Our darling golden retriever took a direct hit from a skunk first thing this morning. Without realizing what had happened, I let her in the house when she whined to come back in. Obviously, she was traumatized by the incident and immediately tore through the house to her favorite "safe" place under the ottoman. I had to bribe her to get her back out, so she was in the house with fresh skunk spray all over her for about five minutes. She's now at the groomer's being professionally de-skunked, but the smell has permeated the entire house and I'm looking for suggestions. Does anyone have any experience with this? Do I bite the bullet and haul in a professional cleaning crew immediately or try and tackle a thorough scrubbing of everything myself? Will it help or do we just have to wait it out until it dissipates?
I'm really concerned that the smell will cling to everything and freaking out thinking about all our clothes, bedding, etc. My four-year-old didn't come in contact with the dog at all and I kept her in her room until it was time to go to school, but when we got there the little girls were holding their noses saying she was stinky. How mortifying is that! Just wondering if I'm looking at days, weeks or months until our home will smell normal again. All suggestions appreciated. Thanks!
We had the same thing happen to our dog, and unfortunately I let him in the house also, but because it happened so late at night he stayed in the house all night. If I were you I would consider calling the professionals. I tried to clean the carpets and furniture myself and it took at least three times for the smell to diminish and months for it to ocmpletely go away. Good luck.
We had the same awful event. Our TWO dogs were directly hit by a skunk. It was so bad!!! We bathed the dogs in tomato juice and dog shampoo numerous times and finally after about a month to six weeks the smell completely left our house. I know it's hard to wait. Every time we walked in I wanted to puke. It took a long time, but we never spent any money to have anything professionally cleaned. I'm so sorry for you. I know it's awful!!
Immediately start washing everything, bedding,clothes and add a lot of baking soda to the water. The carpets are another story, I don't have exprience with that, but try googling removeing skunk spray from carpets. My dog didn't get the smell on his feet, and he must not of rolled around on them. what I had to do to my dog when he was skunked was wash him with a combination of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and a little dishwashing soap. It worked better than the other things, but it doesn't completely remove the smell. Ater 4 weeks, he still has a little bit of it on him, even afte being professionally groomed twice. IT does fade, gets worse when he come sin from the outside, but it will go away. The house though, doesn't smell after the initial washings. The sooner you do it though, the better, because the smell will permeate everything else and the job just gets bigger. Hold your nose and good luck!
We had the SAME problem, at like 2am, 1 year old slept through the whole thing. We washed the dog in a mixture of baking soda, dish soap and peroxide which did the trick... then make a solution to spray and wipe down anything he came in contact with along with leaving the windows open (as much as we could stand, happened when it was cold like it is now) and closed up the bedrooms. Good luck!
The same thing happened to us a few years ago. We cleaned with a baking soda solution, but the smelled stayed for a few weeks. I sprayed my favorite air fresher all over the house to try to hide the smell. Now everytime I smell that certain air freshner I smell skunk! Good Luck!
