Hydrogen Peroxide
Another popular choice is hydrogen peroxide, which you can use to remove skunk smells from your pet’s fur without harming any part of their body or health. Mix three parts of water with one part hydrogen peroxide and use a sponge to apply the mixture to your pet’s fur. After applying it, allow it to sit for up to five minutes before rinsing with water. Afterward, brush or comb as you usually would and allow your pet’s fur to dry on its own. The hydrogen peroxide should eliminate the smell of skunk.
Acidic Foods
One final way to clean a skunked pet is to use acidic foods. These may include lemon juice, tomato juice, and orange juice. Buy these at your local grocery store to use them on your pet. While this method is relatively effective when removing the skunk smell from fur, allowing any of these acidic solutions to stay on your pet’s skin for too long can cause irritation or burning sensations. Therefore, you should only apply it to a pet’s fur, never directly to their skin, when cleaning them up. After you’ve used a food solution to clean your skunked pet, make sure you rinse it all off thoroughly with water.
Prevention Is the Best Medicine
As always, prevention is key. Skunks are more likely to spray dogs that are chasing or taunting them, so keeping your pets away from skunks whenever possible is a good idea for avoiding this hot mess altogether. However, if you’re still worried about a skunk spraying your pet, it’s a good idea to invest in a skunk collar.
Skunk collars contain a mixture of essential oils that give off a smell not dissimilar to lemon juice, which naturally deters skunks and prevents them from spraying your pet with their noxious smelling spray. This method is also effective at deterring other pests as well, such as opossums and raccoons, so it can be the perfect choice for pet owners worried about pests invading their yards.
Conclusion
Keeping your pet away from areas where skunks may frequent is the best way to ensure they will not get sprayed by them. However, if you’re still worried about this happening, there are several products that you can use to clean up a skunk-sprayed pet. Skunk sprays can be difficult to remove entirely with water and shampoo, so trying other products or methods may be your best bet. You can try all these methods and see which works best for you. That way, you can ensure that a nasty smell isn’t lingering on your pet!
