Fair questions.

Two small sacs just inside your dog's bottom - the anal glands. They hold a strong-smelling fluid that gets squeezed out in tiny amounts every time your dog passes a stool. It is a scent marker, and it is completely normal.

You are only supposed to notice them when something has gone wrong.

Because nothing is pressing them. The sacs empty from the outside, by pressure, as a firm stool passes them.

Modern food is extremely digestible, which sounds like a good thing and mostly is. The side effect is that there can be very little left at the end of it with enough structure to do the pressing. Soft stool goes past without squeezing anything, the sacs stay full, and they start to bother your dog.

No. This is anatomy and food, not neglect.

Small breeds, flat-faced breeds and doodle types are far more prone to it than large breeds, and no amount of care changes the shape a dog was born with. Most owners we hear from have already tried several things before finding us, which is the opposite of not caring.

It is pressure. A full sac is uncomfortable, and dragging along the carpet is the only way a dog has of pressing on it.

Scooting is a symptom, not a habit. Take the pressure away and the scooting stops on its own, because there is no longer anything to press.

That is the gland fluid. When the sacs are too full they leak, usually onto whatever your dog is sitting on. That is the smell on the couch, the bedding and sometimes on your dog.

It is the part owners hate most and talk about least. You are not squeamish for finding it unbearable.

Cavaliers, Cockapoos, Cavapoos and other doodle crosses, Shih Tzus, Bichons, Poodles of every size, Dachshunds, Frenchies, Pugs and Boston Terriers. Small and flat-faced dogs are heavily over-represented.

Large breeds do get it, just far less often, which is why so many dog owners have never heard of it until they get one of these breeds.

It can be. Sacs that never fully empty can become impacted, and impacted sacs can become infected or abscess. That is a painful problem for your dog and an expensive one for you.

If your dog is yelping, bleeding, or there is swelling on one side, that is a vet visit today, not a supplement.

It does not treat the glands. It changes what passes them.

Hey Pumpkin is a high-fiber pumpkin powder. Fiber gives stool the structure that highly digestible food strips out. A firm, well-formed stool presses the sacs as it passes and empties them a little at a time, on every walk, the way it is meant to happen.

You are not managing the symptom. You are restoring the thing that was supposed to be doing the job.

Pumpkin fruit powder, L-lysine, dietary fiber, Bacillus subtilis, Bifidobacterium animalis, papain, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12. That is the whole list.

Pumpkin fruit powder is the bulk of it. Nothing animal-derived, nothing added for flavor, and no binder holding a shape together.

No. Canned pumpkin is mostly water.

To get a useful amount of fiber into a small dog from the can you would be feeding a serious volume of wet food every day, which most dogs will not eat and most owners will not keep up. This is the pumpkin with the water taken out, so a single scoop does what several spoonfuls cannot.

Plenty of our customers tried the can first. It is usually why they end up here.

Two reasons, and they are the two things owners tell us went wrong last time.

A chew has to hold its shape, so most of it is binder and flavoring rather than the ingredient you are buying. And a chew is a thing your dog has to agree to eat. Fussy dogs work them out, spit them behind the couch, or eat around them.

A powder is the ingredient and nothing else, and it disappears into food your dog already wants.

That is the most common thing we hear, and it is usually one of three things.

The dog never actually ate it. The format was mostly filler. Or it was given for two weeks and stopped, before anything working through digestion could have shown up.

We cannot promise a different result on a different dog. We can take the risk off you while you find out, which is what the 60 days is for.

Because emptying them by hand does not change why they filled.

Expression clears the sacs today. The cause is still there tomorrow, so the appointment comes around again in four to six weeks, and again after that. Vets themselves increasingly say routine expression is worth avoiding where you can.

This goes at the reason instead of the symptom. Keep your vet in the loop, especially if your dog is being seen for something specific.

Yes. It is food, not medication, and it is designed to be a daily habit rather than a course you finish.

If your dog has a diagnosed condition or is on medication, run it past your vet first. We would rather you asked.

One serving a day, sized to your dog:

• 5 to 15 lb - 1 scoop
• 16 to 40 lb - 2 scoops
• 41 lb and up - 3 scoops

The scoop is in the tub. It is the same scoop for every size of dog, so there is nothing to cut in half and nothing to count out.

