A portable de-skunking kit is simple, easy, quick, and inexpensive to assemble. You’ll need a 16-ounce plastic bottle of hydrogen peroxide, a one-pound box of baking soda, some liquid soap, a jug of tap water, feminine hygiene deodorant product, and plastic or rubber gloves to wear while mixing all these ingredients in a bowl. Also wear the gloves when applying the de-skunking solution to the stinking dog.

When Bob Osgood followed Zeke, his five-year-old Lab, into the clump of reed grass along the cattails, Osgood's hunting partners expected to see pheasants fly from the cover.

Instead, when Zeke leaped into the thick stand of vegetation, Osgood immediately and loudly hollered "Skunk!" as the Lab suddenly backed up gagging on a face full of fresh skunk juice.

As the putrid, rancid, piercing odor suddenly filled the air, Zeke rubbed his muzzle on the ground and rolled over several times to escape the overwhelming eye-burning, stomach-turning skunk smell.

No amount of rubbing and rolling, however, reduced the intensity of the aroma.

"Now what?" Osgood asked his hunting partner whose Suburban held the dog crate where Zeke was going to ride on the 50-mile trip back home.

"You and Zeke wait here and I'll go into that little town we drove through and get some tomato juice to take the skunk stink off the dog," Osgood's partner volunteered.

"Forget tomato juice for removing skunk from a dog," the store owner told the desperate hunter. "I've got a German wirehair that has never learned to leave skunks alone, so I've had this same problem many times.

"Use hydrogen peroxide and baking soda mixed with some hand or dish soap and a little water to form a paste that you massage into the dog's coat," the store owner advised. "When the fur is thoroughly soaked with this mixture, wait about 10 minutes for a chemical reaction to occur. The peroxide and soda molecules, according to the theory, will bind with the oils in the skunk juice and neutralize most of the odor they carry.

"After 10 minutes, wash off the peroxide and soda paste, then re-apply the same combination but this time also add a packet of Massengill douche powder to the mix. Massage this in as before then wash the dog down with a mild detergent or gentle shampoo and lots of water.

"In my experience, this process will reduce the skunk odor by 75 to 85 percent…at least enough so you can stand to ride in the same vehicle with the dog," the store owner added.

Back in the field, Osgood applied the peroxide, soda, and soap concoction to Zeke as instructed and washed the Labrador, then soaked him in a cattle dugout for several minutes. "That's good stuff…I can hardly smell the skunk," Osgood's partner--the owner of the Suburban--said on their way down the road to the next hunting spot.

"Yeah, I'd say it saved the day…and the whole trip!" Osgood replied.

Any hunter who has had a gun dog blasted by a skunk can understand the seriousness of the experience. If not treated, the skunk stink stuck to a dog cannot only end a hunt but can also lose you your place in a motel room and can cause real problems back home for a housedog or even a dog that lives outside in a kennel. So an effective treatment for a skunked dog is, in fact, essential.

OTHER TREATMENTS
"Tomato juice has long been advised as a cure for skunk odor on a dog. But in most cases I've observed, a thoroughly skunked dog, one that has been hit hard and heavy in the face and body, still smells like skunk and tomato juice," says Dr. Woody Franklin, a veterinarian from Brookings, South Dakota.