(11/2018) Most of us here in Frederick County have had at least one encounter with a skunk. Some of us have had several skunk encounters. Our beloved pet dogs are responsible for many of those encounters. Some dogs are smart and only have to encounter a skunk once to learn to avoid them. Unfortunately my dog is not a quick learner. In fact I'd barely washed her enough times to get the previous skunk smell out before she got sprayed again. I would argue that my experience in the last couple months makes me an expert in washing dogs but not necessarily eliminating the odor of skunk.

There is a reason that the internet has numerous recipes and products for eliminating skunk smell. That's because no product really works. I've tried vinegar, tomato juice, enzymatic cleaners specifically marketed to remove skunk, peroxide, baking soda, dawn dish soap, margarita mix, cheap perfume, and fancy horse shampoo. Each of these slightly decreases the pungent odor of skunk on the dog, the dog owner, and the house. Eventually, about a million baths later, the smell is gone.

My dog has impeccable timing with when to get sprayed by a skunk at the least convenient moment. I was on call over the weekend when a woman called to say her horse hadn't eaten dinner and had colic. While the horse wasn't acting super painful, he was impossible to give oral medications to, so she requested that I come out. I decided to let my dog out for a few minutes before heading to her barn, in case it was a long barn call. When I opened the door to let the dog back in, I was greeted by the aroma of fresh skunk.

As luck would have it, I was at a friend's house so I didn't have my supply of skunk odor eliminating products. Instead the only thing we had was leftover margarita mix from his last poker night. After washing the dog in the wash stall with some horse shampoo, I doused her in margarita mix, washed her again, rubbed her down in baking soda, then left her there and said I'd be back to get her in a couple of hours after I finished treating the horse colic. While I will take her with me on some farm calls, she cannot come along when she smells like a skunk.

The horse was an elderly horse, so while by phone the colic sounded mild, elderly horses are notorious for having colics be very serious. Luckily the colic was a simple gas colic and resolved quickly with just two injections of medications to help the gastrointestinal tract. As the horse was happily eating dinner, I was explaining to the owner about how my dog had been skunked right before I came to her barn. I told her that luckily I'd been able to wash the dog immediately and didn't even get much skunk smell on myself or in the car. She politely informed me that I was wrong and she could smell the odor of skunk before I'd even walked in the barn and strongly recommended that I immediately wash all of my clothes once I got home. So lesson learned. Margarita mix and fancy horse shampoo do not work on skunk. At least the smell of skunk was so strong that she told me she couldn't smell even a hint of the margarita mix. I had this fear of being pulled over by a police officer and then having to explain that no I wasn't drunk. The smell of margarita was from washing my skunk covered dog (it was even an alcohol free mix).

As it was, I made it back uneventfully. I even took a quick detour to my house to get the enzymatic skunk odor eliminating shampoo and vinegar to give her another bath before putting her in my car. While a smart person would then make the stinky dog sleep outside, I'm a sucker and still let her sleep on the bed. The next morning I washed the blanket she slept on and washed all my clothes again. Borax with laundry detergent does seem to work at getting rid of the skunk aroma from clothes. My boots were another story and they were proving a challenge to get odor free. As they had holes and were no longer waterproof, I gave up and just threw them in the dumpster. While the car still stank, there was no throwing it in either the washing machine or the dumpster. I resorted to driving with all the windows open.

The dog received three more baths that morning. The first was with enzymatic skunk shampoo, then peroxide with baking soda and soap, then more smelly horse shampoo. I've never been more grateful to have an outdoor wash area with hot water. However despite using warm water on her, when I returned home from work I discovered that my dog had acute caudal myopathy (limber tail syndrome) from getting cold during the repeated baths. So now my poor dog still stank like skunk and also had a limp and painful tail. The tail issue resolved very quickly, even though I continued to bathe her at least three times a day.

The skunk smell is still present as I submit this article for publication. While I wish I could say I had the magic formula for washing out skunk smell, I don't. When clients call, the clinic usually gives them the peroxide/baking soda/ dish soap recipe and I can say that works about as well as any of the products. Whomever invents a skunk shampoo that actually works will be rich. My dog certainly hasn't learned to avoid skunks and her owner isn't smart enough to keep her away from them either.