just a whine about why no sewing

Awww, Sharon my sincere sympathy to you and Charlie! It's bad enough when you encounter killed-skunk-smell on the highway, but to have the danged thing saturate Charlie???!!! Bad skunk!

I hope the stuff from Petco works, let us know so we can all stock up on some, "just in case". ;->

Dear Sharon, There's nothing to say but Oh S..T I'm sorry I'm kind of trying not to giggle and at the same time not giggle. Tain't funny. Oh how I h ate that smell. Juno

That was truly a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day!

Sharon,

So sorry this happened, but I can't apologize for the small smile - Brady would do the same thing in an instant, and he's a big 110 lb lab!!!

So I did a google search and this came up:

"If your dog has been "skunked", the most important rule is to not let him get indoors. You do not want your home to smell like a skunk. And once the smell is indoors, it will be very difficult to remove, as it can permeate porous objects such as untreated wood, concrete, plasterboard, soundproofing materials, sponges (think about your sofa and beds!)"

Check your dog's eyes. If they have been sprayed, they will be red and irritated. Temporary blindness can also occur (for about 10-15 minutes). Use eye-drops or olive oil on the eyes to soothe the irritation.

It continues to give the combination that you already used, so good job doggie-mommy!

For dogs sprayed in the face by a skunk, very carefully apply the mixture with a cloth, making sure to keep it out of your pets=92 eyes, nose and mouth.

Ah well....nothing you didn't know, just thought the face part was useful

Larisa

Thanks, Beverly. It was truly a rude and disgusting experience. I kept telling him "we will not be doing this again, because you will not be chasing any more skunks. Period." lol We'll hope for the best. That was a lot of hair to deskunk.

Save this........just in case!!

OK. Here's what worked. The bathing stuff is 1/4 C baking soda. 32 oz. of

3% hydrogen peroxide (or whatever the % is in the first aid aisle.) And 1 t. of "liquid soap." Most websites said liquid dish soap. My neighbor said Dawn because it's supposed to be gentle on eyes and hands. What really really worked well on his face though was Johnson's Baby Shampoo. :) He let me leave that solution on there for at least 10 minutes maybe longer. And it really worked well. Double the recipe for a dog Charlie's size (about the size of an average lab or a big huskey.) For the little guys, a normal recipe should do two treatments. HOWEVER, do NOT store this in a closed container....could go boom. It's frothy.

The stuff I got from Petco.... A spray. It's called Pure Ayre Odor Eliminator for all Dogs. Now, the bottle says you can spray it on the dog. I tried that. Not so much difference. Where it REALLY worked well was on the upholstery in the car and on the couch. (Note: If you touch your dog after he's been skunked, the oil will get on your hands. If you then touch your steering wheel in your mini-van (other cars could perform differently) the steering wheel will smell like skunk. Then so will the rest of the vehicle.) So other than the dog, it worked great. And the thing is it's made with food grade ingredients. So if you put it somewhere the dog will lick, won't make him sick. And it does neutralize the smell, not cover it. You get a hint of an ammonia like smell right after you spray it then nothing, no smell at all. Just didn't get the skunk off Charlie's head. $10

The other stuff is a granual. It's called Clear the Air Odor Eliminator for Skunk Odor. And has a big picture of one of the evil little critters on the label. This stuff you shake out and leave for 24 hours or so. You can use it on carpet, grass, concrete, wooden decks, linoleum, leather, bedding, humans. Pretty much anything. Including the dog. You can shake the stuff on to his fur, rub it in a little then brush off later. I put it on the rug that lives at the French doors (which is now vacationing on the front porch.) And also the carpet in the living room, the deck, the patio and my shrubs out by the patio. Tomorrow I will vacuum it off the rugs, and sweep it off the deck and patio. It can just get left in the grass. (which is good because I think the neighbors would wonder if I was out there vacuuming the grass!!! LOL) So far I have noticed that I don't smell funk coming from the living room carpet any more. Yay!!! An online review said the guy was ready to throw out his nearly new leather couch after the skunked dog rolled on it, but this stuff, after 2 treatments, took all the smell away. Figured it was worth the $8 to try. Especially if it will knock down the smell from outside!!!!! I would love to open the windows back there. But I still don't dare try that!

I think we have a handle on it. Now I need a gallon of lotion for my hands!!

Sharon

Thanks, Juno. I appreciate the support. :) And sometimes, it's laugh or cry. I can mostly laugh at it now. Next week it will be funnier. ;)

It do stink. The worst is I can't stand to eat anything, got the smell in my mouth y'know? Blech!!! Maybe ice cream would freeze it out???

