Warning: this post has nothing to do with food!
Most days I love life in the country. One day last week though I was longing for the city. Today I am posting about something most of you will never need, in fact you probably really don’t want this information. But I want to remember this information, so what better way to remember where the information is then to put it on my blog. But even if you do not need this information I am sure you will get a good laugh out of my story.
We woke up one night last week to our dog barking, more like yelping, quite loudly and wildly. A few minutes later we smelled a skunk. Well, that explained what he was mad at. But we went back to sleep forgetting about it.
Fast forward a few hours. I was awake, but still laying in bed and smelling the skunk smell wondering why, when my daughter came running in to the room yelling, ” Mom, Roy (our german shep) has a skunk in his mouth and daddy is chasing him around the yard trying to get it away.”
I jumped out of bed to see if my husband needed help, really hoping that he didn’t! Well, he did get the skunk away from the dog, but what a mess. It turns out that Roy killed the skunk, but not before all three dogs had been sprayed. And from the smell of the inside of our house I assume lots of things outside got sprayed. The entire house smelled horrible. And to make matters worse not only had our dog killed the skunk all the dogs decided to play with the skunk, so skunk hair was all over the yard.
If you have never had this happen at your house, which I am assuming you have not, it is not pleasant. Not only did the inside of our house smell and the dogs smell, so did the dog house, the front porch, and the door mat on the front porch. All we could smell was skunk.
At this point I was wondering what in the world I was going to do. I knew I had to take care of the dog smell, but I was also wondering how I to get the smell out of my house. I searched the internet and found a few things for both problems, but then I remembered a friend telling me about a solution you could make to use on animals that had been sprayed. I found the information and decided to give it a try. This is the information she gave me.
Mix together:
1 quart hydrogen peroxide
1/4 c baking soda
1 tsp liquid laundry soap or dish washing detergent
The first two ingredients from an alkaline peroxide that chemically changes the skunk essence into an odorless chemical. The soap breaks down the oily skunk essence an makes it more susceptible to the other chemicals.Chemicals in this formula are harmless and can be used on people, clothing and pets. Use immediately after mixing; do not store (it will expand and can burst a closed container.)
I made some of this up and put it in a spray bottle. I was careful as it was bubbly and I did not want it to explode. I sprayed the dogs down, hosed them off, and sprayed them down again. This worked really well. I could not believe how well. We have had dogs sprayed in the past and used tomato juice and also tried something called skunk off. I think this was easier than those things and worked as well if not better. It was not a fun job, the dogs were not at all pleased about being cleaned. It was also time consuming, but worth it. They smelled much better.
We moved the dog house away from the house and the smell got better. We also threw out the door mat. I decided it was not worth trying to save.
But my house was still awful smelling. I called my mom to tell her/complain about my day. I knew she would sympathize/laugh at me since she has spent most of her life living in the country.
Well, she had a great tip that an older lady told her years ago. Vinegar, good old vinegar. It can fix almost anything can’t it. She told me to place vinegar in small bowls around the house and it would absorb the smell. I was not sure this would work, but I was willing to try. And do you know what it worked. Now I am assuming it absorbed the smell, but it could be that the vinegar smell over powered the skunk smell. Either way vinegar smells better then skunk. But by the next day when I tossed out the bowls of vinegar you could not smell either the skunk or the vinegar so I think this trick really worked
So now you know what works for me in getting rid of skunk smell.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I live out in the country too and we had this happen about a year ago. We had a skunk on our front porch that ended up leaving on his own. He evidently didn’t like us staring at him, so he came back that night and sprayed our poor cat along with the side of the house. I was woken up at 3 a.m. with the entire house smelling like skunk! It was AWFUL!
The only thing that took any of the smell away was to mix coffee grounds with some cinnamon, spread on a baking sheet, and bake for 2-3min at 250 degrees. After that turn the oven off and open the oven door. It will somewhat over power the skunk smell and neutralize the air some.
I feel your pain! The things us country folk have to deal with! LOL. Love your blog!!
Ugh! I can’t even imagine having to do that.
We have a lot of skunks in the area, but thankfully I’ve never seen them come close to the house. I usually see them on the road.
Oh, I am so sorry !
When I was a teenager, our german shepard got sprayed by a skunk and it was awful too…he also inhaled so much of the skunk juice that he was very sick for a few days…skunks smell really bad to us humans, but oh, those poor dogs, what they must have smelled when the skunk sprayed them !!!
