Cat Health Care Tips : How to Express a Cat’s Anal Glands

Let’s talk about expressing a cat’s anal glands.
Anal glands should never be expressed on theirown at home in a cat unless there’s a medical
reason for that. Cats typically are prettygood about keeping their anal glands expressed.
Now anal glands are actually attached to analsacs that sit about four and eight o’clock
under the anus. So they have two on each side. And from time to time, these can get impacted,
full or infected and at the direction of yourveterinary clinic, they may tell you to express
these from time to time. To do that, you needcertain tools. Your best friend for expressing
anal glands is always going to be the rubberglove. Two, is have some gauze pads handy.
Three, baby wipes are always good to helpclean that area after you’re done. And also,
it’s not a bad idea to have a nice littlefeline approved cologne or spray to help with
that odor because that odor is quite horrificsometimes. Anal glands sit at four and eight
o’clock. What you want to do is never wantto go into the anus unless your veterinary
clinic teaches you how to do that or directsyou to do that. The best way is actually squeeze
those anal glands from the outside right underthe anus. And basically you use a pinching
motion very gently, and move your fingersupward to try to produce that fluid out just
below the anus. So you want to capture thatin a gauze pad and then clean that area with
a baby wipe and then, lastly, you’re usingthe cologne to reduce that odor. Now, be very
careful. Cats do not typically like this orenjoy this and so you never want to put yourself
in harm’s way. You don’t want to do this byyourself. You want somebody to help you hold
that cat as well because they can turn aroundand bite you if they don’t like that, which
can be quite severe.