Double Dog Skunking

Photo by my four year old son

Morning plans slightly altered after Miss Trudy paraded into the house with a tell-tale stink lagging two seconds behind her darting body. I fished her out from under my bed, tethered her outside for a cleaning only to find Miss Moxie also played a part in the skunk debacle. In fact, she took more of the spray than Trudy did.

Skunk spray remedy applied (miraculous, really). Dogs de-skunked. The big upside is now we have two clean dogs. Dog wash was on my to do list but much lower. Not so bad to make it a priority.

Skunk Visitor

Early Monday evening, Eric and I caught sight of our dog Trudy barking madly in the yard with little rushes at something. Eric went outside & found the source of Trudy's consternation, a very young skunk. I ran out with the camera to snap this rather timid shot. What a beautiful creature with such an incredibly fluffy tail. The skunk's tail was practically larger than the entire animal. My distant shot doesn't capture the bright white of the tail with the last two inches of the tufting fur dramatically colored black.

I watched this skunk for about twenty minutes. Thankfully, no dog or person was sprayed. If we were, we would have resorted to the quasi-miraculous skunk spray remedy.

Skunked Dog

Is a weekend really complete without an encounter with a skunk? Trudy thinks not. The remedy was applied. Not without shame.

Previously:

Skunk Spray Remedy

Skunked

Deja Vu - Skunked Again

Skunked

One of the interesting thing about posting a blog about the goings on around Camp Ramshackle is that we can measure our progress on projects and look back to last year when a similar thing happened. Like when that swarm appeared in our cherry tree compared to when Kirk brought us a nuc box of bees to keep.

We'll it was just under a year ago when we posted about Trudy getting skunked and our tried and true home cure.


This time I got another picture with the concoction applied. Just be careful not to get it in her eyes. I like to work the paste into the fur the wrong direction because I think it does a better job. It also works best if you leave it on long enough to go back inside and grab your camera for the humiliating shot of the paste covered dog.

Previously:
Skunk Spray Remedy - This Works!

Skunk Spray Remedy - This works!

Tonight our dog was sprayed by a skunk.

We think skunks are living in our yard. If not they are near enough that each year our dogs are sprayed between 5-10 times. Initially we didn't have a clue about how to get the smell off the dog. We tried tomato juice, enzyme solution, tide, you name it. Nothing worked until we tried the following:

1 box of baking soda
1 container of hydrogen peroxide
1 or 2 table spoons shampoo

(other recipes call for a quart of hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup of baking soda, etc. - we've found the 1 small box of baking soda to one small bottle of hydrogen peroxide to work well)

Mix ingredients in a bucket (You may want to wear gloves because the solution has a drying effect on the skin). Work the resulting paste into the fur of the sorry-ass-dog starting at the snout and working back toward the tail. You'll need to stir the solution a bit each time you apply another handful since it settles quickly. Make sure to get the ears, front legs, neck and chest since these are the areas most likely to be hit by the spray.

Trudy here is resolved to the fact that she is about to be decontaminated.

If you have solution left, sniff around the dog to try to find areas that need a second coat. Leave the solution on for a about 3-5 minutes once you have coated the animal. Rinse starting from the head and moving back. Make sure you get it all off otherwise she will itch a lot due to the dry skin.

You may not be able to get the smell completely out but from our experience this takes the odor down to the level where the dog can be allowed back in the house and it works better than anything else we have tried. If you are not satisfied try sniffing around the animal to see where the smell is still coming from. You may need a second coat in some areas. You will definitely not be able to get it out of her nose if she took a direct hit to the face but this is usually a small enough area that you'll be able to live with it.

Good luck.