Hi, my friend has a 2 year old Airedale.  She has 2 hotspots that have been there for approximately 12 months.  She's been to the vets numerous times and has been given anti-biotics and steriod cream, which she has used as directed.  However,  the problem still exists.

Has anyone elses dog had this problem?  I would welcome any suggestions to resolve this in relation to treatment, change in diet (?) or any other suggestions?

Kind Regards

My Golden Retriever battled Hotspots his whole life. A grain free diet made a big difference to keep flare ups down. When one appeared the most effective treatment was to shave the area of hair, and clean vigorously with hibiscrub everytime the pussy/ oozing stuff appeared until we were back down to raw skin. This would be 2/4 times a day. If we nipped the infection early through very thorough cleaning it would reduce the life of the hotspot from weeks of trouble down to two days. I do feel sorry for your friend's dog , it is a horrid condition. It was flea bites that set my dog off, maybe a blood test to identify any allergies would help?

Avoid food containing maize and apply benzyl benzoate.

Have had great success with this food

http://www.croftonline.co.uk/scp/Natural_and_Holistic_Dog_Food/Sensitive_Duck_%26_Potato.html

I was going down the same route as you, antibots and Fuciderm, cleaning with Hibiscrub but no sooner had I got it dried up, it would break out again. There is a lot of information on the website that is really worth reading.

The chap who developed the food had a really good chat with me at Crufts and did say it could take up to 6 months for the pro/pre biotics in the food to re balance everything and he was right. Now it's great we haven't had an outbreak for months and am a huge advocate of the food.

Thank you for your responses.  I'll pass them onto my friend.
Kind Regards