Skunked
☆ September 7, 2012
So, it turns out having a skunk blow its load in one’s house is not as horrible as one would imagine. The immediate smell is horrible ~ more horrible than you could imagine. But dealing with it is not so bad! It’s amazing how rejuvenating it is to have a break in routine, even when it’s caused by skunk-bombing.
I moved up to Mike’s house with Mushy, who is still healing from
her talon wounds and I didn’t want her outside.
Lo and behold, Mike and I realized we really like living together!
Quite a surprise for both of us ~ we’ve spent the last six years living like Frida and Diego ~ but good info for us to know as we scheme about the future….
The rest of the house Farmily stayed at my place, as I was back and forth often and had every door open day and night for them to come and go ~ and to air out the place. A little scrubbing, a little laundry, a little purging of clutter, and home was back to normal and odor-free much sooner than I expected.
Thanks to everyone who emailed with suggestions ~ the hydrogen peroxide / baking soda / liquid soap recipe works like a charm.
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September 7th, 2012 @ 5:48 pm
The smell of skunk doesn’t actually bother me, but I sure wouldn’t want one spraying in my house. I live in Los Angeles so there’s a very slim chance of that ever happening here, but considering I don’t plan on staying here forever, at least I now know how I’ll be able to clear the smell if it happens.
September 7th, 2012 @ 5:55 pm
We discovered a skunk hiding out in the dry good storage closet of a restaurant where I waitressed in my 20s. The kitchen staff kept insisting there was a snake in there, so I called pest control, since I was the manager on duty and wasn’t going to spend all day with my staff going in and out of that closet. The pest control guy wasn’t the brightest, and insisted the critter he discovered (not a snake) was a weasel. Turns out it was a skunk, just one with markings that differed from the cartoon skunks we were familiar with. As evidenced AFTER it doused the entire dining room- an hour prior to the lunch rush. It took four servers to trap the thing under a trash can before the pest control guy ever got ahold of it. It bit him, when he first got it out of the closet- that’s how it got loose. I’m pretty sure the owner of the restaurant was pissed at me for meddling at all, but, really, whether it was a snake, a weasel or a skunk, it didn’t need to be there. Health codes, you know…? needless to say, we had all of the doors open in the building all day, not that it helped business much.
Things like that were the norm- possums in the carboard boxes containing the soda sugar syrup behind the bar… foot-long centipedes on the floor when we arrived in the mornings…
September 7th, 2012 @ 6:18 pm
Tomato juice! If an animal (or you) is ever skunked? Tomato juice baths.
September 7th, 2012 @ 6:20 pm
Kudos to Paul Krebaum, the chemist who discovered this in the ’90s.
Here’s the recipe for them what needs it.
DO NOT BOTTLE THIS! Remember making that volcano in school? It’s like that. If you bottle it, it will erupt. Quite violantly. That is why this stuff can’t be manufactured and sold. You have to mix it up and use it immediately. And it can’t be stored afterwards.
But the ingredients are cheap and common so no biggie.
Be sure you wear rubber gloves:
1 quart, 3 percent hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 teaspoon liquid soap
Mix in a plastic bucket with some water. (Don’t use metal because of the peroxide.)
If you’re washing a dog, use liquid Ivory or Softsoap.
If you’re washing your house, use Dawn. The reason being that skunk stuff is oily so you need to get something that will degrease. But it’s a little harsh on your dog. Dogs have quite delicate skin, actually. That’s why you don’t wash them with YOUR shampoo. It’s too strong.
Leave for about 5 min. Your nose knows.
After you’ve deskunked your dog, rinse him and wash with dog shampoo.
After you’ve deskunked your house, rinse and wash down with regular cleaning supplies.
If it’s a really bad skunking you might need to repeat this process.
The peroxide and baking soda neutralizes the chemicals that do the smell. The soap gets rid of the oil that makes the smell cling to whatever it lands on.
http://www.pawprintsthemagazine.com/?p=3079
September 7th, 2012 @ 6:58 pm
Like living together – huh. I see a marriage or cohabitation situation coming soon for you and Mike.
