Flea treatment for dogs with hotspots

A Ridgeback recovering from a hotspot needs careful handling — the last thing you want is a flea treatment that adds chemical irritation to already inflamed skin. That said, fleas will absolutely make a hotspot worse by triggering more scratching, so you do need to act. The key thing to know is that treating fleas effectively means tackling both your dog AND your home — around 95% of fleas live in carpets, bedding, and soft furnishings, not on the dog itself, and a single product won't handle both sides of that. To point you to the right option: how big is your Ridgeback, how bad does the infestation look right now, and have you treated the house at all yet?

That's really helpful, thank you. A 38kg Ridgeback puts him in the large dog bracket, and with active skin inflammation I'd steer away from anything with permethrin or strong spot-on formulas that spread across the coat — some of those can cause localised irritation even in healthy dogs. Can I ask: is he currently on any other medication from the vet for the hotspot, like antibiotics or a short course of steroids? And is the hotspot on his back or neck area — anywhere a spot-on treatment would land?

That's exactly the detail I needed. With the hotspot on his lower back, a standard spot-on applied to the scruff of the neck is actually the safer route — it keeps the product well away from the inflamed area. And given the antibiotics, you want something with a clean, well-tolerated formula rather than anything that adds systemic load. My clear recommendation here is Advantage 400 for Large Dogs — it's an imidacloprid-only spot-on applied to the neck, kills fleas on contact within 24 hours, and has a good safety record with sensitive or compromised skin because it doesn't enter the bloodstream. It's not a combination product, so there's no permethrin, no pyrethroid, nothing that's likely to cause a reaction. One pipette covers a dog up to 40kg, so it's right for him. For the house, pair it with Indorex Defence Household Flea Spray — it handles the environmental side with an insect growth regulator that stops eggs and larvae developing. That's the combination that actually breaks the cycle.

Advantage 400 is fine alongside antibiotics — imidacloprid doesn't interact with them and it's not a systemic drug, so there's no conflict there. As for returning to his usual treatment: once the hotspot is fully healed and dry — typically two to three weeks after it closes over — you can go back to whatever he was on before. If he was previously on a combination product like Advocate or Advantix, just make sure the skin is fully recovered first, and apply it to the scruff as normal. One thing worth mentioning: if you see the hotspot getting worse after applying Advantage, which would be unusual but possible if he's particularly reactive, call your vet — but in practice this is well tolerated even in dogs with skin issues.

Good plan. Apply the Advantage to the back of his neck, part the fur so it gets to skin, and treat the house the same day if you can — spray Indorex into carpets, skirting boards, under furniture, and his bedding area, then let it dry before he goes back in the room. Wash his bedding on a hot cycle at the same time. That first week is the most important — you're breaking the breeding cycle before it gets ahead of you. Hope his skin heals up quickly.