Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with anal

Are manual anal gland expressions for dogs necessary?

wiretap — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:46:37 -0800

Anal gland expression for dogs - How does one keep a dog's anal glands in optimal shape? Having a minor disagreement with someone about this issue:

1. I've heard that dogs need to have their anal glands expressed regularly otherwise it can lead to an infection and impaction. My dog goes to the vet two times a year to get his anal glands expressed. It's obvious when he needs to get it done because he starts smelling fishy (TEEHEE) and is very sensitive/irritable and is constantly sniffing and licking his hindquarters. Once he comes back from the vet he's a happy camper and not at all preoccupied with his backside.

2. Someone else said that it's insane to take a dog to a vet to get anal glands expressed, and that it's just something dogs are able to take care of on their own.

What the what?

3. Then I googled it and it seems most people are saying dogs do need need regular expression, but the more you manually express the more frequently it will need to be done (?). A few sources say that feeding your dog high quality food and pumpkin will take care of the need for manual anal expression.

Do dogs need manual anal gland expression or not? Can a higher fiber diet really take care of the need for manual expression? How do you handle your dogs anal gland needs?

Help me help my dog please!

Finding a doctor to treat recalcitrant HPV in an uncomfortable location.

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:57:20 -0800

Finding a doctor to treat recalcitrant HPV in an uncomfortable location. ("The back seat of a Volkswagen?") Closeted gay man in Central Texas looking for a doctor to treat genital and anal warts.

I know you can only treat the symptoms. I'm not trying to hide my STD status from anyone. But the warts are ugly and uncomfortable, I'm vain and tired of having 'em — and while they're not spreading any, they're not going away on their own either. Humor me, k?

First question — what kind of doc do I see? A dermatologist? (They're not used to looking up people's butts, are they?) A proctologist? (Warts aren't really their thing though, right?) An STD clinic? (Maybe I'm sheltered, but I've only heard of Planned Parenthood — and they sort of focus on women, no?) I've got good health insurance and a GP I see occasionally, but he's not someone I'm comfortable discussing this with.

Second question — any recommendations? Austin's the closest big city. San Antonio's not too far away, and I can probably make it to Houston if I really have to. I don't care if the doc's gay or straight or what gender they are as long as they're gay-friendly and good at what they do. And, you know, okay with looking at butts.

email: yetanotherthrowawayemail@gmail.com

Is it safe/practical/advisable to spank someone who's wearing a butt plug?

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:01:58 -0800

Kinky folks: is it safe/practical/advisable to spank someone who's wearing a butt plug? What should I keep in mind while doing it? My girlfriend's an enthusiastic fan of getting spanked. I'm an enthusiastic fan of anal play. (Neither of us is new to it. She enjoys it too, and we wouldn't do it if she didn't. It's just higher on my list than it is on hers.) It would make us both very happy campers if we could combine the two. But I'm worried it wouldn't be safe — mostly, I think, because I've always been told to be OMG BEYOND GENTLE anytime anyone's asshole is involved. I wouldn't want to hit the plug itself — just to hit her ass while she's wearing it — but even still I'm worried that it's a bad idea.

Google is useless on this. It's not just that it gives you porn. It also gives "instructions" and "personal experiences" that might be genuine or, ...okay, yeah, are probably porn. The books I've read don't say anything either way. I mean, granted, they also don't answer questions about other combinations. ("Is it okay to pinch her left nipple while biting her ear? How about the right nipple?") But like I said, the anal/roughness combo has me nervous.

Talk to me, hive pervs. What do I need to know here?

Should I tell my wife about my new fetish?

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:01:47 -0800

Should I try to ask my wife to let me try a sex act that I know she'll think is gross? My wife and I have a good sex life. We're both attracted to each other and love having sex. I love her and am really hot for her and we have really good sex, but I also have a very strong libido and masturbate when she's either not around or unwilling, and she's cool enough to be fine with that. We're totally in love.

But a couple weeks ago I was masturbating while she was away for the weekend and I guess I was curious, so I put a finger in my butt near the end, and the feeling I had when I finished was *amazing*.

I want to be stimulated that way while I have sex with her, but I know for a fact she'll be grossed out by it. I brought up having anal sex with her a long time ago, and she thought the idea was gross ("there's poop in there" was I think the biggest deal). So there's no way she'll want to reach back and stimulate me that way. If she's grossed out with me doing it to her, then I'm pretty sure no way she'll do it to me. I could do it to myself, but I'm worried it would freak her out and make the sex not as good for her, which is the most important thing to me.

