Guest Post: A Skunk Story

Note: This is a guest post written by Diane of Bloomington Pet Pals. As it starts to warm up, the skunks are coming out… One of my co-workers got sprayed while riding his bike home from work on Friday! Thanks, Diane, for sharing your advice!

On March 12th, my world was turned upside down and my sinuses were turned inside out. My dog, Bella, was sprayed by a skunk around 1am and so began my nightmare. First, I didn’t realize she was sprayed until the rancid odor permeated my house. You actually could see a haze in the air. My dogs had gone upstairs to bed as is our routine once they’re let inside, so of course by this time, 5 minutes had gone by and Bella had polluted the house completely. I put her in the garage so I could go to the store once I researched and found the magic solution to bathe her in.

Forget the tomato juice! What you need is much more effective to rid your dog of this smell. I mixed 1qt of hydrogen peroxide with ¼ cup of baking soda and 2T of Dawn dish soap. Skunk smell is oily so using a de-greaser soap is paramount! Now, she’s about 60 or so pounds, so smaller dogs will need less of the solution. I left the solution on for about 5 or 10 minutes and then bathed her again with her normal shampoo.

Okay, that fixed the dog. The house was a bigger smell and a bigger issue. Because the air outside was still so awful, I couldn’t open the windows thus trapping this horrific smell inside. I went online and found a company called Biocides Systems. They were on a discussion forum and were recommended by a vet. They sell a solution of Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2) they claim will clean and disinfect any bad smells from skunk to mildew to smoker’s house.

So I bought their doggiCLEEN Skunk 911 Home Kit, plus two more Room Shockers. When the room shockers arrived the next day, I was surprised to see it contained a single plastic cup and lid and a pouch of the ClO2. With simple, I mean SIMPLE instructions (put the pouch in the cup and add warm water to the fill line) I closed my bedroom door and went downstairs for 5 hours. Unlike foggers, when it was finished, there was NO film to clean later and there was a nice subtle and VERY clean (like a bleach or cleanser) smell in my bedroom. Gone was the rancid skunk smell. I had used another room shocker in my garage, but being that it was a concrete floor, it wasn’t as immediate. I actually took the cup from my room and added it to the one in the garage and it did help to have 2 in there.
For concrete floors in a garage they do recommend a different solution to mop with, so don’t use a shocker there.

My lesson learned

The last of the nightmare is washing the clothes in my closet. That skunk smell just seeps into everything! I’ve heard of some people still smelling skunk after months, so after 3 days, I feel that removing 90% of it has been really great. One hour of that smell was enough for me!

If you ever find yourself in my position (and I’d never wish this on anyone), visit www.biocidesystems.com for the best solution to deskunk your home. Don’t waste your money (and you will spend money without thinking just to make the smell stop!) on things that might work. This stuff really does!