Oh and I remember when my dog got skunked. I bathed and bathed him in tomato juice – the smell finally went away.
Did you know some people have skunks as pets? They de-stink them some how.
Shreve – I love all your stories
September 7th, 2012 @ 7:31 pm
sorry I forgot to suggest this mix for skunk odor removal, have used it on my dogs, but not a good thing when they have been sprayed in the face, can’t put this mix on their face—–also read once that hunters use Massengill douche when they are out in fields w/ their dogs, but what flavor??
September 7th, 2012 @ 8:31 pm
I’m amazed at how fast the 6 years seems to have flown by.
September 7th, 2012 @ 10:26 pm
I’ve been out of town… what happened to your kitty?
September 8th, 2012 @ 6:33 am
me too- talon wound???
September 8th, 2012 @ 7:09 am
My ex boyfriends grandmother found a dead skunk on the road in front of her house. After a couple of days, she started seeing little baby skunks come out from under the shrubs. She caught them all and put them in a box in her kitchen as she had raised skunks before. Their urine is so acidic it ate all the color off the tile in the kitchen! They were the cutest little things though! She kept them inside for a couple of weeks then built them a huge pen outside and finally reintroduced them to the woods. I never knew a skunk could spray even when they are babies. I have heard they make great pets.
September 8th, 2012 @ 11:29 am
I’m with Sue and Joy – what happened to Mushy? Close encounter with an owl or hawk? Hope she get better quickly!!
You and Mike? I totally understand that loving someone does not mean you can live with them easily, especially when you’re accustomed to your own space. But if you can – fabulous!!
September 8th, 2012 @ 12:00 pm
I’m glad I’m not the only one wondering about Mushy. I thought maybe I had missed something.
Anne, my mom douched my cat when she got sprayed by a skunk. I think my mom had to do it twice but it worked pretty well.
September 8th, 2012 @ 1:09 pm
wow that is the same solution I use!!! You are right…it does work like a charm. I had tried all of the other remedies with no success. Now that I am down south here in CO skunks (and porcupines and bears) are everywhere. My dogs get mini skunked (under the fence so not too bad) almost nightly. They then get the scrub. Glad it worked for you as well. Glad about the living situation as well!
September 8th, 2012 @ 8:44 pm
We were very familiar with that recipe when we had our golden retriever and a skunk nest/den under the porch. It fizzles, it cleans, it deodorizes, AND it always brought out her golden highlights.
Being an odor-sensitive person, it occurs to me that the smell may re-emerge in winter when you heat the interior. As that’s a less practical time to leave all the doors and windows open, I wonder if it would be worthwhile to fire up the stove now and bake out any remnant skunkiness.
It’s nice to hear you and Mike enjoyed the extra time together.
September 9th, 2012 @ 8:55 am
Oh! Now that I think about it, I only mentioned the Mushy news on Twitter ~ she got picked up by an owl and fought her way down, thankfully! But the talon wounds were pretty serious. She’s doing really well ~ healing well physically and otherwise.
September 9th, 2012 @ 1:41 pm
We live in a semi rural area of SoCal and have lots of skunks. They adapt to living around people easily. When hubby walks the dog late – due to heat – he sees at least two skunks a walk. One is a baby that tries to follow him. Our Aussie wants to ‘play’ with them…
September 9th, 2012 @ 2:49 pm
had a vision for your wedding—Charlie and Chloe can stand up for you and that ‘little stinker’ that helped you get together this week can be the ‘ring bearer’, w/ Eli chasing behind~~~
September 9th, 2012 @ 4:17 pm
Mushy whaaaaat???????? Missed something.
September 9th, 2012 @ 7:05 pm
Don’t do it! ;-)
Don’t move in together. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You’ve got a good thing which includes space and also includes sharing space.
September 10th, 2012 @ 7:28 am
Poor Mushy!! But what a fighter to get away from an owl!! Soul of a lion for sure ;)
September 10th, 2012 @ 10:41 am
Glad things are working out for everyone, re the de-skunking process. Chloe can be grateful it wasn’t a porcupine she had cornered!