But the deal is that I feel like it's wrong that there's something that I'm enjoying without her, like it's the kind of secret you shouldn't keep from your wife. I'm not going to try to talk her into it, because I know she's really disgusted with the whole idea, but I feel like keeping that a secret is wrong. On the other hand, if she wouldn't like it, I feel like maybe bringing it up would do more harm than good.

Should I tell her, and if I should tell her, how? The idea really scares the hell out of me. I don't want to change the way she sees me. And yeah, I know, if she *really* loves you she won't run away -- I don't think she would leave me over something like this at all, she's great, but coming out about something like this is hard for me.

Help me be more anal.

sweetkid — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:35:49 -0800

I need to be MORE anal and ocd about my work, in a productive way. I have been having problems lately turning in work with typos, sloppy, etc. I look it over but DON"T notice it. It's embarrassing, I look bad, people feel like I wasted their time, etc, etc, etc. Things like rows not lining up in Excel, and today I took two different versions of a document to a meeting thinking they were the same. Not fixing dates. Missing little things. My boss notices everything, and I'm embarrassed. What happens is I start holding onto work for a long time trying to make sure it is perfect, which obviously just compounds the problem because then it looks like I'm not working AND doing sloppy work. The thing is, I do light user acceptance type QA and always catch things others miss, I'm very smart and capable, learn quickly, always have had excellent grammar and editing skills, etc. What habits can I learn to fix this? Or is this a mental block of some kind? I will walk into a meeting thinking everything's ship shape, and something is cut off in my document or I forgot to reorder something in my notes. HELP. I am very organized otherwise--everything in folders, etc.

Oh, okay, I wasn't aware that anal bleeding was such a pedestrian concern-- thanks, Doc.

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:33:40 -0800

TMI Medical Filter: Previously, I had sometimes crippling stomach pain. That went away. Now I'm, uh, bleeding. Rectally. Um. Yeah. But my HMO doesn't seem to care all that much. MetaFilter is not my doctor, but I can't go to my doctor to ask... should I skip my HMO and go to the hospital? Demographics note: Caucasian male, 20 years of age, only other major prior health problem--familial (?) migraine headaches.

Around August, I started having these awful, crippling bouts of mid-torso (stomach-area) pain in the morning and night, accompanied by abdominal bloating and upper-back pain. This continued for a week until I stopped being a moron and went to see a gastrointestinal doctor through my HMO, who put me on a preliminary regimen of Prilosec and ordered a round of tests.

For awhile, these bouts subsidied (with no word from my doctor RE: my tests), but then mid-September they began again for no readily apparent reason, prompting me to schedule another appointment, which I was not able to get in until October. I learned that apparently turned up negative for my H. Pylori scan (which apparently is predictive of having an ulcer?), though my HMO/doctor lost (!) all of the other related tests (I don't even recall all of them--one of them was an "occult blood" test). My doctor quibbled about perhaps performing an endoscopy, but would not commit to any further orders.

With a significantly increased dosage of Prilosec, the painful episodes had until recently subsided into occasional odd, funny, light pain in my stomach that I had been unaccustomed to feeling prior, but nothing that interfered with going along my day-to-day business. I had largely put that out of my mind until a few days ago, when I started to bleed rectally at almost every defecation. This began as a few drops or a bloodiness of the feces, but in my very subjective perception seems to have gotten steadily worse day-by-day. Accordingly, I've made an appointment with my doctor, but it won't be for another two weeks!

I've been calling for the past few days to try to catch a dropped appointment or see if any doctors at associated facilities have openings, explaining my circumstances, but have had absolutely no luck. Today, my bottom-torso even hurts some.

My own self-diagnosis was Meckel's Diverticulum, but, uh, then I noticed that this is mostly diagnosed at youth, and really, I don't understand anything. The symptoms seem to match me exactly, though (minus the, uh, life-threatening ones, as far as I know).

These are a lot of words to ask: At one point should I say "fuck you!" to my HMO and decide to seek some ER help at one of my great local hospitals? Is this potentially life-threatening in the immediate term? Should I have said "fuck you" the moment I started bleeding? I'm worried about incurring unnecessary hospital costs as my family and I are in a difficult financial situation (though I'm lucky to have healthcare at all, I suppose). If it helps at all or if anyone has any experience working with them, my HMO is Kaiser and I live in the Northern Virginian area.

Turgidity in Pornography

Greg Nog — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:44:27 -0800

In gay porn anal scenes, roughly what percentage of the time is the "bottom" flaccid versus fully erect?

