I had a spinal injury a few years ago and the surgeon warned me of permanent nerve damage causing incontinence being a potential consequence if it got worse. It's called "cauda equina syndrome", I did a quick search and it looks like it occurs in dogs too. Essentially you lose all nerve feeling on your bowel, hence not knowing when you need to go. I'm not sure what the solution is (if any) but it could be a clue.
The nastiest things
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My B is almost a year old now but we've noticed she has some odd "features" about her that we've never seen in other animals much less other dogs.
When she's sprawled out on the couch in a deep sleep, often times her rectum will open up all loose and you can see the pink of her insides about a half inch in. Sorry to be blunt, but it is what it is. I probably wouldn't worry about it except sometimes she'll leak something AWFUL and even worse then she licks it up. It's always a clear liquid but it smells like she ate rotten eggs, puked them up, re-ate them and then pooped them out…even worse smelling then her occasional gas which is as bad as a humans with digestion issues. We can even hear her toot if everything else is quiet enough.
She had giardia a few months ago but it seems to have cleared up because her potty trips are as normal as ever minus one thing...it seems to take a while for her poop to come out of her butt, she'll walk around in the pooping stance for about a minute just to let one dangling piece drop from her after what appears to be considerable effort. The consistency of the poop is always normal.
Any ideas of what's going on? Besides everything I described above she's doing great and is very, very playful every day of the week!
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I would suspect she is leaking a bit of fluid from her anal glands. All dogs have anal glands… and yes the fluid smells gross... to people, to dogs probably not, it's actually their individual signature. You know when you see dogs scoot on their butts? they're often trying to relieve blocked anal glands. And if they lick their butts a lot in order to achieve the same result, they end up with pretty bad breath.
-Joanne -
Agree with Giza1 re anal glands and maybe she takes so long to poop is because she is feeling uncomfortable while pooping, one of the reasons I feed a raw diet with bones so Kaiser has solid enough poop to naturally express his glands. Find Kaiser is a fussy pooper, he doesn't like it taking too long the quicker it is done the better, if it hangs he gets upset. Must also say Basenji are very clean dogs and I have noticed Kaiser will clean his butt now and then and if he misdirects his pee he cleans his messed on legs. Notice Kaiser farts usually after a meat/bone meal more than just a meat meal, just natural gas from digestion for him, when he had a bad leaky gut he did fart excessively so you may want to read up on that if you find she gets worse or her poop gets too soft and slimy.
Jolanda and Kaiser
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Agree, typical for any breed of dog, anal glands, visit to the Vet is in order
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Thanks for the replies everyone! Yes, anal glands…I remember reading they can commonly present issues.
We're definitely visiting the vet soon I just like to throw my questions up on here because all our B's are so unique and most vets including ours have so little experience with them unlike this forum.
Just for full-disclosure, we feed her a mix Orijen Regional Red Meat and Stella and Chewy's Venison (raw)...we don't mix it per se, we give her raw in the morning and night and the Orijen dry food in between. We also feed her steamed veggies about once a week. Her treats are Bravo's Trail Mix and Fresh Is Best raw treats (necks, hearts, etc.). I understand that a change of diet may be in order but as far as we know we aren't feeding her sub-quality food.
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The type of food she is eating will go a long way toward clearing up the anal gland issue too. The ultimate goal is winding up with very firm poop, because when they do that, the glands secrete some of that nasty smelling stuff and it helps keep the glands clear. Otherwise, a visit to the vet to have the glands cleared is in order.
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@Shaye's:
Otherwise, a visit to the vet to have the glands cleared is in order.
Good idea to have someone show you how to do this yourself. Your vet or pretty much any groomer can demonstrate, if you don't know already. I sure wouldn't want to have to pay the vet every time it needed to be done, especially if she has an ongoing problem.
