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De-skunking a dog

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27 Oct 2009

Last night around 2am my dog was sprayed by a skunk. Again.

She’s a ten pound mini rat terrier, but she seems to think it’s a good idea to go after an animal that’s not only bigger than her, but has some pretty serious defenses. At least cleanup this time was faster, since I know what I’m doing now.

Skunk spray is a yellow, sticky oil. If you have a light colored dog, you’ll be able to see exactly where it sprayed. If your dog has long fur, you might find it easier to just cut it back so you have less to clean.

Mix equal parts baking soda, peroxide, and liquid dishwasher detergent in a bowl. Don’t worry about exact measurements, just dump about the same amount of each into your bowl. With your hands, scrub the mixture into your dog’s fur where the spray is at. Rinse it, and repeat. And repeat, and repeat, until you can’t smell the spray any more.

Don’t let your dog touch any fabrics you care about. The spray transfers easily from the fur to fabrics and is nearly impossible to get out. The shirt I was wearing the first time I cleaned up my dog had to be thrown away despite a dozen washings and scrubbings with the baking soda mixture. No matter what I did there was still a faint scent of skunk.

goblinbox
December 2, 2009 3:35 PM

My redneck Iowa friends swear by tomato juice as a skunk spray-removing dog bath. Terriers are awesome. Stinky, but awesome!

pat g
June 26, 2010 4:51 AM

Great post, my Springer spaniel has a skunk death wish and have tried most things and have tried a similar concoction as well as the tomato juice mentioned in Goblinbox's comment. He once got skunked on vacation in the middle of the night (as usual, skunks being mainly nocturnal) and all i had was vinegar...heard it worked well at neutralizing the alkaline skunk gunk...well it worked pretty well but not as nice smelling as tomatoes juice. Cheers p

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