by Janice Willard DVM, from the April 2005 Newsletter

It wasn’t just an odor; it was like being smothered by an evil presence, leaving me weak and nauseous. No, I wasn’t Harry Potter menaced by Dementors, or Frodo facing the Black Riders. No, there wasn’t a toxic chemical accident nearby. I was just facing my dogs who had been sprayed full on by a skunk.

They say that God had a sense of humor when he created the skunk, but I, like many pet owners when faced by this odious scenario, certainly wasn’t laughing.

Skunk spray is a defensive mechanism that skunks, a member of the weasel family, use when they feel threatened. Skunks are nocturnal and live on the edges of human habitations. But, since urban areas are constantly sprawling into skunk habitat and because we inadvertently provide habitat and food for them, these encounters are bound to happen.

Skunks aren’t bad. They hunt rodents and insects. You can prevent skunks from moving in too close by keeping garbage in closed containers and not leaving pet food outside at night. If you do, place it on a table at least 3 feet off the ground where most skunks can’t reach it.

One thing to consider is the threat of rabies. If you see a skunk behave strangely, not showing fear or acting unusually aggressive or lethargic, keep away and contact your local public health department or wildlife officer. This is a good time to remind everyone of the importance of having all of your pets (including cats) consistently vaccinated against rabies.

But none of this was going through my head the first time that my dogs encountered a skunk.

I tried everything; tomato juice, vinegar, to try to wash them and nothing seemed to help much. The smell slowly wore off the dogs. Over the years, this picture has replayed, a late night jaunt for the dogs, the overwhelming odor that leaves me weak and ill, ending in an ineffectual bath.

But last time I was saved by a wizard, an alchemist with a magic potion.

Back in the early 1990s, Paul Krebaum, a chemist, was working with some compounds that produced hydrogen sulfide gas, (which is the first in a series of compounds related to skunk spray). This, as you can imagine, did not make him popular with workmates, so he developed a deodorizing formula. Then a colleague, whose cat had been sprayed by a skunk, asked if the formula worked on skunk spray.

“I just "tweaked" the formula so it could be used on animals without harm,” said Krebaum. “What was unexpected was how well it worked. I still expected the cat would be pretty darn stinky. So I was surprised when my friend told me the next day that the odor was almost undetectable.”

The moment I sponged the mixture onto my dogs, I could feel the odor dissipating, the vice grip around my head seem to loosen. And the best part is that the magic potion was made from common household items you might have on the shelf—or can get at an all night grocery. Here is how it works: mix 1 quart of three percent hydrogen peroxide with a quarter cup of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and a teaspoon of liquid detergent. Don’t wet your pet first, but sponge the mixture on, staying away from nose, mouth and eyes. After 5 minutes, rinse with water. The mixture can not be made up in advance and you can not store it in an enclosed container –as it is releasing oxygen gas, it could break the container. The mixture could bleach your clothes, and it may possibly bleach your pet to a lighter color (I pass on this warning, but my three dogs stayed black).

Additional information on contending with skunk spray on pets or objects can be found on Krebaum’s Web site, including a chemical explanation of how this works, for the curious.

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