Looking for advice/experiences with persistent vaginal bleeding/discharge in my spayed female dog
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She is an 8-year-old English Pointer and this is completely new — she has never had issues like this before.
Symptoms started with her licking/chewing at her vulva area and then we noticed bright red blood. The blood/discharge appears to be coming from her vagina rather than her urine/bladder. It sometimes pools while she’s laying down and then slowly oozes out when she stands up or moves around. It often looks like mucus/stringy discharge with streaks of bright red blood (sometimes 2–3 inch mucus strands).
Important details:
She is spayed
Urination seems normal (not straining, frequent peeing, etc.)
Blood seems separate from urine
Otherwise acting normal overall
Appetite and energy are normal
Vet work so far:
UTI test was mostly negative, though vet mentioned a small amount of microbes/bacteria
Ultrasound was done and apparently looked reassuring/normal
Vet initially suspected vaginitis/vulvar irritation
She was put on Amoxicillin for 10 days
Bleeding/discharge improved a lot on antibiotics but never fully stopped
After a longer 2.5 mile walk, bleeding/discharge increased again
Follow-up visit included vulvar/vaginal slide/cytology that showed some bacteria, but vet did not want to continue antibiotics because they were concerned about disrupting normal bacterial balance
Vet instead gave allergy/anti-itch meds and wipes for vulva cleaning
Things we’ve noticed:
Exercise seems to aggravate it
We are now limiting activity and using a cone because licking definitely makes it worse
Shorter/rest days seem to help somewhat
No major swelling or severe bleeding, mostly intermittent blood-tinged mucus/discharge
We’ve discussed possibilities like:
vaginitis
vulvar irritation/chafing
recessed vulva/fold irritation
foreign body/grass awn
less likely urinary issue since urination is normal
My main questions:
Has anyone dealt with chronic/recurrent vaginitis like this in an older spayed dog?
How long did discharge/blood take to fully resolve?
Did exercise make it worse?
Did anyone end up needing vaginoscopy or finding something that ultrasound missed?
Just trying to figure out whether this still sounds consistent with inflammation/vaginitis healing slowly, or whether we should push harder for deeper diagnostics.
Edit: it's been about 16 days since she first was bleeding and is still bleeding in small amounts with very restricted exercise. It just doesn't seems to be getting any better.
Edit 2: a 3rd follow-up vet appointment is scheduled in a few days.