Sharon

And there wasn't even a prize in my cereal or nothin'!!! ;)

Sharon

Thanks, Larisa. If Brady does, double or triple that recipe. I really hope he doesn't though. The stuff works, but whoo whee I don't wanna go this route again. LOL

Sharon

Oh you poor soul. What a dreadful thing to happen. My deepest sympathies. I know what it is like to have a free day to just sew, then something else hits and you can't, but this was too dreadful. The only good thing I can see is that it happened on a day when you had planned to be at home anyway. Just think if you had had an urgent doctor appointment, or a sick child, or a teacher conference that day!! BTW, if the stuff from Petco doesn't work, pay a visit to your local janitor supply store. They have some fantastic odor neutralizers, strictly for professional use, but they will probably sell you some anyway if you explain your situation.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

I know the feeling well. The smell seems to permeate your entire being. I couldn't help but have a little giggle, probably one of those, Oh, I'm so glad it's not me kind of thing. When DH comes home tell him you deserve an extra night on the town for heroism beyond the call of wife and motherdom. Try some sorbet it's colder or an DQ blizzard thing. That's rally cold. Juno

Maybe you should move to Australia.

Do they have skunks there?

No Australia doesn't have skunks.......

Dee in Oz

Our big, fuzzy black cat (who has all the sense of Kate's Cornflake) got skunked last year, right in the face. Came shooting in through the cat flap, pretty well blinded, which is the first time I've had to deskunk an animal that got sprayed directly in the face. (The dog usually gets it on his backside, which I take means that he has learned to run from the funnykitties.)

Except Fuzzy went into shredomatic mode, so I really couldn't do much with him, so I dumped him in the outside dogpen and went in to talk to the local emergency veterinary hospital, it being about 11 pm.

"Hello, I've got a cat who's been skunked right in the face." "Ah yes, here's the recipe (reads it off)" "No, right in the face, Can't open his eyes at the moment. Can't get hold of him, either, he's pretty panicked. Will this cause permanent damage?" "Oh, please don't bring him in! No, the eye irritation will subside fairly promptly. Do you need to know where to get peroxide this time of night?"

That's the problem with having worked in a lab with mercaptoethanol... you get used to the odor, and so you get the deskunking jobs forever more...

And I did love the "please don't bring him in!". I'd guess she hadn't spent years with mercaptoethanol.

Then there was the year I discovered the funnykitties had nested in a tent pole bag in the garage, coated nylon. It seemed faster and easier just to make a new bag, but the tent poles spent a good deal of the summer basking in the sun.

Kay

As the co parent of nine hunting dogs we have had some experience with skunk odor removal. We have used the peroxide, baking soda, dish soap with pretty good results. The best thing we have found is a half cup of 20 Mule Team Borax and a squirt Dawn dishwashing liquid mixed in a gallon of warm water and liberally applied to the dog. It usually takes a couple of washings. For the lingering odor in the environment just sprinkle the dry 20MT Borax on the offending spots and let it do its work for a few hours. And, finally, from Dollar General their store branded Super Odor Eliminator (similar to Febreze, but much cheaper and even more effective) sprayed on fiber surfaces and in the air will get the rest of the awful smell.

Good luck.

Sharon, If you are looking for an alternative dish soap consider Sun and Earth. It doesn't contain any petroleum products. I switched to it for my regular hand dish washing liquid because my hands don't crack and bleed in the winter when I use it. I have a bad habit of forgetting to use gloves until the damage is done. A happy user of the product. Juno

I know it's cruel, but I did have to giggle at the saga and the replies. I am VERY sympathetic, really I am, but I also have to thank you for lifting my spirits with your wonderfully told exploits. Fibro sucks, but a giggle is always good.

I had a couple of just sewing days planned too, but could barely lift myself off the sofa.

College student to his roommate: "I just bought a skunk at the pet store to live with us in our dorm room"

Roommate: "But what about the smell?"

"Oh, he'll get used to it, just like we did."

(Univ. of Wisc. "Octopus" humor mag, circa 1953)

JPBill

Oh dear, Sharon, I have no idea how a skunk smells, but since the clichée is so well known all over the world, my sincerest commiseration. (And, please, don't bother trying to describe it, today is my first day out of bed after a week-long migraine with the last two days in bed, with just the occasional trip to 'shout down the big telephone', as a Scottish friend once called it.) But isn't it always like that? It could be perfect, and then something happens to spoil our fun/plans so thoroughly that there's no thought of getting back to the original plan after mending the offensive item. And anyway, what are you complaining about? You can open the windows; if I'd do that right now, I'd be blown away by a fierce november wind, accompanied by a steady but heavy rain. And I'm not mentioning the outside temperature, or that DH is on fire for his latest toy, our new wood heating. So there, I hope you're comforted a little... Hmm, if I think of the clichée and your description, no, no consolation. Sorry; accept a virtual pat on the back instead? ;-)

U.

Thank you so much! And I have to tell you, I think doing this with 9 dogs (or even 4.5 if you had help) would have done me in. lol I will give both of those a try. He's mostly not smelly now. (and SO happy we will pet him again.) But outside......oh my!!

On another note..... My dad was talking about family history things not long ago. His paternal grandfather was quite a character. He was telling several stories from when he was a boy and would visit the farm. I knew at one point my great-grandpa had done some homesteading but not where. So I was asking Dad about that. What I did not know is that Borax is called 20 mule team Borax because they actually did use mule teams, of 20 to haul the stuff (my brain refuses to remember what it is in Borax..... but anyway...Stuff) from the mines. And my great-grandfather was one of the mule team drivers for Borax way back when. I thought that was pretty nifty. :)

Sharon