Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
Hello! The usual trick with antibiotics is, to sample the infected area, in order that the vet knows which bacteria they are trying to kill. Looking at the bacteria under a microscope should give clues to their identity (rods, cones etc) but wiping them onto a swab and growing them on a petri-dish - perhaps with antibiotic circles thrown onto the culture in order to illustrate which antibiotics stop the bacteria from growing - will point your vets in the direction of killing the correct microbeasts. This has a name; it is called 'culture and sensitivity' (the bacteria are cultured and then sensitivity-to-antibiotics testing takes place). Microbiology laboratories do the testing. If your vet believes that there is a difficult-to-clear infection, they can call the microbiology lab, speak to the relevant microbiologist and to take their advice as to whether infection is the likely culprit and HOW to sample the area if so. I have always found clinical microbiologists to be very understanding; they will usually give good reliable advice as to what to do next. Sometimes, this advice is 'call a surgeon in case infection isn't the problem' and indeed, it may be that there turn out to be other issues causing pain that have not yet been addressed. I do not know what is going on in your dog's particular case, but we GP vets can't be experts in every area and speaking to a specialist - either surgical or microbiological - might prove a good way to find out.
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