Could she have some sort of contact allergic reacation which has made not only the dally rash break out but her vulva to swell and become irritated? If she's very itchy and uncomfortable with it that could explain why she's stroppy.

contact reaction could be from anything but i know that this time of year there are certain grass seeds and pollens that can make these things worse.

The vet is going to phone the lab to find out if there are any tests they can do to see if she's coming into season (obviously not fully, but she would still be producing the hormones if some ovarian tissue was left) so that we might be able to find out.

She's not uncomfortable or itchy with the dally rash at all, it just doesn't look nice. It doesn't bother her in the slightest... otherwise I'd say yes that's what's bothering her...

The vet did suggest doing an allergy test to make sure it is just dally rash but because she's had it before and all the dally breeders and judges I spoke to identified it as dally rash I decided I was too skint.

I could understand her being grumpy through lack of sleep because of bed wetting but recently she's stayed on an incontinence pad and the foster dog hasn't barked all night so she should actually have got more sleep