I’ve lived out in some varying degrees of country for the last 18 years. Now, for the second time, I’ve had a dog sprayed by a skunk. It seems to have beena direct hit in the face. Fortunately, only 1 of my five dogs apparently bothered the skunk, but he dashed in the house smelling like burning rubber. After a bath adn being doused by 1/2 gal of peroxide/baking soda mix, the stench isn’t quite so eye-burning. Jake (a 95 lb doberman) was vomitting, but he seems to be able to see okay. Hopefully the smell will die down in a day or two. If it wasn’t so cold I’d make him sleep outdoors in the kennel, but I can’t quite kick him out.
Man, that sucks, sorry for your olfactory pain! Our border collie got skunked on a camping trip when I was a youngun and for the whole two weeks my dad would make us bury our noses in her fur as punishment for misbehavior. It was pretty wretched, but by the end of that trip I had completely lost my perception of skunk smell as nasty and it took until I was an adult for me to be disturbed by it. Nowadays I’m just as sensitive to it as most people are, however I’m totally unwilling to subject myself to the same treatment in order to get the immunity back.
Take a quarter glass full of tomato juice, fill it to the brim with vodka, drink it down and you’ll find the odor considerably less bothersome than before.
Buddy the Beagle got skunked a few years back. We tried everything, including the tomato juice bath. It didn’t help. He just ending up smelling like a skunk with a hint of basil.
I laughed when you hoped the smell would go away in a day or two. It takes like a month or two and will get worse when he’s wet. Seriously.
The baking soda/peroxide mix works because it chemically breaks down the sulfur containing compounds that give skunk spray their odor. Adding some dish soap also helps physically remove the offending chemicals. Unfortunately with all that dog fur surface area and the fact that you can smell the odorants in minute quantities, the chances of eliminating them altogether is slim.
There’s nothing in tomato juice that makes it more likely to either physically or chemically remove the stink.
A friend of mine ran over a skunk with her car, getting the spray on the underside in the process. She had the undercarriage professionally cleaned, but it still smelled for at least a month. She put a vanilla air freshener in the car. Then it smelled like cheap vanilla scented skunk. I preferred the skunk smell.
my wonderfully smart fox hound (think tall beagle), got sprayed 9 times in 7 years. Vinegar works, but won’t eliminate entirely. They always get hit in the face/shoulder area because they are chasing the skunk.
I had a dog skunked quite a few years ago. Gallons of tomato juice isn’t something I normally keep in the house, but I happened to be pickling then, and had a gallon or two of white vinegar hanging around. That did a great job of minimizing the stench to bearable.
My coworkers are saying I smell faintly skunky after having bathed him last night. The smell is on my hands a bit. Poor guy couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t give him a hug this morning.
My dog was blasted in the face as well, about a year ago. What I learned was:
The stink stuff is caustic. My dog had “burns” around his mouth which scabbed up over the next month or so. I believe it caused some permanent bleaching around his mouth, i.e. he has, at 3 years old, grey/white hair in the area. If I had it to do over I would take him to the vet. Not because he was sprayed but because he probably had burns in his mouth.
There are products that claim to take out the odor, most have alcohol. In any case, you can’t use it around eye or noses. Sure, if a skunk sprays your dog on the side or back, for some strange reason, those products might work. Even tomato juice can’t really be scrubbed in around eyes. What we did was wash his face every day with a washcloth soaked in tomato juice or soapy water.
Get used to the smell - after a month you stop noticing the smell every day. At 2 months it’s only noticeable when he gets the area wet. At 6 months you will occasionally go: “do I smell skunk?”
Do the dogs find it unpleasant? I mean, if there was a dog who got sprayed nine times, then I’m guessing it doesn’t work to prevent dogs from staying away from skunks?
In our case, about six months … or maybe my wife or I have a faint skunk smell? The main point here, I think, is that it gets into the dog’s mouth and his facial fur, areas that you just can’t wash easily.
The dog didn’t indicate to me he didn’t like it. He does like to roll in dead things from time to time, and likes a good whiff of feces as much as the next guy (dog). We’ve seen a skunk or two since but he hasn’t had a chance to go for it. My guess is he may have learned to approach all animals with more caution.
Hmmm, you must not be a fan of drinking coffee. Skunk & freshly brewed coffee smell just the same. Brew a pot of coffee and drink that – you won’t even notice what your dog smells like anymore.
A saluki breeder friend of mine swears by the commercial douche product Summer’s Eve. She says if you can get over the weird looks of buying out the entire stock at Wally World, it works quite well.
My genius Doberman, Natasha, got skunked five times in one season before she wised up. :rolleyes:
Had. She is dearly departed. I’ve had two of them. Her predecessor was a beautiful dog named Baron. I’ve just down-sized in the canine department since I’ve gotten older.
