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If you've ever had a dog that decided to pick a fight with a skunk you know that the outcome can be rather unpleasant for your dog, and the rest of the family. I had a german shepherd that was sprayed by a skunk on two separate occasions. The first time I tried the ol' tomato juice bath and even used a de-skunking solution purchased from a pet store, but he still smelled like skunk, although not as strong, for about a week. The second incident happened the second night in our new home. I remembered seeing a recipe in a magazine for a solution which claimed to eliminate the skunk odor on contact. I found myself digging through boxes in the basement at midnight to look for my magazines. I then spent some more time looking through the magazines until I found the article.

After a quick trip to a local Meijer store to buy the ingredients I returned home to try out the solution on my dog. After the bath I was happy to discover that the odor had been completely neutralized. The recipe consists of only three very common household items which are probably in most people's homes already. The ingredients are:




All you need to do is wet down the dog with a hose, mix the ingredients together in a container, and then slowly pour the mixture over the dog while rubbing it into the fur. After the dog has been bathed in this solution rinse it down with the hose and the dog will be odor free. My dog weighed 90 lbs so I doubled the amounts shown above, but if you have a small to medium size animal, the recipe listed should do just fine.

Although the ingredients are not dangerous, care should obviously be taken to keep the solution out of your dog's eyes, ears and mouth. Also remember that hydrogen peroxide can bleach clothing and hair, however, my dog's fur never changed color or even faded.

Credit for this remedy goes to chemist, Paul Krebaum, of Molex Inc. in Lisle, Illinois. The above listed ingredients were published in the August 1995 issue of Popluar Science.

If you use this skunk remedy and it works well for you, please send me a quick email. I would love to add your dog or other animal (there have actually been two cats and, believe it or not, one horse saved -- read the comments) to the 'saved' counter at the top of this page.

Over the years several people have emailed me and asked if I knew of a way to eliminate the skunk odor from the air inside their homes. I have no experience with anything that would provide those types of results other than to suggest spraying some kind of air freshener throughout the home. However, someone finally sent me an email that claimed if you heat apple cider vinegar on the stove it would help eliminate the skunk odor in the air. I don't know if it actually works but, if you try it and helps, then please let me know.

NOTE: I was pleased to receive an email on November 24, 2008 from Sue, one of the partners associated with the Woof Report. The Woof Report is a free daily email newsletter for dog owners that provides all kinds of interesting dog-related news, information, products, tips, etc. Sue wrote that they had listed this remedy in the November 18, 2008 K9 Care section of the website and she wanted to let me know about it. Click on one of the following links if you would like to read the K9 Care posting, or the email.