Last night, one of our poor doggies, a beautiful Siberian husky/golden retriever mix named Sadie, had her first encounter with a skunk. Sadie is the first dog I ever owned and at first I panicked, thinking, "Oh no! My poor puppy! What if the skunk bit her, too?! OH NO!"
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From ovary exploder to majestic beast.
We're somewhat attached to her. |
Once we realized she was unharmed, if very smelly, we noticed that she had been sprayed right between the eyes. That means that my beautiful but far from brilliant dog walked up to a wild animal, ignored all the warning signs, and shoved her face right up next to the skunk's . . . biological warfare.
This made for a smelly dog and a subsequently smelly house as well.
While my poor husband tried to fight back vomit, I quickly consulted a friend whose dogs had also recently fallen victim to a skunk. Here is her three step plan for curing a skunked puppy:
1. Drink heavily.
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| Check! |
2. Apply a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap to your wild beast. I scoured Google and came up with what seems to be a general consensus on a recipe:
*1 bottle (1 quart) of hydrogen peroxide
*1/4 cup of baking soda
*1-2 drops of dish soap (optional)
I also recommend adding a couple drops of essential oil. The
Purify blend seems to be the fan favorite but as I shamefully didn't have any on hand, lemon, lavender, and peppermint are all good deodorizers (and available all together in the
Beginner's Trio).
Once mixed, use it immediately as you want to scrub your dog while the hydrogen peroxide is reacting with the baking soda.
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| Science! |
3. Continue drinking heavily.
My husband and mother-in-law gave poor Sadie a bath but my husband was hesitant to use the hydrogen peroxide so close to her eyes so we didn't follow the recipe exactly. However, the bath greatly improved the smell of the dog so I'll consider it a success.
Once the dog was taken care of, we were left with another problem: the house. The whole house stunk like a skunk. The hallway leading to the bedrooms wasn't too bad so I took a spray bottle mixed with some water,
fractionated coconut oil, and doTERRA peppermint and blasted the hallway. Within about fifteen minutes, the skunk smell was gone and replaced by the fresh scent of peppermint.
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| It's like living inside a stick of gum. |
The kitchen and living room were another matter and required more heavy artillery. I broke out the diffuser and added a mixture of
lemon, peppermint, and melaleuca (about three drops of each). Within the hour, the skunk smell was gone!
Because we didn't used the complete recipe for the anti-skunk bath on our dog, her face was still a little pungent. Many doTERRA oils are safe for dogs but you need to be careful--just because you love the smell doesn't mean they will so dilution is important, especially for small dogs. It would also do well for you to be very careful around their eyes, ears, and nose just like you would a human. I thought the lemon, peppermint, or melaleuca might be too harsh on her eyes (especially if she already took a face full of skunk) so instead I took some lavender diluted with coconut oil and rubbed it between my hands. I let her sniff my palms to be sure she didn't hate it and then I gently pet her head, rubbing the oil into her fur. She loved the extra attention after such a traumatic evening and there was a definite decrease in skunk stench.
After such a crazy, smelly night it was so nice to go to bed with the house smelling of essential oils instead of skunk! Have any of you tried essential oils to deal with a skunk blast? Let me know in the comments!
