Hi Cathy

Last week I took our 3 year old King Charles to the Vet as he seemed under the weather, they said he had an infected anal gland and gave me some anti - biotics and said to take back a week later. I took him back and although he seemed a lot better was told he had quite a bad infection still and was given a different type and dose of anti - biotic and also some inflamation drops, I really have two questions hope you dont mind, but I was charge a consultation fee on both of these visits, so in total I have spent £110 in all, friends are telling me that their vet would not charge a second consultation fee only a week after the initial visit for the same condition - I just wondered if this is normal practice would you know ? But also I am worried as he suffered an infection last of the same kind last year, it seems to be a condition that is re-occuring and I wondered if there is something I can do to prevent future infections of this kind?

Any advice you can give me would be so very much appreciated

Kind regards
Lisa

Hi Lisa

Persistent anal gland infections can take a while to treat and heal and sometimes there is scarring from previous infections present which slows the healing. At the very least I would recommend very regular anal gland emptying in a case like your dog. Empting them before they fill up, and get another infection and risk of an abscess can help. If this keeps recurring and cannot be cleared, surgical anal gland removal is a possible next step. You should discuss all that with your vet. Every vet sets their own fees. I dont know where you live but those fees sound reasonable to me. Many vets charge a fee for each examination, that is certainly our policy here.

Cathy Wickenden BVet Med MRCVS
Barton Lodge Veterinary Centre
1 Midland Road, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP2 5BH
Tel: 01442 216048 24 hours
[www.bartonlodgevets.co.uk]