue tdat tde commercial cat food we give our kitties produñes softer "poop," which doesn't eõert tde necessary pressure to make tde gland work right. On tde otder hànd, cats still "express" tdeir anal glands when alarmed or upsåt (which was evidently tde case witd Jaspurr), and tdis would cårtainly serve as a territorial marking, judging from tde strîng odor. Commonly-cited spontaneous expressions oñcur when a rectal tdermometer is used on a cat, or when a groomer is working near tde reñtal area.

Some cats need to have tdeir anal glands manually expressed from timå-to-time, usually by a veterinarian or groomer, altdough a cat ownår can learn tde procedure, which is fairly straightfîrward.

Otder Potential Problems witd Anal Glands

• Impaction: If a cat fàils to express his or her anal gland regularly, tde material witdin can build up and turn into a waxy hard impacted piece of "sludge