Taking the Cure...
Click on photo to enlarge
Madcapmum (Maison Madcap blog) sent us an e-mail with two links to veterinary websites that recommended wetting the skunked dog down with water and then spraying him with a solution of 1 quart hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda, and a teaspoon of liquid soap or shampoo (we used Doctor Bronner's Pure Castile Hemp Eucalyptus Soap). So before running out and buying 4 or 5 gallons of tomato juice for a bath in the long accepted folk remedy tradition, we tried this newer method with supplies we had on hand. I can still detect a very slight skunky odor to Dallas but it's at least 99% improved. We're going to take him for a walk now, and a swim in the lake, but we'll need to stop by the store and pick up some more hydrogen peroxide because now Peggy and I smell skunky! I guess that means we get to take a bath together tonight!
;~)
SKUNKED UPDATE -7:30 P.M.
Well, after Dallas dried off and swam in the lake, I regret to inform you that 99% improved has now been reduced to 50% improved. Dallas is a big and extremely hairy dog thus I suspect we need a gallon of solution instead of a quart, so maybe we'll try that tomorrow, and if that doesn't do it, maybe I'll buy a bike trailer full of tomato juice and see what that can do!
You'd think that after 40 years of living in mountains with dogs I'd have more experience with this sort of thing, but oddly enough this is the first time any of my dogs has ever been sprayed by a skunk.
posted by Jim at 12:10 PM
10 Comments:
Should have known madcap would be uptodate. I'll hang on to thaat one. We're not exactly rural but we see raccoons which means a skunk might wander through the yard someday.
We smell them all the time within a couple of miles of the city limits.
I'm so glad it worked! We don't have pets, but the kids would like a dog someday, so I'll have to file that one against the inevitable day...
enjoy your bath... ;)
So, what's the word this morning?
you could always shave him. but he might give you the stink eye until his fur grows back. ( er..no pun intended)
You might not have been reading me back when I got skunked. Gosh, I don't even remember now when that was, probably fall a year removed. Anyway, the old H2O2 plus baking soda does work, as I can attest. He may just need a whole bath in it like I got (grin).
Dallas update...
He still stinks!
Poor Lonesome Outside Dallas...
More baths in the offing.
I had good luck with my black lab and the peroxide based solution (maybe the formula was slightly different than yours). She loves skunks and got skunked at least 4 times in a year. Eeek. The tomato juice never seemed to work.
If I'm remembering my chemistry correctly, the stink is sulfur based and the oxygen oxidizes it. I left my clothes just outside on the clothesline and the sun and air seemed to do it for them. A big harry dog like that though is quite a more challenging subject than me standing naked in the bathtub with my husband rubbing me all over with h2o2 + baking soda, then washing myself in a nice hot tub!
enter him in the "stinky dog contest"!
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