My cat got sprayed by a skunk.
Posted on | March 6, 2008 |
Help.
She smells awful and is currently spending the night in the garage with a bunch of old towels (sprinkled with catnip to sweeten the deal) until I have the time to figure out what the hell to do with her. How do you wash a cat in tomato juice?? Any and all suggestions welcome.
Category: Thoughts & observations
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7 Responses to “My cat got sprayed by a skunk.”
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March 7th, 2008 @ 6:29 am
my dog got sprayed by a skunk a year ago and it was really hard to get the smell out. It took about 10 baths to get there, so good luck with that and a cat!
The thing that worked was a concoction with hydrogen peroxide i found while desperatly surfing http://lavplourde.tripod.com/skunk/ . I called a dog groomer the day after to see if i could bring him there to get them to get the smell out, and they pretty much said use that formula. So it’s what i’d recommend.
March 7th, 2008 @ 9:19 am
Tomato juice doesn’t work. Your best bet is to take her to the vet and let him/her handle it. Our dog got sprayed a few years ago and it was the best investment we ever made. If you try to bring her inside to wash, your whole house will end up smelling
Good luck!
March 7th, 2008 @ 9:45 am
Mix together equal parts of baking soda, shampoo, and hydrogen peroxide. Wash the cat in that. It works amazingly well (take it from a dog owner that has a skunk prone border collie!). I’d think that getting her near the water is going to be the hardest part… but this should do the trick if you can manage that part.
Good luck!
March 7th, 2008 @ 10:39 am
Agreed about not washing the cat inside the house… unless you want scent du skunk every time you shower/do dishes/brush your teeth. I have used the 2nd description above, but would encourage you to contact a local vet as they may have a special “neutralizing” shampoo you could use. Either way, it’s icky. Sorry sweetheart!
March 7th, 2008 @ 4:03 pm
Baking soda and peroxide works the best for us - our dog got sprayed twice last summer! You might have to wash her several times. We tried calling our vet when it happened, and they said they use the same peroxide/soda formula that we’d use, so it’d be a waste of our money. Not so sure I’d want to bathe a cat, though! Good luck!
March 8th, 2008 @ 3:35 am
Ok, well, I’ve never had to deal with this myself, but I have a book of country cleaning tips. This is compiled from over a thousand different people. One lady suggested tomato sauce … but then there’s this other story:
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One spring evening just before dark, I decided to go out and close the chicken house door so no coyote or skunk would get at our laying hens.
Unfortunately, the skunk beat me there and when it was as surprised as I was, it sprayed me full in the face (but luckily not in my eyes!)
In panic, I remembered what one of our older neighbors had told me about how she got rid of the smell after a skunk had sprayed her. I decided to try her remedy. I gathered a few small pieces of wood and some wood chips. I put down the wood chips first, then the firewood, and risked a quick trip into my kitchen to get matches and a cup of cornmeal.
I lighted the fire, and when it was blazing a little, I sprinkled half of the cornmeal over the flames, causing a heavy swirl of smoke. I stepped to one side of the fire so that the slight breeze blew the smoke onto my body.
I twisted and turned, bent down low, and encouraged the smoke to engulf my body. I continued turning and contorting myself to get the greatest possible exposure to the smoke. I blew on the fire to make it blaze again,then added the rest of the cornmeal. Bending low, I carefully lowered my head to get the smoke into my hair, turning around and around.
I felt the smell was gone, but was afraid I was no longer a good judge of that! So I put out the fire, went in and washed up, and then decided to say nothing when my husband and daughter came home. After they told me of the evening’s events, I couldn’t stand it any longer. “Do you smell anything?” I asked innocently.
“No, nothing. Should we?”
Then I told them my adventure!
They came closer to me and sniffed. My daughter even smelled my hair. No odor!
My husband thought I was fooling them, so I told him to go out and check the chicken house. He didn’t have to go that far, for when he got near the hen house, the smell reached him and he firmly believed me.
–
Don’t know if that sounds like something helpful - but it might be an alternative to a bath.
Also, there’s a few tips in here as to warding off skunks. They apparently don’t like smelly things. Mothballs as well as insecticide are recommended.
Ok. Back to lurking. :]
March 8th, 2008 @ 3:36 am
oh poo. I didn’t look at the date. I’m sure you’ve already solved it. :]