Black,scaly lesions on dogs belly,vaginal area?

Question
Hello Dr. Gotthelf<

Our 8 yr old Shitzu-Griffon mix female has black,itchy,scaly lesions on belly,tail,hips,underarms and vaginal areas at various times. Vet treats her with 1/2 tab.100 mg Cefpodoxine for 20 days, off 10 days and the back on for 20.  A continuous Pulse therapy, he calls it. Also use GenOne Spray, gentamicin sulfate,betamethasone valerate equivalent to 0.284 mg Betamethazone PRN. Also bath once or twice a week with Chlorhexadine shampoo,4%.

Lesions seem to come and go at various places on dog's underbody. Treatment may help a little but is ongoing and presently the tail,vaginal area and hips are affected.

Last shampoo I tried had 3% chlorhexadine and an anti-fungal- to no avail.

We would be most grateful for any advice or suggestions.

thanks,

Phil Bokoch
Uniontown,PA

Would be

Answer
Cases like this are very difficult to do on the internet.  All I can suggest is to try and get the vet to do some diagnostics, like allergy testing, skin scrapings, cultures for both yeast and bacteria, and a food trial for food allergies.  A skin biopsy may also give some information as to the type of disease causing this chronic infection.