I have a 6 year old english bulldog. She has had on and off problems with her skin throughout the years but nothing major until recently.

She used to "break out" from time to time around her muzzle area but it always cleared up on its own and never needed treatment. It never got too bad and usually cleared up in a couple of weeks.

After doing research, I learned that it appeared to simply be "puppy acne".

However, about 1 year ago my other dog passed away which caused tremendous stress on my english bulldog. She began excessively licking her paws which is something she never used to do and, you guessed it, breaking out in a huge acne disaster!

When it didn't go away like usual, I took her to the vets. It was horrible. She had acne on her whole mouth practically and she was itching at them and they were turning into open bloody messy sores. The vet gave me an antibiotic and Malaseb Pledgett wipes. I used the wipes everyday and gave her antibiotics everyday for the course of the treatment.

The acne completely cleared up and healed within 2 weeks. The vet said if she got it again, start using the wipes right away so as to prevent her from having to go back on another antibiotic.

So about 2 months later she starting breaking out again and I immediately began treating her with the wipes. However, instead of getting better, it got worse. I brought her to the vets again. Again, she had to go on another antibiotic to get it cleared up. It went away but it left me feeling helpless. I know that it's not good for her immune system to keep going back on these antibiotics all the time.

So now it has been another couple of months since last antibiotic course. She started breaking out again and I immediately started using the wipes but this time twice a day hoping to stop it. Meanwhile, I started noticing that she has some weird pink inflamed area on her hind leg. So I began treating this with the wipes as well. She is constantly scratching and digging at her chin.

On a side note, I noticed she started to need baby wipes after going pee outside. I don't know why, maybe she is squatting lower than usual? Maybe she has gained just enough weight that it is not noticeable but is causing her to touch the ground? Maybe she is not peeing on the dirt as much so its not absorbing into the ground? I have no idea. So, I bought some babywipes as I started noticing she had urine on her after peeing. I was always very gentle when wiping.

However I started noticing that when I wiped her, she would scratch her butt on the floor like something was bothering her. So I flipped her upside down and now she has sores on her vagina!!!

The sores down there look EXACTLY like the ones on her chin! I have stopped using the baby wipes on her just in case that was the cause. I am now cleaning it with warm soap and water and then applying trible antibiotic ointment. However, it doesn't seem to be helping at all.

I know it is hard to diagnose properly without seeing it but i did post pictures on my blog... bulldoghealthquestions.blogspot.com. I can't figure out how to put those pictures in this post.

Anyway, I brought her back to the vet 2 days ago and was basically just given more of the Malesab Pledgett wipes and a different oral antibiotic... I was also told that despite her not looking overweight, she is just overweight enough that it is causing excess skin folds in her vaginal area and she has to lose weight to get this to go away or she will need a vulvoplasty...

I did some research of my own and read it could be Pydoerma?

If anyone has any suggestions or help I'd really appreciate it! I really don't think my dog is that overweight and I really don't want to put her through a vulvoplasty nor do I think oral antibiotics every two months is good fo her.

I work at a vets and would highly recommend you ask to be referred to a skin specialist. Many vets don't like skin conditions and dont bother investigating - just give malaseb and anti biotics and hope for the best. However there are so many diffent causes from parasites to allergies that thorough testing needs to be done to discover the cause so the condition can be managed correctly. I doubt she would need vulvoplasty- find the cause of the condition and you can treat it without extreme measures. If she needs expensive medication you can always but online at sites like Pet Drugs Online to save some money.
I hope this helps in some way

Hiya,

This might not be very helpful...but...I would try giving the bulldog rescue for advice, they are reeeeally good. I have 3 bulldogs, one adopted from the rescue, and they have helped me lots in the past. They are always happy to give advice, and could save you alot in the long run with your bulldog. As said in the post above, you can probably treat this without extreme measures. Hope this helps a little bit... the bulldogrescue.co.uk has all of the contact details on there.

Hannah x