Vaseline + buttsex = ?

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:36:04 -0800

Is vaseline okay for gay sex? (NSFW and probably gross for most people) I'm talking gay unprotected anal sex.

Assume these are two consenting adults that are engaged in a monogamous relationship. Don't derail my question with cautions of the inherent risk of bareback sex. It's extremely risky, don't do it!!!! Okay, lets move on.

I know that popular opinion is against using this material for lube. FACT: It breaks down latex in toys and condoms and can linger a bit so it could break down condoms used in the next few days or so. RUMOR? I've heard that it can harbor bacteria which is a risk for infection -- however, I just learned that silicone lube does this also and I've used it for years without any problems. I've also heard that it's used for actual medical purposes 'down there' without issue. I've done lots of googling, but I can only find info about how you're not supposed to use it for vaginal sex and the occasional cautionary tales of condom breakage.

So, that leads me to the question - can I use vaseline as lube and not mess up my ass or the ass of my loved one? Assume frequent usage 5-9 times per week, and a good shower post-coitus. It'd be great to hear from someone that actually uses it regularly or perhaps has a friend or whatever. Thanks!

throwaway email: buttsexask@yahoo.com

Anal on Saturday night, how to prepare Friday or Saturday?

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:09:05 -0800

I'm going to have anal sex, for the first time, on Saturday night! What do I do on Friday night or Saturday morning? I'm a girl and my partner's a guy. I've never had anal before, but he has a lot of experience, and we've been doing a lot of play together. I've also read a lot of guides. So I'm not asking any questions that can be answered with "more lube, more patience." There's the long-term prep you do over the course of months -- fingering, gradually working your way up -- and the short-term prep over the course of an hour -- massages, rimming, relaxing more. What I'm asking about is the medium-term prep -- a day or two.

Basically, this time, cleanliness is a priority for me. On my own, I have no trouble handling my waste. But I really, really want to prevent any appearance of feces (or even of santorum) when my partner's present. I know total prevention may be impossible, so let's say I'd like to minimize it. My partner is knows what he's getting into, and he definitely will be cool with it, so it's really for my sake -- it's my first time having anal sex and I'd really like it not to end with shit everywhere.

I'm confident I can get the bottom 3-4" of my digestive tract -- as far as our fingers reach -- to be squeaky clean. We've tested that more than enough, and never come up with a trace. But I'm concerned about the next 4-5" inches, because that's how deep his penis is going to go (yes really, we've measured him). I'm not at all sure that when I clean myself out in the shower, I'm cleaning out the feces stored 7-8" inside me.

To clean myself, I just wait until I'm in the shower and use my hands. It works better than an enema in the shallow range. I don't think an enema could work any deeper, either, because of all the twists and turns. So for what I can reach, I'm happy sticking with what's worked so far. It's the rest of my digestive tract I'm concerned about.

Basically, I think this is what I want to do:
- eat a lot of fiber (and drink a lot of water?)
- shit my heart out Saturday morning
- not eat afterwards
- wash up Saturday afternoon
- have anal Saturday late afternoon/evening/night
- have a late dinner Saturday night
- go on with normal routine Sunday morning and onwards.

So assuming this plan sounds good to you, when do I eat all this fiber? I want my digestive tract empty as of Saturday afternoon, so do I eat this fiber Friday night? Saturday morning? How fast does it work? I really don't want to take it Saturday morning and have it kick in Saturday night, you know?

And what form should the fiber be in? Soluble? Insoluble? I'd rather eat real food, but if pills will work better, that's okay too. I feel like fiber is probably a better plan than laxatives, though.

After my first time, I plan to get a lot more casual about this, probably just cleaning the way I do for anal play now. I want to assure you that I'm not totally hung up on the first time must be perfect -- Saturday isn't a meaningful date (anniversary, etc.), we've already put it off once or twice, we completely expect me to queef and him to trip and us both to misunderstand each other and bonk heads and have to stop while we laugh. We've done all of that before, and there aren't any rose-petal illusions about this. If we run into some feces, he's not going to do more than shrug.

But I'd really prefer not to, this one time. So just once, I do want to take extraordinary effort to clean out the bottom 8" or so of my digestive tract.

My body stores feces in the rectum -- weird, but is it bad?

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 06:33:23 -0800

Every anal-sex manual says not to worry, feces isn't stored in the rectum. Well, my body doesn't know that. Could this cause, or be the effect of, any health problems I should know about? Text gets explicit. I've used the politest words I know so I don't gross you guys out -- but if your interest is prurient rather than medical, you still aren't going to want to eat while reading this.

