Bacterial infection?

Hi Vets! My dog has what I think is a bacterial infection. I took him one time to the vet and she said since my dog is fussy and doesn’t like me to apply meds to his abdominal area that she will give me antibiotics. It went away pretty rapidly with the antibiotics and was fine for a while then it came back. I had been able to keep it under control with this spray bottle medication but this time it doesn’t seem to be working. Do y’all think this is still a bacterial infection? Just a brief history he’s a minpin about 19lbs and is always under the blankets so he get hot under there. Thank you!

Hello!  Only your own vet should make that call.  Bacterial infections tend to occur when bugs that live normally on the skin, sneak into the skin - often via minute holes made when the dog scratches.  So when recurrent skin infection / irritations happen, it's often the case that:  allergy leads to itch, leads to scratch, damages skin (this makes it red anyway), then yeast or bacteria may or may not invade the skin.  As antibiotic resistance is becoming more of a concern, many vets now use topical agents (eg shampoos that go directly onto the skin) rather than pills, which send antibiotic right round the body.  One of the most popular is a shampoo that prevents drying and combats superficial bacteria and yeast, but the downside is that that particular one does have a twelve minute contact time.  In the UK, even topical meds require a prescription and so should be managed by a vet. When rashes are recurring, it can sometimes make sense to identify the cause - if it's a specific allergen or parasite in the food, in the garden, or someone else's  fur etc.  This may help to reduce itching in the first place and thereby reduce infection. We often think of itching as something that happens, is treated and cured.  However in the case of allergies, which may be a possibility here, the itching recurs throughout the dogs' life.

Topical means:  on the surface. To answer your question, the med may not control any itching, just try to prevent infections.  I don't know the strength of it, or whether the bugs are coming resistant, or whether itching and reinfection is simply continuing because the underlying itch is still there.  A vet visit is probably a good idea I'm afraid.

Thank you so much!  I think it might be fire ant bites but I’m not entirely sure.  He doesn’t seem to itch anywhere else other then his belly area.  I called our vet and I’m trying to get him in for an appointment. Thanks again!

Ah yes, fire ants would do the trick.  You've probably sussed this, but when I used 'bugs' above I should have written 'yeast and bacteria';  fire ants would go into the categories of things that made dogs scratch their skin in the first place, which weakens it and lets bacteria / yeast (bugs) in.  Allergy is more common than fire-ants where I am, but either would do it!  (An allergy to fire ants would be particularly tough!)

Best of luck getting it sorted.