Mike's Place

Caught a brief whiff of skunk off Toby last night. Ugh, every now and then it resurfaces. The vet said it could take a few months to go away completely. I read one person's account on the interwebs, saying it took two years for the skunk smell to dissipate completely from from their dog. It seems mostly to reappear when he gets wet, or when he's curled up in a ball, sleeping, thus heating the affected area.

Labels: Skunk, Toby

Again, a long delay on posting. I have friends who update their blogs almost daily. I used to, but now seem to be posting once every couple of months.

The most significant recent event was...

The Skunk!

A tale of tragedy. Four weeks ago today, as I was leaving a friends' house, Toby ran into a skunk. And lost.

We've all smelled skunk road kill. At ground zero, it's even worse. The fur on his chest turned bright yellow, and he smelled like some combination of sulfur, sulfur, something long since dead, and sulfur. It was vile.

I took him into my friends' guest shower, and spent about half an hour shampooing him. When we got home, I made him stay in the garage for two days. I had to pick up some Nature's Miracle Skunk Odor Remover, and regularly spray the car, the furniture, and the garage throw runs, for about a week and a half. The object was less getting rid of the smell, than it was breaking down the enzymes in the oil, to keep the scent from spreading from one object to the next.

I also treated Toby's fur with it a few times, but the smell remained.

I ended up shaving off all the fur on his chest and neck areas, down to about 1/8th of an inch. Calling the vet, I was also given a suggestion to use a mix of peroxide and baking soda (1/4 cup of each, along with 1/4 cup of water, and 2 tablespoons of dish soap -- saturate the area, and let it sit for 15 minutes). I applied this mixture to the chest and neck area a couple of times, then the next day did a full-body shampoo to break down the oils in the rest of his fur.

This did the trick to keep the smell from spreading, but Toby continued to stink for three full weeks. That's also about the time my friends' house stopped smelling.

Today, Toby still smells of skunk up close, but it's very, very faint.

I had hoped he'd learned his lesson about chasing small animals, but no, he continues chasing squirrels and birds. Last night, again at my friends' house, he noticed a skunk on the back porch. We closed the curtains, but he was nonetheless curious. At least he didn't get up to the glass and start barking at it -- having the house sprayed would probably not have been a good follow-up to the previous experience.

Labels: Skunk, Toby