Yeah, anal glands need to be dealt with.
Yuck! Not something to discuss in polite company, that's for sure. One of my dogs gives me clues that his need to be done - he scoots across the floor. Another one had no symptoms until one day his bottom was very sore. I boosted him up on the back of the sofa and he screamed in pain.
Poor baby. His anal glands were impacted and when they were expressed, they ruptured. The infection got into his insides and spread. Over several days, despite being on antibiotics and daily wound cleaning at the vet, his wound opened up. After the vet was sure that he knew which tissues would survive, he stitched my baby up. There was still an opening for a drain at first but it couldn't be stitched because there wasn't enough good tissue. It is now almost healed up and his stitches come out next week.
Meanwhile, keeping him from running and jumping is a challenge. After the first couple of nights I let him sleep with me and the other dogs. That made him very happy. He's been a real trooper through all of this - he's such a good boy!
This could have been prevented if I'd taken better care of him. I feel so badly for the pain my negligence put him through. He'll be going to the groomers regularly from now on. For $20 they'll be bathed, nails clipped, anals expressed, and ears cleaned. It's so worth it.
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You aren't a vet. You can't be faulted for not recognizing your fur baby had an anal gland problem since there were no symptoms to notice that there was a problem until the moment that you boosted him onto the sofa and noticed. Plenty of people don't even know about anal glands periodically needing to be expressed or what symptoms to look for not to mention that all dogs don't exhibit the same symptoms or any at all.
My first Akita never scooted but I noticed in walking him with his curled up tail looking right into his asshole that he was having some slight but very foul smelling discharge (I'm talking MASSIVE peeeeeee yoooooo!). He never appeared the slightest bit uncomfortable either. I called the vet and for the first time ever I found out that anal glands exist and sometimes they need to be expressed. I only wish that I wasn't in the room when they did it though since I wasn't exactly clear on what "expressed" meant. OMG, the odor nearly knocked me over. Any time it was needed again after that first time I made darn sure that I was at the other end of the building when they did it. I can't even conceive of doing it myself. Just thinking about that makes me feel like rushing to the bathroom. ACK! nooooooooo! no-no-no-no! noooooooooo!!!
Long story short, you have nothing to feel guilty about. Be happy that when you first realized something was wrong that you called the vet and got your doggie the help he needed. That's all us lay people can do when there are no symptoms showing to tell us something is wrong. Not even a vet could have known something was wrong with your dog any more than you if there weren't any symptoms to notice.
A dog's natural instinct for self-preservation makes them do their utmost in deliberately hiding their pain until they absolutely can't since ill or weak animals are targets for predators. Of course, it's the worst thing for us to be able to recognize something is wrong and help them, but you can't go against what nature ingrained in their behavior that makes them try and hide their pain.
You did the best anyone could do under the circumstances, and it just turned out that there were major complications. Sometimes that's just the unfortunate way of things, and there's just nothing any of us can do but react appropriately when we do notice something amiss which is just what you did. Be proud of yourself for that.
I so get what you mean about keeping them calm and not running and jumping about. Every time one of my dogs was neutered that was my vet's instructions, and I couldn't help but scoff... keep him calm? HA! Give me a giant Valium as big as a pizza for him, and maybe I have a slight chance of that for about a half hour! Of course, I did the best I could with trying to not let him run and jump around, but even at 6 months old he was close in weight to me and a million times stronger and faster pound for pound. Tell me to lasso the Starship Enterprise in warp drive and I'd likely have an easier time of it!
Dogs are just amazingly fast healers though (how I envy them that as well as their regular bowels you can set your watch by!). Even just doing your best to try to keep them relatively calm (ie: not on volume 12) is probably good enough while you keep an eye out for anything unusual.
And of course your dog is a good boy! You love him, so that makes him just the bestest-sweetums-fuzzy-wuzzy-loveybuns-babycakes-loves-loves-LOVES-kissypoo-huggybear-booboo EVER!
Everything will work out. You'll see.
