Pets and Skunk Stink

I'm sure some of you have had this problem before.

What do you do to get rid of skunk spay smell on your pet and in your camper??

this past weekend our dog, BoBo, had a close encounter of the skunk kind. Needless to say the skunk won. We washed her immediately, but there is still a distint skunk odor to her especially when she gets wet.

We tried rubbing tomato juice on her and leaving it for 15 minutes, but it has not seemed to help.

Any other suggestions?? And what about the camper. She came inside before we realized what had happened. I can't rub tomato juice on the carpetl Any suggestions there?

Thanks,

Keith, Carol and a very smelly BoBo.

It's really not necessary to burn your clothes if they get "skunked," or sprayed with the horrific smelling chemicals a skunk uses as self-defense. If you have hydrogen peroxide, baking soda (not powder), and dish soap handy, you can mix up a bath that neutralizes the smell. An easy to remember recipe of one pint of hydrogen peroxide, one small box of baking soda, and a couple of squirts of any dish washing liquid mixed in a gallon of water makes an effective, scientifically based antidote. Those ingredients, in their separate packages, are easy to store in a plastic bucket with camping equipment or on the back porch to be handy when they're needed. The recipe must be mixed up and used quickly; it loses its effectiveness within about an hour, and it will explode if it's kept in a covered container. CAUTION: hydrogen peroxide can blind your pet if it gets into their eyes.

All these ingredients are safe to use around pets, animals or humans; the "explosive" effect when the mixed solution is covered comes from a release of oxygen. There is the possibility that it will bleach what it touches through oxidation, so it might turn a black dog brown or grey until the natural color of hair grows back out.


Work the solution into the dogs coat thoroughly, let it sit about five minutes, then rinse it out. The skunk smell will be gone!

The solution also works as an effective rinse for clothing.

Tomato juice, the stand-by of folklore, doesn't work. Because it does have some oil in it, it might break up the structure of the sulfur-based make-up of the skunk spray and make it easier to wash out. It's gotten a reputation for killing skunk odor because, after the sulfuric compound in skunk spray has assaulted human noses and created olfactory fatigue, the pungency of tomato can be detected as "stronger" than skunk. So, it doesn't kill the odor, but it does make it less noticeable.

Chlorine bleach also oxidizes, and therefore, neutralizes, skunk odor, and is satisfactory to use on wood, cars, clothing, bricks and other surfaces where a permanent color change would not be a problem.None

We live in farm country and our dogs, on occasion have met up with a skunk. Our local veterinarian recommended the solutution described by Rockerga. We keep the ingredients on hand and we have found that it does work.

Bad dog, BoBo!

I hope BoBo likes being a "Bleach Blond"...

boat to 5er said:

I hope BoBo likes being a "Bleach Blond"...

Click to expand...

Good one!!
That formula is also the same used by my golden retriever rescue group.

However, I hope never to put it to the test!