White beads in discharge from female kitty’s rear end

Hello, This is my first post - I’ll be making an appointment with our usual vet first thing in the morning as it’s Sunday, but I’m extremely concerned and posting here to potentially gain some insight in the meantime. My kitty, Portia, is a 7 yo spayed female. She started having drippy anal glands a couple of months ago. When we went for her checkup, the vet said her glands were     very full, particularly her left one, and emptied them for Portia. The vet suspected new food allergies could cause upset to her GI system, resulting in anal glands over filling. So we switched Portia over to Royal Canin ultamino food ans stopped all treat, and she seems to be doing well on it. She had no more anal gland issues until today… While Portia was having supervised time in the yard, we were trying to wrangle her back inside and as she was running, she squirted some discharging from her behind. This time, however, the discharge has white beads in it of varying sizes (see picture).  Portia kept licking her bum after she came back inside. I inspected Portia’s anus after this and found it smelled similar to the earlier discharge, but her bum looked ok to my untrained eyes (picture also attached - she was laying on her side when pics were taken).  What really concerns me is the white beads. Portia had tapeworm once a few years ago, so I’m familiar with those symptoms, however the tapeworm beads looked much more like sesame seeds. Portia has been on monthly Revolution Plus ever since. Today’s were timer and stark white. From research, it sounds like this could mean one of her glands is infected, or it could even be vaginal discharge. I just want to make sure she doesn’t need urgent, emergency attention. Full disclosure: Portia is a “part-time supervised outdoor” kitty. This means that I let her out in our enclosed yard for an hour or so each day only while I work from home. Sometimes, if I get a little distracted, Portia will jump over into our neighbor’s yard or hang out on the slope over our fence. She has an air tag on her collar so I know she never goes too far. I share this because sometimes I worry / wonder if she eats weird things while out and about. She’s a big plant muncher and lizard chaser/catcher, though she’s never eaten anything she’s caught (to my knowledge). Any insight or guidance is appreciated :) As a pet parent, I find this forum super helpful. Thank you in advance! Jasmine

Hello!  I can't make out the detail here, but this does indeed look consistent with the rather clumpy texture of anal gland discharge; I don't usually expect to see worms in the anal glands; worms and their eggs tend to come out of the anus.  Particularly if Potia isn't speyed, anything purulent (pus like) that you might see coming out of the vagina - the slit like hole below the round anus - should be reported immediately to your vets.  For anything coming out of the anus itself, worms can be a risk.   It makes sense to worm your cat regularly in any case, so that you dont need to worry about it, especially if your  cat is coming into regular contact with kids or pregnant women.

I am struggling to orientate the top picture as it's slight blurry, but to give you some idea, the anal glands are at about 20- 25 to and past on the clock face, if the cat is the right way up and you image the anus as a clock.

Because I can't see clearly, the best thing to do is to speak with your vet, but its worth stating that anal gland infection is actually much rarer than people say.  Very often the anal glands just get full, often in connection with mild skin allergy or worms  (its very thin skin there and any inflammation at all can stop the glands from emptying properly), so if this does turn out to be anal gland disease, discussions about allergens or the diet might be more to the point.