My dog got skunked tonight

del44

Well actually it's my daughters dog (she's at work). Now my whole house reaks. Inside and out. She's a cocker spaniel. Hate that long hair. Looks like no sleep for me tonight. Go figure, my wife is in Cleveland for her mothers heart surgery. Wow, looks like I'm not a very good babysitter. I tried a Hygrogen Peroxide, baking soda, dish soap solution. I don't really know if it's working because my sense of smell is shot. She's an inside dog so I'll have to keep her in the bathroom tonight.

txcoastal1

Tomato juice but I have never been there done that....maybe with a little white vinegar

It's better that your wife is not there...maybe fluffy will smell better when she comes back

schwarcw

Here are some helpful tips on how to remove skunk smell from dog.
1.Act quickly! Once the skunk spray dries, the harder it will be to remove the odor. A skunked dog can smell for weeks, until the oils wear off naturally. Some long-haired dogs can retain the odor for years, smelling every time they get wet.


2.Put on old clothes and gloves. Since skunk spray is an oil, it is difficult to remove from clothing.


3.Wash him outside, if possible. Otherwise your entire house will smell. Keep your pooch away from his crate or bed until you've dealt with the odor.



4.Check the eyes. Dogs usually approach skunks face first, which means they usually take a direct hit in the eyes. Skunk spray is irritating to the eyes. Your dog's eyes may become red or watery. It won't make him blind, but it is very painful. Flush his eyes with an over-the-counter human eye wash or saline solution. Tap water is ok, but saline solution is more soothing.



5.Neutralize the spray. Mix 2 pints hydrogen peroxide, ? cup baking soda, and two teaspoons of dishwashing liquid. You may need to repeat the peroxide bath several times before the stench subsides. Don't let him dry off. Just rinse thoroughly, then wash and repeat. (This solution will fizz up, so don't keep in a tight container because it may explode.)


6.Tomato Juice. You will need more than a couple cans. First, wash him with his regular shampoo and rinse him well. Then saturate his coat with tomato juice. Let it soak in for 20 minutes. Rinse him well and shampoo again. Repeat the process until the smell subsides. However, if your dog has a light colored coat, tomato juice can stain it pink.


7.Massengill. This over-the-counter **** will remove skunk smell from dog. For small to medium pets, mix 2 ounces of Massengill with 1 gallon of water. For large dogs, double the amount of Massengill and water. Pour the mixture over your dog. Let it soak for 15 minutes. Then wash him with his regular shampoo and rinse thoroughly.


8.Club Soda. Use at room temperature. Apply the soda to your dog's coat. Let it soak in. Then wash him with his regular shampoo.


9.DeSkunking Product. Once you've bathed your pet, use a deskunking product like Skunk-Off. It should stop the odor quickly and permanently. It is also safe, nontoxic, and nonirritating.


10.Vanilla. Mask the smell by mixing 1 ? cup of vanilla extract mixed in a gallon of water. Let it soak in for 10 minutes. Then wash him with his regular shampoo. The vanilla won't eliminate the skunk smell, but it will make him less smelly.


Good luck! Peeeeyewwwww!

Outfitter03

Now you just need to get rid of the skunk. Live animal traps will work well. Just use an old towel to cover it over and bait with tuna fish or some marshmallows with a little honey on them. They will crawl in and generally will be well behaved if you talk nicely to them while they take a trip to a friendlier locale.

stuwee

Outfitter03 wrote: »

Now you just need to get rid of the skunk. Live animal traps will work well. Just use an old towel to cover it over and bait with tuna fish or some marshmallows with a little honey on them. They will crawl in and generally will be well behaved if you talk nicely to them while they take a trip to a friendlier locale.

Use caution tho, skunks are second to raccoons for carrying rabies. Good Luck! As mentioned above, time is the key factor, and put down an old bedsheet and old towels in the bathroom, poor thing doesn't know it did something wrong and is all shut in the bathroom :frown:. I'm afraid you'll be up all night with this issue, make the best of it.

nooshinjohn

Oh man... that stinks!

seeclear

We have used either tomato juice or massengill, I don't recall which worked better, as it has been a while since we had this happen. The tomato juice turned our white dog (samoyed/ lab mix) pink. Man, did she look funny!

gdb

Shave that **** ! (I've always wanted the opportunity to say that:eek:) Seriously though, if you've got a Petsmart or some other pet parlor around, I'd hand the dog over to them for whatever they deem advisable.

HTguru1982

Might have to call a professional. Skunk smell is very hard to get rid of. If your dog has been able to roam freely around the house then that crap will be everywhere. Might be easier to fork over a hundred dollars to have a cleaning company come in and take care of the smell. As for your dog, the advice that's already been given is sufficient for now. Only thing that I'll is toothpaste - great for odor removal. It will still be best to hand him over to a groomer as soon as you can.

JimAckley

That has to smell like crap! I'm so grateful it's only possums that come into my yard (and don't make it out )

Upstatemax

Be very careful, once the skunk smell is around your house skunks like to flock to it...

I've been sprayed while I was cycling and over the next two days there were skunks all over my neighborhood...

I'll just say that I was not very popular for those few days.

As for getting rid of the smell, good luck! I had to throw away the tires, grips, barends, cables, shoes, helmet, socks, jersey, pullover and pants...

The smell just would not wash out. :frown:

Thank god it was a cold fall morning and I was cycling bundled up so the spray did not really get on ME, just my cloths.

