I am the breeder of a 5 1/2 year old standard schnauzer diagnosed with Anal Furunculosis, an autoimmune disorder.

"What is anal furunculosis?  Anal furunculosis is a chronic, progressive inflammatory disease of dogs that results in ulceration and inflammation in the area surrounding the anus."

Does anyone in this community have experience with this sad problem?

Sorry to hear about your dog. I am sure someone will be along to offer their thoughts shortly. In the mean time try the search facility at the bottom of the page (custom search). If you type in 'Anal furunculosis' it will bring up past threads on this topic (scan down past the 'adverts' and you will come quite a few posts).

Unless treats have changed in the last 15 to 20 years since me old g.s.d. got it, surgery so so results my own vets opinion is would not do it to her dog, and cleaning solutions and creams.

Old girls hips were bad x rayed and scored very high but balanced on both sides, at ten was getting wobbly and the first few treatments she screamed with pain at it and we said enough was enough and called it a day.

I'm sorry it's not what you want to hear but as a said this was nearly twenty years ago and things may have changed since

I have not long lost a dog with this. He was 2 when he got it and was just over 9 when he had to be put down. I was lucky my vet had treated it a lot in the army and in practice. I went down steroids and antibiotics and had it under control within 4 months. I was advised to operate on the area as it comes back you can get an autoimmune tablet  that is meant to help but is very pricey and each dog is different on how they take to it. I looked into his diet changed that ( that comes with its own risk with Af) tried not to get him stressed out as this dose not help and went down the herbal route in the end and only got antibiotics and steroids if he had a flare up.