Licking bottom

Hello vets! My miniature dachshund has been constantly licking his bum for the past 2 days. He’s a 2 year old intact male smooth haired miniature. He has no other symptoms, he’s eating , drinking barking and playing as usual. I’ve checked the area and there is no redness or anything visible. I’ve given him a bath incase there was anything irritating him but that’s not made a difference. I’ve read about anal glands but there is no smell down there either. He didn’t poo on his walk yesterday, could he be constipated? Looking for possibilities of what it could be and if it’s appropriate to get him to a vet.

Hello   It absolutely is appropriate to take a dog to the vet for persistent licking of the anus.  The skin there is extremely sensitive and can be licked sore very quickly.  I still wonder whether this might be an anal gland impaction; sometimes anal glands become swollen and painful, with the smelly stuff trapped inside.  Sometimes for example, this happens secondarily to an allergy, which inflames the anal gland canals and prevents them from emptying.  Squeezing them is not always the answer.  Anal glands often only smell in cases where the smelly stuff actually leaks out, bursts out or overflows, so the absence of a smell doesn't rule it out.  The other thing to say about anal gland issues is that because they are linked to skin inflammation (e.g. from an allergy), they do often recur.  Sometimes anal gland disease is part of skin disease - something that has to be managed with regular visits, rather than something that will be solved by a one-off visit to the vet.  Other causes can include yeast infection, worms and allergy.