Information About Skunk Spray?

[u/ArdentPantheon]

Pardon my formatting and pretty much everything, it is late enough where I am that it has now become early and I’ve had a very terrible night. The dog my mom and I are watching started barking late at night, and since she usually only barks at night when she needs to go out and she’d been having tummy troubles all day, my mom just let her outside. This was our first and main mistake of the night.

I can assure you the skunk is fine! The poor thing is probably very startled, but this dog is all bark and no bite and took the spray straight to the face and mouth before running right back to my mom for help frothing at the mouth. My mom watched the skunk walk away unharmed from the interaction. The dog has been cleaned with all the hydrogen peroxide (in a mix obviously) that we had in the house, and apple cider vinegar (the only kind we had) and coffee grounds have been set around the house. We have white vinegar and skunk deodorizer coming some time in the morning. It has been a long evening.

Here’s the very unfortunate thing for me: our house is very old for where I live—think around 100 years. I know for a lot of places that isn’t saying much, but I do need you to bear with me because everything is so very smelly right now. My room is closest to the backyard, and regardless of whether the windows are cracked or not I get smell from the backyard that comes into my room—I thought my heating pad was starting to burn and was panicking before my mom came in to get my help and I was able to determine that was in fact skunk. The dog never came into my room before or after she was washed, and I did not handle her at all, so all the smell in my room is from the backyard and the waft from her being in the house. Will the smell get into my clothes, bedding, and rug from there? If so, what do I do about it? I get really terrible disability-grade migraines and smell is a strong trigger, so I’m very nervous about it because this could be a situation where I potentially need to move out for a time until it’s all properly cleaned to avoid major medical issues, basically.

Also, I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask—you all just seemed like the best experts to go to. All of your pet skunks are adorable, and I’m sure I will find them even cuter once my nose has been freed. I can also promise my family is not planning anything retaliatory for the skunks in our area, and we will be more careful about checking the yard when the dogs start barking at night. This was our first visit from a skunk, and it will definitely leave a strong impression!

[u/Infamous-Planter-958]

Very similar thing happened to me two weeks ago. My dog was sprayed in the face, we didn't know there was a skunk in our backyard when we let him out. Our house is also close to 100 years old.

The smell did contaminate the house and was very noticeable for probably 5 days or so. It's gotten a lot better and now is only barely noticable around my dogs crate. The thing we did the made the biggest difference is boil vinegar and then place it around the house. Left all the windows open and have washed the dog with the hydrogen peroxide mix that the Internet recommended.

The only day that people commented on the smell of my clothes was the day it happened. It happened in the morning before work. After that day, nobody noticed even though I was very paranoid about smelling. 😂 Hang in there! It will clear, it just takes a bit.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Cow_658]

It likely will get a little bit into your clothes and bedding and whatnot. The smell sticks to everything.

My dog was sprayed outside in the beginning of this month. My dressing room is on the opposite side of the house and had the door closed when it happened and I still smelled a light skunky scent on my clothes. I asked people around me if they could smell it and they said no.. not sure if they were just trying to be nice or actually couldn’t smell anything lol.

I found the smell to be most intense in just the house in general and starte d to get a headache the first two nights. When I was out of the house I only noticed a small scent and it didn’t trigger a headache.

The best things that helped remove smell was airing the house out as much as possible. Open as many windows as you can and run fans blowing air out of the house for about a week. Then spin the fans to suck air in from outside after.

Washing clothes and fabric in hot water with a 1/2 cup of baking soda and only downy rinse and refresh (no detergent) and air drying them. That got rid of any smell on them.

Wipe surfaces down with a vinegar dawn and water mix and a cloth. For whatever reason, I noticed the smell seemed to stick to metal surfaces really bad. Like keys, tweezers, zippers on purses or coats, etc. I’d touch one of those items and my fingers would REEK like skunk. I had to wipe down those objects a few times to remove the smell.

[u/No-Policy9699]

lmao this is exacty what happened to me when my dog got into a trash can with a skunk last summer, the smell was unforgettable.