DeSkunk Your Dog

Skunk odor!  In your house.  And your garage.  And your yard.  And your….

Hello country folk! Had an incident today that some of you may relate to, or if you do live even in a rural country area, might certainly happen in the future.

First of all, I had a family of possums take up residence in my crawlspace. A dear friend of mine let me borrow his life traps to catch them and get them out of the crawlspace, before they tore down all the insulation I’d spent so much time putting into the floor joists.  So far we have had to dispatch three adult possums. After a couple days with no catch, we decided to set the traps once more just in case, before permanently closing up the holes where the animals were getting in (we had temporarily blocked them). Low an behold, a SKUNK was in one of the traps! Before we could grab her, Joonie, my tracking dynamo Mountain Cur, rushed the cage and got a full-on face spray! Poor thing, she was frothing at the mouth and her eyes swelled shut immediately, and she was coughing and hacking. This poor dog was miserable and we needed to get her some attention fast! I quickly ran to get a big bowl of warm water and a bottle of saline I keep for eye washing emergencies. Hurriedly I rinsed her face, nose and mouth with the water, then squirted her eyes with saline for a full minute to rinse out the lachrymators. Lachrymators, by the way, are the same type of compound that is in teargas or pepper spray, and skunk spray is full of it. Poor thing, she was pitiful! She didn’t try to fight the saline as I squirted it in her eyes, so it must have been a relief to her. After that, it took only a minute to ease off and her swollen eyes were back to normal. That quick rinse is citical to keeping the discomfort to a minimum! The spray doesn’t cause damage, just discomfort. I did confirm with our vet that she would be OK, no need to bring her in for care. Quick response was important and the saline wash would definitely help.

Even though it was cold outside, I mixed up a solution of one large bottle of peroxide, a cup of baking soda, and a tablespoon of Meyers dish liquid. I applied this to her face and coat, avoiding her eyes ears and mouth. The baking soda wanted to sink, so I kept stirring the bowl with my hands as I applied it to her coat.  Then let the stay on her for about ten minutes, trying to keep her from rolling in the grass. Then we followed with a good bath using good smelly shampoo. Amazingly, no skunky smelling dog!  There was a faint odor later, but another bath helped to take care of that.

Now, my house was another story! The skunk was actually in the live trap cage in the crawlspace, so when he sprayed my dog, it sprayed inside the wall, pipes, insulation and joists as well!! Immediately the odor had permeated all through the house as well as outside all around the yard! So I had my work cut out for me.

We opened both crawlspace doors, and luckily there was a strong breeze blowing, so that helped to air out the crawlspace as much as possible.  I quickly got fans running in the cabin and opened all the doors with the fans blowing air out.   The odor was very strong in the kitchen, which is right over the crawl space door where the skunk was. I grabbed a jar of citrus vinegar I was making for cleaner, with squeezed orange and lemon halves. The squeezed fruit had been sitting in cider vinegar for about three weeks. Nice and citrus-y. I poured a cup of the cleaner in a stainless steel pot and added water, started it to boiling. In another pot of water, I put in about half a cup of plain coffee to boil. Both fragrances would help permeate the house and clean the air. i’ve read that coffee can ‘clean’ the air, not so much a disinfecting type of clean, but just make it smell better.  I didn’t want to light any candles or fragrance to mask the odor yet, I wanted to eliminate as much of it as possible.

I found a squirt bottle in the cleaning pantry and half filled it with citrus cleaner and the rest with water. I went to the crawl space door where the odor was strongest and began spraying everything in the immediate area. The wall, joists, the insulation (just misting it), even the dirt floor.  The cleaner’s fragrance was pretty strong so I hoped it would overpower the skunk smell.

Luckily, we had been working in the yard that morning spreading out wonderful aromatic cedar mulch around some raised herb and strawberry beds. So I grabbed a few plant trays, buckets, and large plant pots that happened to be sitting nearby and filled them up with some cedar mulch. Then we placed them inside the crawlspace. I’ve never read that this helps skunk smell, but it just smelled nice so I thought it might help.

There wasn’t much we could do about the odor in the yard outside. It’s just going to have to wear off and hope we get a nice wind with the ice storm that’s coming.  Luckily it’s been windy for two days and is supposed to continue.

I went back in to check on the pots on the stove. Turned them down to a simmer and closed the kitchen door so the fragrant steam would stay in the house. I left the fan going at the front door for a little while longer before shutting it as well.

The odor was still pretty strong in the kitchen. I had about half a pound of ginger that I wanted to put up, so I decided to peel and slice it, then dehydrate. It has a nice fragrant smell while drying. I also put about a cup of cinnamon and clove in a pie pan and put it in the oven on low for a few hours. Later, I’ll use this cinnamon in some fire starters for the woodstove, so it can be repurposed.

For the next few days I opened up the crawl space and aired out the house with the doors open. Essential oils of eucalyptus, mint, cinnamon and clove, and lavender were added to pots of water for odor masking. I’m sure the skunk scent will linger a while outdoors, but at least we did get a handle on it inside. More ginger in the dehydrator and citrus vinegar simmering on the stove.  Mopped with natural cleaners and also wiped down everything in the kitchen with it.  I’m allergic to very strong fake fragrant cleaners with lots of chemicals, so using something natural is important to me.  I also keep cinnamon pine cones in a basket for the woodstove, and made good use of those.

I’d made fire cider a month or so ago.  I’d planned on dehydrating the solids, and they are in the dehydrator with a very fragrant spicy vinegar smell.  That has helped mask the skunk odor tremendously.  I also use incense once in a while, and took about a dozen sticks to the crawlspace and stuck them in the dirt floor.  I was very careful to arrange these so that any ashes would fall on the dirt.  I temporarily closed up the door and checked on them every five minutes.  Later I did light a few incense sticks in the bathroom and dining area, to help mask the odor.  So far, with the breeze outside, everything seems to have worked fairly well.  Its 22 degrees outside, and a nice 68 degrees inside with the woodstove going.

I’m very interested to hear what you may have used to eliminate skunk odors.

Recipes for:

cinnamon pine cone fire starters
fire cider
citrus vinegar cleaner
Peroxide cleaner