Skunks do make lovely pets, if their scent glands are removed. A friend in high school told me she had once owned a pet skunk and was very fond of him.
September 10th, 2012 @ 10:49 am
Re the talon marks on the cat– my Siamese mix cat Shilo was a victim of an aerial attack by a hawk or owl when he lived with my parents in rural California. My mother nursed him for weeks, reporting he had been raked by talons from nape of the neck to the base of the tail.
We think the bird thought Shi was a jackrabbit, as he was a sand-colored cat. Fortunately, he had some weight to him, plus Mom ran and frightened off the raptor.
Shi was making a good recovery, but he got out in a rainstorm and relapsed, later dying in his sleep. Mushy is a lucky little lady!
September 10th, 2012 @ 11:01 am
Yes, the skunk remedy is amazing. My cat got skunked and came running toward the door howling. I carried him into the bathroom and now I’m covered in skunk oil from his coat. The oil went into one eye and was tearing terribly. I gave a homeopathic remedy which stopped the tearing and he calmed down.
Amazingly Sati (the cat) sensed I was trying to help him and allowed me to pour the mixture on his coat. The odor disappeared immediately! It was midnight and I had a soaking wet cat after towel drying. I pulled out a small hair dryer and assumed he would go crazy but no, he allowed me to dry his coat!
But my shirt and pants were smelling bad so I put them and the towels outside. The skunk smell was still present even though I washed them in Borax & detergent so I mixed the special solution into the washer and it worked. I also had to pour the solution on me since the oil must have gone into my skin.
A few months later I spilled fish oil on a shirt, washed it twice and figured I’d have to throw it out. Then I soaked it once in the hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dishwashing liquid and it was saved.
Although I use a plant based/mineral dishwashing liquid for doing dishes and used it to mix the solution that night, I now keep a small bottle of Dawn Dishwashing liquid on hand. The Wildlife Rehabilitators have found Dawn works the best to get oil/tar/grease off the Wildlife that are injured in oil spills. Dawn’s secret ingredient is Petroleum based and works better than any other detergent to clean the horrible tar off ducks, birds and other wildlife.
I found the smell remains with the skunk oil spray (which was yellow color on my cat). The smell in the air itself dissipates but anything the oil touches needs to be neutralized.
A skunks spray is not a first strike weapon so they don’t spray first but try to hiss, claw and put their tail up. I knew someone who use to feed a wild skunk by hand when he lived in the forest. The skunk would come by every evening at the same time. The things you do when you don’t have TV.
September 11th, 2012 @ 4:23 am
Hi, I was wondering if you could also use this solution on black or other colored fabrics since hydrogen peroxide works bleaches as well… Any informations on that? Thank you…
September 11th, 2012 @ 10:21 pm
Daisy, I think that would depend on the type of fabric and the die used to color it. If it’s a synthetic, it would probably be OK. If it’s cotton, silk, etc. I’d try a little on the inside of the hem or an inside seam before using it on the whole piece.
September 11th, 2012 @ 11:38 pm
We also use the peroxide/baking soda remedy…so much so I have “skunk kits” near all our bathtubs. Our terriers love to chase the skunks and have not learned anything. We have a very old skunk who’s tail is completely white-he will spray thru the fence and hit 12′ away …
Talon wounds?!
September 12th, 2012 @ 9:31 am
Y’all have probably figured this out by now, but that mixture is excellent for any strong scent, and it works wonders for cat urine. so, for those spraying accidents, it is fantastic. It is hell on furniture finishes, though. eats right through them, as i found out to my dismay.
September 13th, 2012 @ 11:30 am
Glad to hear Mushy escaped the owl’s clutches & is recovering.
September 14th, 2012 @ 6:41 am
That’s the same cleaning solution that worked best for us when our dogs were skunked. While it initially seemed like a horrible situation, I also enjoyed the break in our routine. Funny how seemingly awful things that happen can turn into good things.