My dog has horrible hot spots, am I treating this correctly?

It's gotten to the point where it starts 3/4 down her body, by her rear, and ends at the tip of her tail. She has lost a large amount of hair where the hot spot is. She is treated for fleas, I use oatmeal shampoo on her, feed her Science Diet skin food, she is now wearing an e-collar to prevent her from biting, and I've been treating the spots with Sulfadene. Will this all do the trick? Or is there more I need to do, and how long will this take to heal?

ask the vet

Ok, this is what you do.First, you need to get rid of those fleas -- remember, frontline must be put on no sooner than 3 days AFTER a bath, and don't bathe again for 3 more days.During the 3 day period before the frontline, use a capstar a day to kill the fleas on your dog. Capstar is safe.Now, onto the hot spots.Hot spots this severe must be treated by a vet with antibiotics and steroids.However, after you get this under control -- NOTE I SAID AFTER -- you can nip the hot spots in the bud by going to your local pharmacy or on the internet and get "Super Ivy Dry". Spray on 3 to 4 times a day on the hot spot. It will dry it right up. If you can't find super ivy dry, use the regular ivy dry.It works really well on poison ivy if you get it too. A section of skin as large as you describe should only be treated by a vet. But I've treated hot spots as big as my hand (and smelly too) with super ivy dry.Get this under control with a vet, then keep the super ivy dry on hand for any recurrances.

are you sure its hot spots? Could be flea alergies or demodectic mange. A trip to the vet for a skin scrape is important now since it seems to be so large.