The dog and I are sleeping in the basement...

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MauleSkinner

Touchdown! Greaser!
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MauleSkinner
Just before bedtime, when the dog was out for her evening potty, she tangled with a skunk. :( We (and by "we", I mean my wife and daughter) got most of the smell cleaned off her, but unfortunately it happened just outside our bedroom window, shortly after my wife opened it for the evening.

UGH!

Funny part (to me, anyway) is that both my wife and daughter came into the living room wondering what was burning...neither of them had smelled skunk up close and personal before.

Me, I'm just not gonna stink up my side of the bed. ;)
 
I actually get along pretty well with skunks. I used to have one living under the porch who would stop to sit on the porch with me for a while when she made her evening rounds. Occasionally I'd feed her bits of meat, which she was always gentle about taking from my hand. She hasn't been around for a while. Either she's moved on or become road kill.

I also have a fox who thinks he's a dog, a weasel, and numerous chipmunks who stop by to say hello.

Jerome the Dog also stops by when he's around. He's a scary-looking dog if you don't know how to read their body language, but he has a heart of gold. He's a funny dog in that he immediately becomes loyal and obedient to any human who welcomes him into their life. But he's intimidating to anyone except people who understand animal body language, or babies. Babies immediately sense that he's friendly. It must be a pheromone thing.

jerome.jpg

It might be a pheromone thing with me, too. I've always been able to size up animals well (and vice-versa). I have a lot of amusing stories about my interactions with animals over the years.

Which reminds me... I need to make an appointment for a rabies booster once things are back to normal in the primary care world. Being well-liked by wild animals does have its risks. Any of the wild carnivores are risky.

Rich
 
Small box of baking soda, fresh qt of hydrogen peroxide (room temp or warm it up in a sink of warm water, and a squirt or three of Dawn. Mix that together and scrub it all over the dog (in my case it was a cat). Avoid getting it in eyes and ears. Soak for 10 minutes if possible, then rinse with warm water.
 
I used to bullseye those rotten creatures with a slingshot I bought in Guatemala on my way home in SoCal. It was fun, they don't like the smell themselves, so they'll do anything to avoid spraying it. In the meantime I could stand off at a safe distance.
 
Matthew said:
Small box of baking soda, fresh qt of hydrogen peroxide (room temp or warm it up in a sink of warm water, and a squirt or three of Dawn. Mix that together and scrub it all over the dog (in my case it was a cat). Avoid getting it in eyes and ears. Soak for 10 minutes if possible, then rinse with warm water.
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Yup...unfortunately Dillon’s closes promptly at 11, so we had to make do with a short batch. Headed out for more hydrogen peroxide shortly.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Yup...unfortunately Dillon’s closes promptly at 11, so we had to make do with a short batch. Headed out for more hydrogen peroxide shortly.
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Our cat was outside after dark and our backyard neighbors had their fire pit going. The cat wanted back inside, so my wife let her in. It then jumped into my lap and looked at me with sad eyes. My wife said, "Smoke from the fire pit must have gotten into the house." A second later I said, "That isn't smoke."

I checked a few ideas online and found the hydrogen peroxide/baking soda trick. The next morning I called our vet and they said, "Go online and check out the hydrogen peroxide/baking soda trick."

It does work. The funny thing is that the cat must have known it was going to help because it sat still during its bath.
 
steingar said:
I used to bullseye those rotten creatures with a slingshot I bought in Guatemala on my way home in SoCal. It was fun, they don't like the smell themselves, so they'll do anything to avoid spraying it. In the meantime I could stand off at a safe distance.
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The adults, at least, do hate to spray and will give multiple warnings before doing so. They may snarl, arch their backs, stamp their feet, or all three. Once they lift their asses up in the air, though, it's all over.

The youngsters are less predictable. I give them a much wider berth.

