OK, so I'll explain a bit about my poor Lucy.

She's a RSPCA rescue, thought to be Sheltie x GSD.
She was spayed 6 months after getting her and even though we asked if she could have a season before she was spayed, it wasn't allowed so we had to deal with it.

I don't think this could be anything to do with her current problem as the vet thinks it's the shaping of her privates.

Since last year she's been sore, licking it etc.
We started this whole "trying to find out what's up" problem back then, can't remember when about though. Anyway, we were told to try her on some tablets, they worked and when we took her back for the vet to have a look, he gave her some more, which she ended up having an allergic reaction to and having the muzzle of a shar pei.
Originally we didn't think it was the tablet because she'd been out in the garden and come back like it, we thought it was a wasp/bee sting and it went down after a couple of hours. Mum realised the next day when she gave her the tablet at the given time and she ended up throwing up, being really lathargic and shar pei face again. Taking her back to the vets, she was given different antibiotics that cleared her up. After another set of antibiotics she was diagnosed with an immature vulva. She was given an operation to make the line where she pees down more efficient so the wee wouldn't hang around as that was what we thought to be causing the infections.

So she went through the operation and was fine for a couple of months. Taking her back, she was given more antibiotics and the infection cleared up. They sedated her and cleaned her up, taking a urine sample, they sent it off to the lab to see if any crystals grew, there shouldn't have been any but Lucy's wee ended up having 2 types. So she was thoroughly cleaned up and given an injection to help the healing of it and she was brought home. I -think- we were meant to be going back tomorrow but mum managed to get her in on Monday as it was worse than it had been in quite a while.

The vet had a close look while my dad and I held her and the vet seems to think the groove on one side isn't as dominant as it should be. She rang a specialist but she's on holiday so we have to wait till she gets back to get any further into solving what's actually up with her. She's been taken in today to be slightly sedated while they take swabs to make sure they haven't missed anything with her having been on antibiotics when they last cleaned her up and pictures and generally give her a good clean up.

has anyone else ever experienced this? She's a mediumly longhaired dog and so sweet, it's a shame we can't do more than put cream on to help her in this state. Any suggestions or similar cases will be much appreciated!
I just needed to get it off my chest.

Poor Lucy. :( How old was she when she was spayed? From what I've learned from many sources (including vets) this is one of the less common side-effects of early spaying before physical maturity. It seems the condition has to be managed rather than cured. :(

That's what we were hoping it wouldn't be >.<

She was round about 6 months, the RSPCA were adament that she had to be done then. It was thought that it could be the problem but I haven't heard the vet mention it sicne, I'll ask next time I go along. We should be picking her up in a couple of hours hopefully.

We wouldn't mind managing it but obviously the antibiotics won't be much use in the end if it carries on. She may end up having another operation to help try and keep her from getting infected but we were told that if she does have to have another operation, it'll be a little more serious than the last one. :(.

Poor little girl. :-(

Just an update on her tonight.

She's back from the vets and very dopey bless her. They've taken the swabs and she should be hearing from the specialist on Monday, by which time they'll hopefully have the results back from the stuff they did and might be a little closer to figuring what is exactly wrong.