Hope you can get all that smell out of your home too LOL
Oh my. That sounds worse than when we had a skunk in our engine compartment. We took him to church! I’ll have to remember this next time.
Oh my, not fun. Never had to deal with that but I know placing charcoal in a plate or pan and letting it sit in a room, or car, will take out the odor of smoking. Wonder if that would work like the vinegar?
Susan
Great post. We don’t have a dog, but do we seem to have alot of skunks in our neck of the woods. The up side is they are great ratters. The down side is they foul the air frequently, and sometimes it seems to linger in the house. I am going to try the vinegar bowls trick next time I cannot smell anything but skunk!
I beg to differ on the point that this post has nothing to do with food. Who really wants to cook in a kitchen that reeks of skunk? Great story!
We live in the suburbs, and at one time, a skunk took up residence in the empty land behind our house. So we’d get up in the AM and smell skunk. Now, he never did get in the house or anything like that.
Whew…what an adventure…and it wasn’t even in the kitchen!
I'm so sorry this happened to you,but I'm incredibly grateful for the info. I had a skunk die in our back yard(which my dog played with) & just recently ran over the remains with the lawn mower!! I needed to know how to get the smell off me,the dog,lawnmower & house. I'll try this. Thanks so much!
A lady I know uses a shampoo called dogosuds made by a company dinovite it is a all natural essential oils and keeps the coat really shiny, but anyway her dog was a bit to nosy and got sprayed big time and she used the shampoo and it took all the odor away, so if it got rid of the odor on the dog you could probably use it on clothes and as a body wash as well. I found the link if anyone wants to take a look.
http://www.dinovite.com/index.php/shampoos
while i was checking it out also found other pet products that pet owners might be interested in.
My dog got sprayed 4 times in one week. Still, we never caught the skunk! I used all kinds of recipes I found on the internet but the fourth time, I was just so sick of mixing up the stuff so I grabbed the dog shampoo and bathed her. It worked GREAT! It was Dogosuds shampoo. It was the peppermint tea tree variety. And, one wash and the four nights of spray smell was gone! So, I used it on my hands too (because now I smelled a bit sknky too) and it worked on me too. Didn't use it on the house, but I'd bet you could use it in a bucket of water with a mop.
Our two dogs got skunked last night. I immediately bathed them in tea tree oil dog shampoo and they are fine. The house still smells awful, however, so I am going to try the vinegar idea!
Hi, Lynn. We had a deranged (probably rabid) skunk show up this morning. I had no choice but to shoot her. I quickly got her removed from the yard, but the smell was unbearable. It quickly began to stink up the house. I got on Google and found your skunk smell remover concoction. I saturated the ground where the shunk expired, and the results were amazing. The smell began to dissipate immediately and within a few minutes, the smell was all but gone.
Thanks for your help.
my dogs have been sparayed 3 times in the last week every time we go to my inlaws they seem to find a skunk. we make them swim in the ocean first which seems to eliminate some of the odor (the ocean is across from the driveway i wouldnt put them in my car lol) then we bath them in baking soda, berry dog shampoo and vinegear and it seems to take away all the smell. i also was sprayed a few years ago and the only thing that worked on me was the salt water the good old ocean lol
Thanks ever so much for putting this on your website!!! My daughter just called me…it’s 1:30 in the morning and her dog just got into a tangle with a skunk…now he smells horrible and their entire house smells!
Really appreciate the info!! Thanks again!
Jeanne
JeanneP´s last blog ..It’s LadyBug’s Turn!!
It”s 4:48 AM and I have just completed my first round of clean up using the baking soda/peroxide/dish detergent. The dog was not to happy as it was cold outside but she stood and took it, once I poured the fist bit of the mixture down her back you could tell it was working. WOW!!!! what a relief. I have sprayed down the garage and dog bed and although I still have some linger, it is no where near as bad as it was. Getting ready to try the coffee ground/cinnamon bake. Hopefully that will take care of the house, live near a coffee plant love that smell in the air. Now to just sit a few minutes and enjoy a cup of coffee I so richly deserve right now…What a night…thanks for the help….
thanks for posting. I will try both the peroxide and vinegar solutions to rid my house of cigarette smell from our contractor. It is unbelievable or maybe I’m just super sensitive these days. My sister called someone who used burnt coffee grounds for skunk smell in the house and it worked.