Skunks are cute when they’re wobbling around in the backyard, happily munching and minding their own business. Unfortunately, sometimes fido gets a little too close and the entire household has to pay for his mistake.
The thing is, a skunk doesn’t actually want to spray your pet (or you!). The spray is generated in a skunk’s anal glands and it’s not an unlimited amount, which means that once they’ve sprayed, they’re depleted of their natural defenses until their bodies are able to regenerate the spray again. This means they’re completely vulnerable to predators.
Normally, a skunk will provide a number of signs prior to spraying to defend itself. Their fur may appear to stand on end, this is to make them look “bigger and badder”, so to speak. They’ll raise their tails and give them a warning wave, stamp their feet, and even raise it’s rear end towards the perceived threat.
This is the point when dogs find themselves in deep trouble, as dogs greet one another by a mutual butt-sniffing session to get to know one another. When a skunk raises its tail, dogs may see that as an invitation for a friendly sniff only to be greeted with an eye and nose burning spray that they can’t get away from.
Removing Skunk Odor from Pets
Here is a tried and true recipe (don’t ask us how we know it works!) for removing Pepe Le Pew’s stench . . .
You’ll Need:
1 bottle hydrogen peroxide
1/2 bottle water about a cup or so
1/2 cup baking soda
2 teaspoon dog shampoo or Dawn Dish Detergent
Combine the hydrogen peroxide and water, then add the remaining ingredients. Pour into a squirt bottle/sprayer. We used a repurposed water bottle. Use the entire solution, do not get in your pet’s eyes or nose. Allow to set up to 10 minutes, working the solution into his fur with your fingers.
Rinse well.
This works like Magic! The peroxide and baking soda neutralize the odor while the soap removes the oils that hold the smell. Skunk smell cannot be removed or washed off using tomato juice, ammonia, or gasoline which only serves to mask the odor, rather than remove it.
DIY Skunk Odor Removal Paste
It is imperative that you never rinse your pet prior to applying a skunk odor remover. Water seals the skunk’s secretions into the hair follicle, causing your pet to smell for weeks (or even months!)
1 cup of Baking Soda
1 Tbs of Dawn Dish Detergent
Make a paste of baking soda and shampoo or dish soap. This mixture can be doubled or tripled as necessary. Apply this dry mixture liberally into the afflicted pet’s fur and allow it to sit for twenty to thirty minutes. Then rinse well with lukewarm water.
Removing Smells from Inanimate Objects
To remove skunk smells from patios, decks, or exterior siding, spray the area liberally with Plain white vinegar, let it sit a few minutes, then hose off with water.
If you have lingering odors inside, a few drops of wintergreen essential oil here and there will eliminate the odors rapidly, making them undetectable to people within a few hours.
this worked really really well for us, skunk funk is 100% sulphuric acid! We found out the hard way from our vet when our dog got second degree burns on her muzzle after being sprayed. Really gross and painful for her.
This was posted just in time, thank you!
thank you so much for sharing this, our dog got sprayed yesterday and we gave this a try. it really makes a difference! thank you thank you
will this work for black dogs? will it change their fur color?
i have used something very similar to this recipe in the past (twice) on two different dogs, two different incidents. (yes, one was a black dog and it was absolutely fine).
our recipe called for dish soap instead of dog shampoo, but otherwise the ingredients listed were the same.
two things that we were told by our vet later that may help you out:
one- use the freshest peroxide you can get your hands on. it breaks down over time to water, so it loses potency. hubby made mad dash trips to the closest all night grocery for both of our situations.
not fun when you live no where near a city!
two- add a douche. i know it sounds weird. but, the vet told us that each of the listed ingredients address a different element to the spray.
and, adding this was the final piece to the puzzle. (plain old one. no fancy floral scented needed 🙂
i had my two incidents before i knew this last piece, and it worked mostly fine. a lingering odor when they got wet from time to time, but mostly because it was sprayed on their faces and i was overly cautious about getting it in their eyes, ears or mouth. when it happens again, and i am sure it will, i will add the ‘feminine product’ to my recipe.
(my vet was embarrassed to say the words)
grapefruit juice works very well also:)
i had to deal with this a few times. i bathed the dog with orange juice or grapefruit juice, rinse, bathe with tomato juice, rinse, then usual shampoo. you want to use the cheapest generic juices you can find.
i had cans of them in the bottom cupboard that were to horrible to drink.
last week both my dogs where sprayed. i used this on them, before bathing them and there was no shunk smell left at all. thanks so much
this does die the hair on black animals! it die the hair on a black tabby cat to auburn roots! it took quite some time to grow out .
i have used this twice so far and it works immediately and completely. the first time my son and is girlfriend had just gotten home from a family wedding! we washed him in the driveway, in dress clothes, and the smell was gone after the first scrub!
all we had were empty ice cream buckets to haul water in and within 5 min he was smell free. The second time he got sprayed in the face! It is hard to wash their faces with this without hurting their eyes.
Hopefully he learned his lesson!
the old fashioned method of tomato juice works wonderful. have had to use it a time or two. just rubb it in good and it dooes not hurt their eyes, or dry out their skin, and the kids can have fun doing it with out harm to them as well
wish i had had this when our naughty skunk cornered our aussie.
my service dog has been sprayed 7 times, minding his own business 20 ft away from the skunks, INSIDE our fenced yard. this stuff is magic. i always use the dawn, however.
it cuts the grease that is part of the spray.
I wanted to let you know that this really works amazing. We recently spent time at the beach and our dog ran ahead a little ways and we could see him rolling on something, imagine my horror when we discovered he had rolled on a rotting dead Seal!!
The smell was rank and putrid and I bathed him in tomato juice which did nothing but stain his fur. Then my sister found this skunk recipe and we tried it.
It work magnificently. Thank you so very much!