I tried looking for a thread pertaining to this issue & I came across one under general discussions that didn't quite answer the question, so I'm hoping I am posting this under the correct column...

anywho, Rocky got sprayed by a skunk today :/ and it is the WORST!! I let him out when I got home from school while I put his food in his bowl, and when I opened the door I swear it smelled like our backyard got nuked by some horrid toxic chemical. Needless to say Rocky ran inside (luckily he didn't jump on any furniture or anything, just put his paws up on the counter) but our house smelled just terrible. I have never experienced this before in my life so I thought it was a gas leak or something dangerous that would affect Rocky so I put his harness on (that will now have to be thrown out ) and walked him around the neighborhood for an hour until my dad came home -- no joke I kept smelling the awful burnt-rubber/plastic-sulpher-spray paint smell during our walk & I thought someones house was on fire :/ not knowing that it was poor Rocko the whole time....Anyways here's what we've done so far in case it happens to anyone (hopefully not) or in case I'm missing any important steps to getting rid of the odor:

to get the smell out of the house:

like I mentioned before Rocky didn't run all over the place, just stayed in the kitchen so we put on of those big square fans between the open back door and the kitchen to circulate the air in the house better (skunk smell is gone from the yardthis point) Among other things I found online that Massengill Douche was one of the best odor removers and it has vinegar in it, which is apparently also good for removing skunk smell. I sprayed Febreeze extra odor remover around the house and put some scented oil on an oil burner lol so my house pretty much smells like a strong mix of green tea+lemon (oil) & Febreeze, the skunk smell is still faintly lingering but defintely not as strong

For Rocky:

I went to petsmart as soon as possible and they recemmended Nature's Miracle Skunk Odor Removal Shampoo, the skunk sprayed Rocky on his right hind leg so I just put the shampoo all over his right side and on his tail, and I made an appt. for the groomers first thing in the morning. The shampoo smells good and I'm assuming I got all the skunk part covered because it dominated the smell pretty well and made it a lot more faint. I didn't wash it off I just put it all over and am leaving it there to dry and soak in before the skunk oils get to his skin.

sorry this post is so long, If anyone has any extra ideas PLEASE chime in!!

We had a skunk situation the first summer we had the pups. They managed to corner a skunk in the backyard and both got sprayed (Demon right in the middle of his chest). Luckily we knew what had happened, so we were able to contain them in the kitchen. I ran up to the computer and looked up how to remove the odor from dogs then ran to the store and stocked up on tomato juice, baking soda and peroxide (didn't know about the vinegar). One solution was the tomato juice bath...the other was a mixture of dawn dish soap, baking soda and peroxide. Those dogs got more baths over a course of a few days... lol It took forever for the odor to totally dissipate from their fur (I imagine the skunk oil had penetrated the skin).

As for the house, we kept a lot of windows open, sprayed lysol and washed any fabric that had been exposed.

Now the dogs aren't allowed in the back yard unsupervised after dark...hopefully we won't have a second occurrence.

Hopefully Rocky will be odor free soon!

poor puppies It's the worst, I read about the tomato juice too, but I was afraid it might leave a red color to his coat, did you have that at first and then wash it off eventually or was there no red color at all?

I've never dealt with a skunk situation before thankfully, but I would imagine apple cider vinegar would work really good! One of our cats has a pissing problem and cat urine is HORRIBLE! It's so strong and just nasty! Anyway, I use apple cider vinegar and soapy water to take the smell out of anything, so I would imagine it would work well for skunk smell too.

There's a mixture you can make of baking soda, peroxide, and liquid dish soap that works REALLY well. Easy to google, and includes 'directions' (like don't get it in their eyes/ears/etc.). And best of all, you usually already have everything, and it's CHEAP.

Thanks everyone for the responses, I tried the peroxide mixture and put some regular white vinegar too last night, I just dropped him off at the groomers so i'm just hoping they can take the smell out. I don't even want to let him outside of the house ever again! I'll have to walk him from now on when he needs to use the bathroom, I'm just too paranoid....is there a number I can call that would be able to know if there is a nest of skunks in my neighborhood? this is the first time it's happened but about a month ago I saw a skunk down the street waddling away and my boyfriend claims to have seen skunks 20 times but he's sort of a negative nancy that likes to make matters worse, but if that is the case can I report it?

Demon did have a bit of a pink tinge to his chest after the tomato juice bath, but it went away fairly quickly with the subsequent baths.

As for reporting the skunks, I'm not sure. If it was during the day, then sure because there's the chance of rabies, but if it was nighttime (normal hours for skunks), I'm not sure there's anything that can be done. It can't hurt to call animal control and see what they say.

gladahmae wrote:

There's a mixture you can make of baking soda, peroxide, and liquid dish soap that works REALLY well. Easy to google, and includes 'directions' (like don't get it in their eyes/ears/etc.). And best of all, you usually already have everything, and it's CHEAP.

That is the one I use with super good results.

The tomato juice one not so good in my opinion.

Sorry to bump a thread that's over a year old but Juno was shot with a skunk early this morning... I heard her yaulp, I went out and looked but didn't see anything... Since I was rather tired, I did not notice the smell until the morning when something foul woke me up (odd I know).

I tried the vinegar, peroxide and dish soap. She's still wet but I can smell some on her still which sucks because I just paid for a bath yesterday.

1quart 3% hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 teaspoon strong dish soap

We used this mixture on my moms rott/lab/shep mix back in october or november when he got skunked. The site i read real quick said to rub it on the part of the dog that got sprayed and rinse out. But when i had got the solution from my boss before she said let it sit at least 15 minutes before rinseing. My brother washed him twice with the solution and literal just dumped it on him and rinsed him off, he was in a hurry because we have to wash our dogs outside and baby brother was bitching it was cold. My dister and i finally took the dog out and we doubled or triple (maybe more) the solution and ended up covering everything but his face did a bit past his ears but that was it. We let him sit for almost 20 minutes and rinsed him out then washed him down with an oatmeal shampoo to make sure we got any irratant off his skin and it worked good! The key is really scrubbing it in( we actually got to where we use a tire scrub brush on taz because he has some sort of allergy or something with his skin were he gets itchy scraths bites losses all the fur on his back tail and hind legs and he will bleed and scab over, the skin just gets thick scaley and nasty looking) and letting it sit. If that doesnt work i would say try the natures miracle orange stuff, my aunt used it on her dog a few years ago and it worked ok, the dog still smelled from getting the spray in the glands at the back of her throat so sable smelled for a few months after that especially when she got excited or upset. Good luck on any direction you take with the smell!

Oh and as for the soap i would use dawn extra strength or what not thats the best soap for fighting greas and oils and skunk spray is an oil so, but thats just my thoughts on it. Make sure you mix the solution in a bowl or bucket also is will supposedly fizz, ours did not but yours might, and you dont want it exploding open on you!

Here are some tips.

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/skunk.htm

Worked like a charm... She only slightly smells in the hard to clean areas because a husky with no collar is kind of hard to control when giving a bath! Every chance she got, she bolted.

We accidentally used an expired flea shampoo on my past dog nova and she swelled our vet told me to get an oatmeal bath soak and stand her in it just pouring the water over her. It took me and my sister to sit in the tub holding onto her for dear life and my dad to pour water on all of us and hold her collar, my aunt thought her tub was gonna fall through to the basement. And nova was only part husky, she definitely had the strength going for her! Glad it all worked out for you!