Rich
 
20 years ago....I was taking my girlfriend home on my GL1000, and about a mile from her house, we surprised a momma skunk and her babies walking along the country road. When we stopped at her house, it was all we could do to not puke....we took a direct hit. She hopped off and I headed home, which was about 20 miles. The interesting part was that by the time I got home, the smell was completely gone. I can only guess the wind evaporated the chemicals. i know this has no bearing on the story at hand, but if you ever get sprayed, it's a good excuse for a motorcycle ride.
 
Good to know about baking soda + peroxide. I always heard to use tomato juice.
 
CJones said:
Good to know about baking soda + peroxide. I always heard to use tomato juice.
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Remember to add a squirt of Dawn detergent.

I can’t remember how it all works: Dawn breaks down the skunk oil and acts as a surfactant to get the solution through the fur, H2O2 oxidizes something in the skunk oil, and the sodium bicarbonate neutralizes something else in the skunk oil.
 
Blue original Dawn dish soap, hydrogen peroxide and baking soda concoction rivals the best commercial deskunking products hands down. Been there...several times.

Other tip is to keep the dog outside until you are ready to get directly into bath. My pup got nailed point blank in the face once then got in the house...he then proceeded to rub his face (and the skunk oils) all over the floor, his bed and few other things. The lingering smell of the dog was the least of my problems!
 
When one of our labs got skunked pretty well in October, we tried everything, but found only the application of November, December, and January finally resolved the residua.
 
Shawn said:
Blue original Dawn dish soap, hydrogen peroxide and baking soda concoction rivals the best commercial deskunking products hands down.
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I've heard it's because if you bottle it, it'll explode.
 
My dad was a veterinarian. Once in a while a client would come into the clinic at WSU wanting their pet skunk deoderized. I'm surprised mom let him in the house when he came home after doing one of those. Yes, you can remove the scent glands. No, I wouldn't recommend it.
 
Jim K said:
20 years ago....I was taking my girlfriend home on my GL1000, and about a mile from her house, we surprised a momma skunk and her babies walking along the country road. When we stopped at her house, it was all we could do to not puke....we took a direct hit. She hopped off and I headed home, which was about 20 miles. The interesting part was that by the time I got home, the smell was completely gone. I can only guess the wind evaporated the chemicals. i know this has no bearing on the story at hand, but if you ever get sprayed, it's a good excuse for a motorcycle ride.
Click to expand...

Buddy and I were traveling north on US-83 between KBIS and KMOT late one dark night. I was leading on my K16GTL and he was on his Road King The skunk either never heard me coming or had very poor timing. That or it hated HDs... After we passed, I got on the Sena and asked him, "Did you see the skunk?" His answer? "SEE IT??? IT $#@%@^ SPRAYED ME!!" It was a couple weeks before his wife let him park the bike in their attached garage again.
 
My dad lived on five acres of forest in southern Oregon. He had an accommodation with the family of skunks that lived under his deck. They got cat food every day, and he got protection.
 
When I was a kid there was a momma skunk that every spring she would have her kits in the barn. She was Ok with us near her little ones but we never pushed the distance.
 
I slugged the feeder house on a combine with a skunk once cutting wheat. It was an old machine that didn't have a reverser unfortunately for me. Cleaning that out was a nasty job.
 
I worked on a neighbor's ranch in high school and college, and I remember the day the foreman ran a skunk, hiding in an alfalfa windrow, through the baler. Also a nasty clean-up job. I was fortunate to have been working somewhere else on the property when it happened, or else as low man on the totem pole, the cleanup might have fallen to me.
 
Matthew said:
Small box of baking soda, fresh qt of hydrogen peroxide (room temp or warm it up in a sink of warm water, and a squirt or three of Dawn. Mix that together and scrub it all over the dog (in my case it was a cat). Avoid getting it in eyes and ears. Soak for 10 minutes if possible, then rinse with warm water.
Click to expand...

My dog passed away at 16 years a few months ago:( She must have been sprayed at least a half dozen times over her entire life. We tried all the other remedies, and then my vet friend said they all fail and to just use a small amount of Dawn like you suggested, but with vinegar. It completely neutralized it.
 
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