However, I was MUCH closer to my girlfriends house than my own home when I was sprayed... So I ended up standing on her porch wearing only my cycling shorts, banging on her door so I could get in a shower. Her roommates were not impressed and they got a good laugh out of me for a long, long time.

inspiredsports

The first time I opened the door this spring, I learned that some time last winter a skunk sprayed an extra lawn tractor that I park in our garden shed, where I also keep our golf cart, rototiller and some gardening tools.

I'm not sure exactly where the tractor was hit, but I've washed it off several times with soap and water and there is still a faint odor after 5 or 6 months. The other items are fine and seem to have missed the spray.

I'm glad this is an extra and not my main lawn mower, but I sure would like to know what to do to eliminate the odor.

jgido759

When my dog was "skunked" a few years back, I went on-line and found some info on getting the smell out of the house. Basically, I was told to get apple cider vinegar, put it in sauce pans on your stove, close ALL open ventillation in the house (windows, doors, exhaust vents, etc.) and boil the vinegar on the stove for a few hours with the house closed up.

When I returned to the house and opened the door I was almost knocked on my @ss between the heat & the vinegar smell. Once I opened the doors & windows and let the house cool and breathe for a while, the smell was gone.

YMMV

pitdogg2

5.Neutralize the spray. Mix 2 pints hydrogen peroxide, ? cup baking soda, and two teaspoons of dishwashing liquid. You may need to repeat the peroxide bath several times before the stench subsides. Don't let him dry off. Just rinse thoroughly, then wash and repeat. (This solution will fizz up, so don't keep in a tight container because it may explode.)

this above works well. I've had many coon hounds get skunked and used many different things. Tomato juice FORGET it wasting your money. I just hope your not using your AC or Heating cause once it gets into that you've got it for awhile. The Apple cider vinager works well.
If she was mine she would of been in the garage (unattached of course)

Recipe #1
A formula for neutralizing skunk spray developed by Illinois chemist Paul Krebaum:
1 quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide,
1/4 cup of baking soda
1 teaspoon of liquid soap.

Apply it to the sprayed areas, then wash off with tap water. The solution must be mixed as needed; it can't be contained in a bottle.

Recipe #2
1 pint hydrogen peroxide
2/3 cup baking soda
1 tablespoon liquid soap, preferably citrus based

Mix this up at the time of use (will not work if not "right now fresh"). Sponge on dog. Let sit two to five minutes then rinse with plain water. If a second dose is needed mix a new batch from scratch. The mix reacts with the mercaptans (smelly chemicals in the skunk spray) and oxidizes them. If the mix is not fresh, the reaction will not work.

A little background on the hydrogen peroxide mix: This formula was submitted by William Radtke, who says, "My business partner (of a consulting firm which trained public safety personnel on chemical and biological agents a.k.a. terrorism) is a synthetic chemist and was a chemical weapons officer in the U.S. Army Rangers. The mix described was developed to remove mercaptans employed in industry and as military weapons. 'If ya can't see 'em coming, at least you can smell 'em.' "

Tomato juice, Masengill and Selsun Blue work because they tend to cut the oil base of the skunk spray but they do not really "kill" the odor. They just strip off the bulk of it. Skunk oil is meant to be persistent. A lasting memory of your encounter with the stripped kitty. Once it gets a grip just washing away the oil does not remove the smell, just reduces it.

Clothing can also be washed in the mix to remove the "perfume."

del44

Washed her up last night with the hydrogen peroxide baking soda dish soap solution. Did this 2 times. Put her in the garage over night. This morning I let her in the house. She didn't smell too bad. I would have kept her in the garage but the weather is so hot, and the garage is like an oven in the daytime. Her face is the worse, but I didn't want to get the solution in her eyes and nose. We'll just have to put up with a little smell for awhile. Couldn't find the skunk.
But I'll be keeping an eye out for it. I have a fenced in yard so I don't know how it got in. Our dogs are family to us, so if I happen to see the little stinker in the yard it will be delt with. This isn't the first time I've had a dog get sprayed but hopefully the last.

gudnoyez

Take your cocker to the dog salon and get it shaved, reason being you can use the heat as an excuse, so your wife wont know. We had two Cockers and would shave them in the summer so they could tolerate the heat. The suggestions everyone gave were good ones.

mrbigbluelight

^^^ good advice, IMO.

Your dog's an inside dog, so getting rid of the fur isn't going to cause any problems like it would for an outside dog.

Good luck !

Outfitter03

If you don't have a trap, this is a good option.

http://www.wildlifecontrolsupplies.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=WDC001&Product_Code=WWCSRCSKNKTRP&Category_Code=WDCC005

If you shoot the skunk, even in the head there is about a 80% chance it will spray a lot. This trap makes it easy to transport and release without fear of rabies. If the skunk is handled gently they will not spray. Just as a rattlesnake preserves it's venom, a skunk usually does not use spray unless threatened. I don't know what that lawn tractor did to threaten the skunk though?:eek:

gdb

Deer mice make a home in the fan shrouds of my garden tractors every winter, maybe that's what angered Mr. Skunk about the lawn tractor and provoked a spray job.

rebuy

gudnoyez wrote: »

Take your cocker to the dog salon and get it shaved, reason being you can use the heat as an excuse, so your wife wont know. We had two Cockers and would shave them in the summer so they could tolerate the heat. The suggestions everyone gave were good ones.

Kinda like AC :biggrin: