I find that I’m often encountering the assertion that tomato juice is not a particularly effective skunk-spray neutralizer. Is this so? How did tomato juice receive its possibly unearned reputation? An old wives’ tale about how skunks shun tomatoes because they deprive them of their greatest defensive tool? An old wives’ tale about how skunks eat tomatoes all the time so they can stand living in their own skin (pelt)?
An inspired marketing ploy on behalf of Big Tomato Juice?
Ha, and people laughed at my skunk centered post apocalyptic defense strategy.
Tomato Juice does not work. Like said above shave the dog, if you can talk a groomer into it. My dog that got sprayed was a Sheltie. Lots of hair. My groomer buzzed him to the skin. Outside at her shop. She didn’t want that smell in there. She gave me the strongest shampoo she had. Did absolutely nothing to the odor. I bought Selsin Blue dandruff shampoo. Worked a bit. Next I got some conditioner that smelled strong. As I said above the smell lingered for weeks. It was bad.
For dogs, the best thing is hydrogen peroxide mixed with baking soda and immediately poured over the dog (ie as it reacting). Then follow with dog shampoo. This really does work better than anything else. My dogs have been skunked many and many a time.
My old Aussie got it in the face once, so close she had globs of yellow in her fur and she was retching. I washed her oh five or six times in the peroxide bath. EIGHT YEARS later, if she got wet she smelled skunky.
Not a big fan of skunks.
When my 120-pound thick-furred Bernese Mountain Dog got thoroughly skunked, I had good success with a commercial product from PetSmart. It was years ago but from my recollection that it had “Nature” in the name and doing some Googling, I’m pretty sure it was Nature’s Miracle brand skunk odor remover, which they still carry. A washing with that followed by regular dog shampoo pretty much did the job – can’t remember if I may have done it twice or not. At the end of it there was only a very faint trace of odor which disappeared completely in a week or two.
That skunky smell that basically hangs around skunks isn’t too bad. High quality cannabis can have the same smell. However, when a skunk sprays the stench is much, much more worse and not pleasant at all.
Yeah. Water should not be the first thing you put on a skunked dog, unless you are just getting it damp before the peroxide mix goes on.
I’m with you guys, don’t know why either really.
Other than some of my very early memories involving people complaining when they smelled it while driving down the road and explaining to me what a skunk is. Then identifying it later when camping.
Plus they are kind of badasses, like most of the weasel family.
Thank you God, I’ve developed a cold!
Tomato juice does work. Here’s what you do:
[ul]
[li]Get a large bottle of tomato juice.[/li][li]Get an equally large bottle of vodka.[/li][li]Mix together. Add some Worcestershire sauce, freshly grated horseradish, a splash of hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper to taste.[/li][li]Enjoy. Forget about skunk.[/li][/ul]
mmm
Let’s hear it for living in the concrete canyons of the inner city where roaches and rats are your only foe!
Wow, you are obviously a lucky person who has never had a skunk spray near their house. Closing the windows stops skunk smell from entering the house in the same way that closing the gate on your picket fence stops a tsunami from entering your yard.