Proactive solutions for patient wellness

On this week's episode of the Vet Blast Podcast, presented by dvm360, James Bascharon, DVM, joins our host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, to talk about the importance of proactive pet care in veterinary medicine, specifically with anal glands and osteoarthritis. Throughout the episode, Christman and Bascharon discuss different products, the importance of early intervention and multimodal treatments for osteoarthritis, and the need for innovation within the veterinary medicine industry.

Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity.

James Bascharon, DVM: I think we've been conditioned a little bit as vets. Sometimes we just go right to the treatment, and particularly in this instance, it's easy enough to do an anal gland expression. [However], overly manipulating the glands further exacerbates the problem, reduces the tone of the glands, and can create some microtrauma to the ducts and further irritation. So, I do think it's worthwhile to...pause and say, "OK, this pet has [a] recurrent [anal gland issues].... What do we need to be thinking about?" Are there underlying allergic issues that we're not recognizing? Is there an underlying digestive health issue, whether [an] imbalance of bacteria, a parasitic issue, or something else? Or [maybe] a diet change [is] needed.

On that note of diet, it is interesting that, as we've gotten to higher-quality, more expensive, [and] fancier dog foods—one trying to outcompete the next—have we done too much and removed a bit too much of the fillers and fibers that are necessary to form bulky, firm stool? There was this whole movement around grain-free—as we all know—and there are repercussions to it. Some of those elements [are required] in the digestive tract and in the diet to produce formed, healthy, and bulky stools necessary to empty the glands. It's one of the theories that we have on why anal gland issues are increasing. And just so all the viewers can hear this: They are technically called anal sacs. We do know that we go by anal glands, because I think sometimes it's a little easier for people to understand what you're talking about, but the correct [terms are] anal sac and anal sacculitis.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Thank you for sharing. That is true because there is a disconnect. Pet owners may not seem to recognize anal sac vs anal gland...people get to recognize that more and assimilate to that.