What food do you recommend/anal gland issues
 

My dogs (9 and 10 year old shih tzus, in good health) eat Holistic Selects. It came highly recommended as did Wellness but they didn't care for that one. Well actually Raven will eat almost anything because she's a little piggy diva. All she wants in life is a good meal and a soft pillow. Cooper is much pickier. He eats his breakfast pretty well most days but needs to be coaxed into eating dinner. (a little gravy or broth or egg mixed in)

I have a few questions about feeding. Cooper has an anal gland issue more often than we would like.:yuck: (We would like to smell that NEVER !) The groomer asked me if he'd been eating chicken. Could that cause it? He also had a kind of body odor smell on his hind end which the groomer though might have been from switching his food. We had changed from chicken to lamb but same company.

He's not constipated, and doesn't have diarrhea. He sees the vet and gets groomed regularly. Do I need to be expressing these myself. Please say no!!! And could his diet be contributing???

Is there a food that you would recommend that might be better?

Hi, it's been a while since I logged on. I had a similar experience. If your dog isn't food sensitive, try adding extra bulk like rice or potatoes. With my dog, large stools expressed the anal glands. I actually kept him on a grain/meat diet. All the grain free foods didn't do well with him.
I never could figure out expressing them myself. :yuck:

Sometimes adding more fibre to the food bulks up the stool and helps to express the anal glands with each poop. If the food agrees with them otherwise then it might be worthwhile trying an additive to do that, keep the food they are used to. Pumpkin is commonly used for that purpose. You have to be very careful, same as when we add fibre to our diets, too much too soon can make stool loose. I suggest you try Sweet Potato, cooked first. SP has the added bonus that it is 6 x higher in fibre than pumpkin so you would need very little. You have small dogs so being able to add only a little bit of food would be a bonus.

Now, the big question, how much to add? Well, sorry, I don't know. When we had diarrhoea issues my dog's meal was half sweet potato. That's not your problem though. I would say start small, too much would be far worse than too little. Maybe a tsp per meal? Two meals a day? Hopefully someone with small dogs will come along to say.

Have you tried adding some fiber such as psyllium to her meals? You should be careful in choosing the right supplement for her.