Fragrant Black & White Kitties
It is summer time and that means that people are outside, exploring, hiking and adventuring. Have you or a four pawed friend ever been skunked? What was your clean up solution? Even if it didn’t get the odor out 100%, we want to hear your stories! There are tons of solutions out there, which ones have you tried?
Share your solutions and your stories for a chance to win a few goodies from the blog kitchen! I am sure Katy and I can create a few goodie boxes!
Skunk Spray remover: 1 qt hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda, 1 Tbl Dawn
Mix well in a lg container as it fizzes. Don’t cap or save it.
Don’t wet dog hair first – apply straight, working it into the fur. Let it sit a few minutes. Can re-do once.
Rinse well, then shampoo.
Thanks for sharing the recipe! I hope you have not had a first-person need to use it! Skunk smell is awful and I can only say that any recipe is worth trying to get rid of the smell.
I’m afraid that we will be skunked in the future, probably sooner than I would like.
Tina
You would think that being sprayed the first time would teach my dogs not to go near that black and white “kitty” in the middle of the night, but nooooooooooooooooooo! Nothing like a big skunky boxer jumping on the bed to tell you all about it. I get up, get in the shower with the big stink bomb, and shampoo until the hot water runs out. There is always a faint tang of skunkiness left, but in a few days it disappears.
Susan,
I had to laugh about the big stink bomb. Oh, that is such a fair and honest description of a dog that has been skunked! I’ve always enjoyed the long, luxurious shower that goes until the hot water runs out. 😉 In this case, I think it is a love/hate moment.
Thanks for sharing your story!
Tina
Living in the southern United States in Tennessee, we have skunks EVERYWHERE. People have them as pets here (seriously!) Anyways, when I was a kid we were always told to soak the dog in tomato juice but it dyed our collie’s white fur a weird color so I stopped doing that. Then in high school, another remedy I was told to use Massengill vinegar and water douche. You can’t imagine all the strange looks you get going to the drug store and buying several bottles of this for your stinky dog! We have always had large dogs so I had to buy several packages. ALWAYS embarrassing when you are a teenager! 😉 But now I use a very simple formula with simple ingredients that most people have in their house.
Wet the dog/cat down with water first. Then mix together the following:
1 quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 teaspoon liquid soap
Pour on your pet, avoiding his/her eyes. Let sit on the pet’s coat for around 5 minutes and rinse off. It works great! And you are sure not to be embarrassed 😉
Lyndi,
Another recipe along the lines of H2O2 that includes baking soda and liquid soap. Hmm. We might be on to the replacement of tomato juice as a home remedy. I have heard of the feminine hygiene products being used. We have a long standing joke that for some reason every cashier asks me very personal questions while I am in the check out. It never fails and is always bizarre and uncomfortable. Even when we shop as a whole company I get the weirdest questions! We have a challenge at MMS that I should head to the local store and buy out the shelf of feminine hygiene washes and see what the cashier has to say.
Thanks for sharing your story!
Tina
If Hydrogen Peroxide works for you great, but it is very drying! I have Old English Sheepdogs, so I avoid Peroxide and heaven forbid try tomato juice on them 🙁 Also, some people use Dawn, again after maybe 4 or 5 washings, you have stripped every bit of oil from their skin and coat, and spent hours in the process.
I make a great dog soap that is very moisturizing, little did I know it would be an equally great skunk smell removal too. Without giving out my formula, I can tell you that I use 40-50% lard and you can add whatever other oils you like. After one of my pups got sprayed, One washing got about 95% of the smell out. It is the oils in the soap that are able to break the tiny molecules in the skunk spray and remove the smell. Check oils that are intradermal, which means they penetrate the skin, which also penetrate the spray molecules.
If you have ever experienced skunk smell up and close, you well never forget it!
Terry,
Thanks so much for sharing your story! Old English Sheepdogs are beautiful. I think no matter the cleanser it is important to help the skin and coat return to normal with good conditioners. I think this is why the Poodle Poof works so well.
Tina, who will never forget the smell of a skunk
Yes, there are may remedies, but I have never found one that worked very well. We had not only a dog, but a human as well that both got skunked. And if you think the smell of a skunk from a distance is bad, it is NOTHING compared to up close and personal, lol! We tried the same treatment with the canine and the human (my grandson). We were up in the mountains and we didn’t have much to try, but we tried giving a bath in Tomato juice, yeah that didn’t work, it just made a huge mess in the tub. Then we tried white vinegar after that. Then it rinsed of the tomato juice, but it didn’t really help the smell that we could tell. Skunk Vinegar – oh it brings a whole new level of stink to the olfactories! We tried a milk bath and rubbing down the skin/fur with peppermint leaves (fresh). We decided that nothing would really help and that it would just take a while for the smell to go away. We burned the clothing and the place where they both got sprayed. The next day the smell was still as potent as ever, but I really felt badly for my grandson. Skunk up close makes your eyes water and you could tell he and the dog were both miserable. We were laughing and feeling bad at the same time. This would have been one of those times that an inability to smell would have been welcome! 🙂
Cindy,
Oh my goodness! That is a memory no one in your family will forget! I am both sorry to hear of your tale and thrilled you would share.
So far, our tallies say tomato juice is just a myth, a well spread myth, but still just a myth.
Tina