(Hydrogen Peroxide to Baking Soda ratio: 1cup HP to 1Tablespoon BP)
Eyes:
Sterile
saline eye solution (the
solution for your eyes, not
your contacts)
IF:
your pet has been sprayed directly in the eyes and they are red and
irritated and your pet is in distress, take
them to the vet because
the skunk spray can damage
your pet’s cornea.
Other things needed
Plastic pail NOT a bottle as it will explode from chemical reaction under pressure!
Sponges/paper towels/old wash cloths (small cloth/sponge to protect eyes)
Plastic/rubber gloves
Old towels
Old clothes (You’ll get wet and stinky too)
WHAT
TO DO WHEN YOUR PET COMES HOME STINKY
Check your pet for injuries. Skunks can carry rabies so you need to see if your pet has been injured. They are often sprayed on their faces.
Isolate your pet. Put them some place where they won’t get the skunk spray on furniture or roll on the carpet/rugs. Hopefully you have someone to calm them down while preparing the Skunk Recipe.
Find the ingredients. The hydrogen peroxide needs to be fresh or at least not far past the Use By Date.
Use Baking SODA (NOT baking powder!!)
Find some SoftSoap or Ivory liquid. (The chemist who created this says that it is “fairly inert” compared to Dawn dish-soap (which is okay) but never use dog shampoo.)
Put the hydrogen peroxide in a plastic pail and add the baking soda and soap. There will be mild foaming when you add the soap.
(We did an experiment with 3 brands of HP, we did not get any foaming/bubbling chemical reaction from the HP and BS until I dumped it on our limestone pathway.)
Use immediately. The solution will get weaker with time.
Use the sponge to gently wash your pet’s face. (Don’t drag a cloth across your pet’s eyes.) Be very careful not to get this in your pet’s eyes or mouth. Work your way towards the tail. Gently work the ingredients to the skin.
Leave the solution on for about 5 minutes or until the odor is gone.
Put the hydrogen peroxide mixture some place where it won’t get tipped over and nothing will drink it.
Rinse your pet with tepid tap water
Sniff. If your pet still smells: Repeat wash and rinse
Towel dry your pet
When you’re finished pour the solution down the drain with running water
Put your towels, bucket and dirty clothes some place safe and find a nice treat for your pet and yourself.
Mis. IMPORTANT Information!
Your BEST strategy for
yourself and your pet is, if you are aware of a skunk around your
home, try to keep your pet away from the skunk. (Yes, that is
obvious)
Skunks
don’t want to meet you or your pet! They are nocturnal and
also have poor eyesight. You can often get them to hide if,
before letting your pet out
before bedtime, you turn on
the porch light, bang on the plastic pail, make ‘people noise’
safely from the back door and give the skunk a few minutes to
vamoose.
Skunks like garbage and they
often find a home under decks or porches. Try to Skunk Proof those
areas by preventing them from getting under your deck and lock up
your trash from raccoon who will knock the trash over to give your
skunks dinner. (Skunks don’t climb, they cannot knock over your
trash cans)
Use
3% NOT
6%
hydrogen
peroxide (That
will make your pet a peroxide blonde and
irritate skin)
If
you think that there is a possibility
of your pet meeting a skunk, get a couple bottles of
peroxide next
time you’re at the grocery store. Put
together a kit of closed bottles of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda,
measuring cup/spoon for baking soda, towels, gloves etc. store in
plastic bucket. This way, you won’t have to panic when your pet
comes home stinky.
DO
NOT MAKE THIS AHEAD OF TIME!!! You
will have a big mess bc
of the pressure of chemical reaction.
Baking
soda and baking powder are different. Use Baking SODA
Don’t
get this into your pet’s eyes.
Using
Dawn dish detergent is ok, but it not
the first choice.
Dog
shampoo is not recommended.
This
recipe also works, to a certain extent on urine because urine also
contains sulfur.
Know Your Enemy!
Once you understand skunks, it
is difficult to dislike them. They are virtually helpless except
for their stinkiness. They have poor eyesight. They can’t fight
predators (although they may bite you or your pet, so don’t get too
close to either end!), they can’t run away or climb trees to
escape. Their only real defense is to hit you with their noxious
spray.
Skunks have a gland with its
spray on either side of their anal opening. They don’t like to use
their weapon because it takes about a week to replenish it so they
will try to warn you away.
They
will hiss, growl, stomp their feet, shake
their tail and do a U-shaped
maneuver
where they aim their tail at you and curve their body to look at you
to see if you are paying attention to their warning.
When
all else fails, they will spray you. AND don’t think that you are
off the hook with one spray! They can spray you up to 10 times, up
to 15 feet away!Depending on
how coordinated they are at spraying and stopping, they
can launch a formidable and
prolonged attack.
When
they are pups, they spray each other when they are playing, just
like puppies and kittens tussle and play fight and hunt, the young
skunks, add spraying to their
future adult
life skills.
They
are usually experienced sprayers by the time that they are grown up
and rooting around in your yard.
Skunks do spray one another as
adults as well as when they are pups. Their mating season is early
spring (February onward) and they use their spray to fight off other
males and females will squirt males that they have no interest in as
fathers to their offspring. (I am sorry, but that just makes me
laugh. I dearly love my husband and son. But I am certain that both
sexes have, at one time or another been annoyed with someone and
would have just liked to have given them a quick skunky squirt and
walked away.)
They can’t see very well so
they rely on sound to warn them of approaching enemies. If you turn
on your porch lights, stomp around or make any other noise that will
catch their attention, they will probably hustle back to their lair.
Which, unfortunately, could be under your porch or deck. The best
way to take care of that is to put up a barrier before it is pup
season and hopefully before a skunk has decided to live with your.
They
eat just about anything, which
is probably why they can create such a stinky oil. They eat beetles,
worms, roots, nuts, fruits, eggs and even mice.in the winter. They
also forage through the trash that raccoons knock over. (yuck to most
of that menu.)
Skunks
are nocturnal animals. So my best advice is to try to warn them that
you are on your way out for your final dog walk before you head
through the door with your pet.
They
shoot an organosulfur compound called a thiol. It is an oil and it
is water resistant. A
chemist named Paul Krebaum invented
this recipe. Like many good
ideas, it was an accident that coincided with a need.
He was working for a company
that was patenting a polymer that produced a hydrogen sulfide gas.
His building was stinky and his co-workers were unhappy. He created
solution to scrub the waste gas stream with good results. When a
co-worker’s cat was skunked not too long afterwards, he gave him a
much milder formula and it worked!
Like
all good scientists, he published his findings in a scientific
journal. A reporter for the Chicago Tribune read about it and Mr.
Krebaum’s fame and recipe became public
for which we are very grateful. He has not received any monetary
gain from his invention, but I am sure that he has racked up many
thankful good wishes from countless pet owners.
For
more information about his recipe, you can go on his website.
