Soaps.com - MESSAGE BOARDS

AnnePage - This morning, you posted that you had a skunk on your property. Since it sounds as though you might have had more experience with them since you live in the country, I'm hopeing that you can help me (or my darn dog). We have bird feeders hanging on the deck and the birds spit out bird seed onto the ground below. A month or so ago, there must have been a skunk eating that bird seed and our dog, a Great Pyrenees, tore out after the skunk (yes, she's not real smart) and got sprayed fully in the face. The poor dog couldn't see a thing and the spray went up her nose. I took her to the groomer who wasn't even opened up for the day yet but I sat outside with the dog tied to a tree waiting until they showed up and they washed her at least 4 times. They did get the odor off of her coat but the spray that went up her nose is still there a month later. I called the vet and he said that since he couldn't exactly put tomato juice up her snoot, she will just have to live with it. I do feel sorry for the dog and for those of us who are near her. Do you know of anything I can do for old "skunk snoot"?

i would go to another vet, and i have heard tomato juice does not work, maybe you could google it

cats meow - Thanks for the suggestion. I've been so busy trying to distance myself from the dog that it never even occurred to me to Google it. Darn skunk shot right up her rather sizeable snoot. Whatever they used on her at the groomer did work on her coat.

I don't have any suggestions, but I do have a story. 10 years ago ( I was pregnant with my daughter) both my dogs got sprayed by a skunk. It happened early in the morning (like around 6). My hubby let them out to pee and then it happened. I had no idea, and my hubby didn't tell me...he didn't want to wake me up. Do you know what he did? The dogs were inside pets, and we had no way of keeping them outside, so he broght them IN THE HOUSE and locked them up in the office! He was going to go to work with his tools/trailer to get his men all set, then come back home and deal with the dogs. I woke up smelling this horrible odor...I thought the house was on fire or something! I called hubby and then he told me what happened! He washed them a bunch of times, but we had to keep them outside on our deck for a month! (It was a long deck that stretched along the whole back of the house, so they had plenty of room.) and he'd wash them everyday when he got home from work!

We too had nightly visitors last summer of the skunk family. We have a sunroom & because we have 3 cats, who love to watch "their" birds feeding, had the feeders are about 3' from the glass. It got so every night last year we had the same old horrific smells.....

We moved the feeders to the far end of the yard. Now the only thing we have close to the sunroom is a suet feeder in a cage & hummingbird feeder. If anything falls to the ground the ground feeding birds get it..... No skunk problems this year!!

As far as your dog is concerned.... I agree with Cats... Get another opinion!!

Can you give Nasal saline to a dog? would that work? not sure

Sorry so late.

I had to help drive the skunk out from under the house. My nose is cinged with the smell, it was so bad.

Even the chickens won't go back under the house at this point!

The issue is this: skunk spray is an oil base excretion... so you have to attack it ASAP, and with a multi-pronged effort.

I use a combo of the tomato juice (also great after a perm to get the smell out) DAWN dishwashing liquid, and dog shampoo. The dishwashing liquid cuts the oil, and the tomato juice reduces the smell.

But bad as it is... the dog will still retain some of the smell long after the spraying... the secret is to just not get the dog wet... as that will start the odor up.

As for the nose issue... I just don't know what to say... poor doggy! Check with several vets, and call the Humane Society, or a country vet... for they probably have better experience with skunks.

Okay... now for my 'fave' skunk story:

For the last few Holiday Seasons, I have been working from my home at night, taking orders on the phone for the www.collinstreet.com bakery.

Last fall, it was HOT, and it had been a long night on the phones... so I took a quick stretching break in the yard. There is no close neighbor, and no street lights this far out in the country... so I carry a flashlight with me every time I go out.

Wild Girl, a rescue dog who is half aussie shepherd, and half coyote, came out into the yard with me.

The next thing I heard was a banging cacophony under the house... and I feared that WG had grabbed one of my hens, who might have perched under the house.

I aimed the flashlight toward the noise, and waited to see my dead chicken coming out from under the house in WG's mouth. It was then that I noticed that the hen had a long white stripe down it's back... and a fluffy tail! YUCK!

WG then left the pile at my feet, like some odorific gift.

I flashed the light down, and noticed some movement. Somehow that poor thing was still alive, and was trying to pull itself up, and crawl off. WG saw the movement, and grabbed the skunk one more time.

She threw the skunk in the air, and tossed and ripped at it until it wasn't nearly dead.. but really most sincerely dead!

So there I was, 10:30 at night... with a pile of reeking death in the yard. My hubby was highly medicated, thanks to his spinal problems... so it was up to me to dispose of the corpse.

I was clad in biking shorts, a tee-shirt, and knee high rubber boots... and with a 'head light' type flashlight... a real fashion statement for sure.

I grabbed a shovel, and carried the skunk over a quarter mile down the road, and dumped it in the pasture there.

All I could do was laugh at the absurdity of the moment... and think of the old song;

"Seems to me, that ain't no toad... you got a dead skunk in the middle of the road. Dead Skunk in the middle of the road... stinking to high Heaven!"

Thanks everybody for your suggestions as to what to about my stinky, skunky Great Pyrenees. Since I can't handle the dog by myself and need help getting her into my vehicle, I did go online and Googled and found a place where I could ask a vet online. This vet did, in fact, tell me to get a baby syringe and make a solution of 1/4 t. table salt; 8 oz. (or 1 c) of warm distilled water and 1/8 t. baking soda. Mix those 3 things together and aspirate it up into the syringe; place the tip of the syrings snug against the nostril and send a good blast up the nostril. Immediately, hold the dog's head up for a couple of seconds and then let her blow the contents out. Give her a break for a few minutes and then do the other nostril. Gees, this doesn't sound like a fun thing to have to do with a giant breed of dog but it's the lesser of two evils, I guess. I will let you know how she and I make out. Thanks for your help.

Good luck!

Rather you than me! I can't imagine how hard that will be! Poor doggy, and poor you!

bigtimesoapfan - You sure did have the right idea! I'll let you know what happens. I have a feeling that the dog is going to come out of this in better shape than me. Funny.

Thanks again, Everybody.

Aw, thanks CatsMeow.

I don't think of myself as brave, as much as I think that I am unfortunately the only one here able to do what needs to be done.

Even though I married a man who is 8 1/2 years younger than me (I was cougaring when cougaring wasn't cool! LOL) But now the hubby is disabled, and I am left to take care of much of the farm dirty work... I have few options.

I have unfortunately had to round up cows in my garden with nothing more than a length of PVC pipe, and a black garbage sack. I have learned to butcher hogs... and I have seen the gooey end of a bovine in the process of calving one too many times.

OOOO, how I miss the big city.

I don't know if this may work, but my Corgy snatched a box of chocolates and ate the whole thing. Of course, we all know chocolate is poison to dogs - I called the vet and she said since it had just happened and was still probably in his stomach, to give him a couple tablespoons of hydrogen perioxide - this would make him barf it up. No only did he barf it up, but the foaming action also came out of his nose. Maybe that would be a 'round-about' way to clear out your doggie's nose. Yuk!