Give half the daily amount for the first three days, then move up to the full amount.

This matters more than it sounds. Fiber added all at once can loosen things before it firms them, which is the opposite of what you are here for. Three easy days and the gut settles into it.

Straight into the food your dog already eats, once a day, stirred through. Wet or dry both work.

If the food is very dry, a splash of warm water helps the powder cling to it instead of sitting at the bottom of the bowl.

It is unflavored and it goes in with a meal, so most dogs never work out that anything changed. That is the main reason people switch to a powder in the first place.

If yours is unusually suspicious, mix it into something wet for the first week. And if it genuinely will not happen, the 60 days covers you.

Usually yes, and plenty of customers do. Fiber can affect how quickly other things are absorbed, so if your dog is on daily medication, space them a couple of hours apart and check with your vet.

Seniors, yes, and they are a large part of who we sell to. Older dogs often lose muscle tone back there, which makes the pressure problem worse.

For puppies under about six months, ask your vet first. A young digestive system is still settling and it is worth a quick conversation rather than a guess.

Not if you start at half a scoop and build up over the first three days. Some dogs are a little gassy for a few days at the start. That settles.

If you go straight to a full amount on day one you may get looser stools for a day or two. Back off, restart lower, and it sorts itself out.

Nothing dramatic. Give the normal amount at the next meal and carry on.

What you will notice is that missing a stretch of days shows up. The effect comes from what your dog is passing every day, so it is a daily habit rather than a treatment you complete.

Yes, as long as each one gets the amount for its own weight. Two small dogs will go through a tub roughly twice as fast as one, so most multi-dog homes order two at a time.

This works at the pace of digestion, so it is a matter of weeks rather than days, and we would rather set that expectation than oversell it.

Stool consistency is usually the first thing to change and it tends to change early. The scooting and the smell follow once firmer stools have been doing the pressing for a while.

What comes out. Firmer, better formed, easier to pick up, less mess.

That is not a side benefit, it is the whole mechanism showing up. Everything else follows from it.

Yes, and this is the part worth being straight about. Nothing here permanently changes your dog's anatomy.

What changes is what passes the sacs every day. Stop, and the stool goes back to what it was, and so does everything else. Most customers stay on it for exactly that reason, which is why the subscription exists.

No, and we would rather say so.

Most gland trouble is a stool consistency problem, and that is the kind fiber is built for. A smaller number of dogs have sacs that are shaped or scarred in a way that stops them draining properly no matter how firm the stool is. Fiber cannot change that, and neither can anything else you buy.

You do not have to work out which one you have before ordering. That is what the 60 days is for.

Email us and we refund you in full. Keep the tub.

We would also genuinely like to know, because if it is a dosing or a starting problem we can often fix it in one reply.

Most orders arrive within 2 to 4 weeks, depending on where you are. Tracking lands in your inbox within 48 hours.

The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

The formula is entirely plant-based with nothing animal-derived, which is what keeps all of those open to us.

You will get a tracking link by email within about 48 hours of ordering. If it has not shown up, check your spam folder first, then email us and we will send it over.

Yes, any time, from your account or by replying to any email we send you. No phone call, no retention script, no minimum number of deliveries.

Cancel before the next one ships and you are not charged for it.

Yes. If your dog is ahead of schedule and you still have plenty in the tub, push the next delivery back or skip it entirely rather than cancelling.

Yes, at any point. If your dog moves up a size band, or you add a second dog, change the quantity on your next delivery and the cadence adjusts with it.

Because this only works while your dog is on it, and the failure mode we see most often is running out and not getting around to reordering for a fortnight.

Subscription deliveries are timed to arrive before the tub runs out, and they cost less than buying one at a time. You can cancel whenever you like.

If your dog has not stopped scooting after 60 days of using Hey Pumpkin, we refund you 100%. No questions asked.

Email us from the address you ordered with and say it did not work. That is the entire process. No form, no photographs, no proof.

No. Keep it. There is no return label and nothing to post.

Shipping a part-used tub back across the world would cost more than the tub and help nobody.

Email us with a photo and we will send a replacement. You will not be asked to return the damaged one.