My boyfriend -- an anal expert -- has been wanting to explore that route with me. (I'm a woman, mid-20s.) I hadn't done any anal play before, but I'm GGG enough to be willing to give it a shot. I read a couple of books and websites, and although they all were clear about the need for cleanliness, they all said that the colon, not the rectum, stores feces.

So one night in the shower, exploring on my own, I inserted a finger. I've repeated this experiment a whole lot, and something's wrong with either the books or my body. Once I make it past the sphincter, there's not just traces remaining from my last bathroom visit -- even if I've just defecated and feel like I'm empty, I have little trouble reaching (with a finger or two) plenty of feces. I do have to twist and turn as soon as I make it past the inner sphincter.

All this doesn't put a stop to his exploration, although he knows to go slow; so far he's only rimmed and fingered me. Before we get involved with anything in the area, I hop in the shower and get as clean as I can inside and out (yes, I scoop it out with my fingers, drop it in the toilet, and flush...yes, it took me a few tries to be okay with that). Then I rinse the inner area thoroughly, use tons of soap on my anal area (outside only, obviously), tons of soap and Purel on my hands, and we're good to go. An enema might be another option, but he says I'm perfectly clean after I do what I do, so I'm okay with that.

My question is why I have to do it.

For anal it doesn't really matter. So I jump in the shower beforehand -- so what? The logistics aren't important to me. But is storing feces in my rectum a sign or a cause of some important digestive health issue I should know about? I'm including everything I can think of that could possibly be related. Feel free to ask more relevant questions if you want Jessamyn to deal with TMI e-mails from me (sorry, Jessamyn).

I go to the bathroom a few times a day, but mostly to urinate; I only defecate once or twice a day, and never without urinating.

I don't feel like I have to push or strain. When I'm done, I feel like I'm done, not like there's more hanging around inside my rectum. I've tried bearing down after I feel I'm done, but with no results.

I have no trouble wiping clean or washing the exterior -- what I'm worried about is well inside the anus.

I average about 20 grams of fiber a day as part of a healthy diet. The fiber comes from fruit, vegetables, hot and cold cereal, and whole-grain bread/pasta. If I add, say, a bran muffin to my day, I can't go far from the bathroom and am very unhappy all day -- but the problem described above doesn't change. (Side note: I keep track of everything I eat, so if you have any more questions about my diet, I can answer them accurately.)

Corn is a food widely noted as being visible in feces. I also experience this with some other vegetables, including peas, green beans, spinach, and spaghetti squash. I'm not sure if this is normal or not.

I drink a fair amount of skim milk, but I have no reason to suspect I'm lactose-intolerant (no excessive gas, bloating, constipation, discomfort, etc., and no race-based risk factors). When I stopped drinking milk for awhile, nothing changed.

Let me know if any other information would be helpful. Again, I'm really not looking for clean-up tips or whatever -- both he and I are totally fine with what I'm doing now. I just want to make sure this aberration isn't a health concern worth taking to a doctor.

Please help me expand my Hindu pantheon!

LMGM — Wed, 30 May 2007 06:50:00 -0800

There is a South Indian vegetarian restaurant in Paris called Krishna-Bhavan (delicious, BTW), that has an image of a flute-playing butt with eyes (and jewellery) on one of their walls. Can anyone help me identify this deity / character? Picture here (scroll down). It took me and my sister a fair bit of work to finally sneak a picture of this in a way that didn't broadcast "Hey! Your religious icons amuse us!" But seriously, I really want to figure out what part this character plays in the Ramayana.

bottom line

petsounds — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:48:19 -0800

do men and women get the same amount of pleasure from anal sex? this is an exceedingly weird question but i've often wondered how male and female orgasms compare (what feels better) and it seems to me that if both men and women experience anal sex in the same way that might be a useful benchmark from which to compare the other climactic moments

Let me go home already!

Leud — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 01:40:16 -0800

If an employer puts in place new security measures which can cause up to 5 minute delays on entering and leaving the building - should staff be paid for that time? Since a new contract was won by my employer the security measures in place to restrict entry/exit to the building has been increased to the point where it actually causes delays with people queueing up to get in / out. This is because it's gone from a simple magnetic swipe card to a system with rfid tags and a pin with the further restrictions that only one person can go through the doors at a time. As well as following this procedure on the way in, it's also done on the way out.

The actual area of the building where the new sensitive work is being carried out is behind another set of doors where again this process again must be followed.

Is it reasonable for the employer to expect staff to turn up a few minutes earlier and effectively leave a few minutes later due to their increased security or should this time be taken out of the normal working day and be paid for?

UK - Scotland for legal purposes if this has any bearing.

Help me ease the suffering of a family member with cancer.

mykescipark — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 04:03:21 -0800

OncologyFilter: An immediate family member has colorectal cancer. I need advice and recommendations in several areas. She was diagnosed with stage 2B anal cancer about two months ago and has been undergoing chemo and radiation ever since. She's about to finish up her last course of radiation this week, despite being burned so badly that she can hardly stand the pain. They insist on finishing despite her terrible condition. The doctors have her on some sort of dermal patch for the pain but have not given her anything stronger. I have a few questions. She lives in Illinois, FWIW, about an hour west of Chicago, and is on COBRA due to recent unemployment (exacerbated by her illness).

1. As her nephew, am I close enough in the family to advocate on her behalf to the doctors? She is clearly suffering more than she needs to, and both she and my mom are too (frankly) chickensh!t to speak up for what she needs. (My mom was married to a doctor for years and has a problem with standing up to male figures of medical authority, even when her sister's life is at risk. My aunt has spent her whole life avoiding doctors and doesn't even know her rights.)

2. She's got sores and blisters everywhere from the radiation. What to apply that will help, that won't infect and/or agitate the wounds? Aloe? Anything over-the-counter?

3. What can I make her, food-wise? Part of the triggering of the cancer, I'm sure, is her terrible diet. At this point, because of the aforementioned conditions, I think she's down to liquids. I'm thinking fruit smoothies with protein powder added for extra nutrition. Will the added protein stuff (usually bought at fitness-supplement places like GNC) cause her harm?

4. What books or movies would you recommend I buy for her that might give her a few rays of light? She is virulently anti-sentimental (a trait we share somewhat) and would not stand for any treacly, sappy, and/or "YOU CAN DO IT!" type books. Think fiction, great essay collections, etc. I bought her Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto and she loved it, and I think she at least leafs through the Pema Chodron that I toss at her, because she resonates more with Buddhism than with any other formal school of thought.

Is prostate stimulation an acquired taste?

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 10:14:57 -0800

Is prostate stimulation an acquired taste? While that area in general feels great, direct prostate stimulation just seems to feel weird/intense/somewhat uncomfy. Am I missing something?

Ouch!

Anonymous — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 16:50:32 -0800

[SexFilter] After much bruising, my boyfriend and I would like to try again. After trying a few times, we've been unsuccessful in anal sex (It's my first time trying with anyone). Usually it leaves me in intense pain and bruised. I'm usually the one leading the action, often in a "doggystyle" position, and very plentiful with the use of Astroglide. What are we doing wrong? What hints/positions/techniques are known to work? I'm female, by the way.

Anon because I didn't know if it was appropriate. If you prefer to also be anon with responses, e-mail me at kalatamahara AT hotmail DOT com.

Fuss-free default footers for Word?

flabdablet — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:52:48 -0800

How can I set up a totally fuss-free default footer in Word? I want to add a default footer to Normal.dot, so that if users doesn't specify their own footer they get mine, and people who get printed copies of their documents know where to go to find the originals. I want the default footer contents to be

{pathname} {Printed on (date)} {Page x of n}

with as much space as necessary inserted between the three fields to make the footer begin at the left margin and end at the right.

I know how to use Auto Text to insert the information I want into the footer, and I know how to stuff it all back into Normal.dot. What I'd like to know is how to make the three footer fields space themselves out nicely.

Most of my users are footer-illiterate, so I don't want them to need to fiddle with tab settings in the footer if they change the margins in Page Setup or save a file with an unusually long pathname.

I also don't want them warned about macros every time they open a document.

At the moment, my best effort consists of the three fields I want, with twenty spaces between the fields, a forced line break at the end, and full justification turned on. This works pretty well most of the time, but if the pathname is short then all the intra-field spaces get stretched more than I'd like, especially if the pathname itself contains spaces; and if the pathname is very long, it b0rks quite spectacularly.

Instead of my run of twenty spaces, what I'd like is a "weak" space that Word will stretch as needed, treating all the normal spaces in the line as if they were en spaces. Can this be done?

Hershey's shrunk!

shmegegge — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 22:18:39 -0800

What on earth happened to Hershey Bars? Has anyone else noticed that Hershey bars are thinner? I can't find any info on it. What's the deal?