Sprocket and the Skunk
As the title states this was an inevitable outcome as there are quite a few skunks around our property here in Wheatley River. I can dare say that this has been the very first time I have ever dealt with this issue since owning dogs starting in 2010. We came close last year but is actually sprayed the garage door....But it happened last Monday morning.
To set the scene, I had company over from Vancouver who was boarding a flight back home that morning. As you know these issues always happen at the worst possible times. Or if I look at it positively the best possible time because I had been away to Cape Breton and there was a dog sitter staying at my house so I am glad that it was me dealing with this and not her.
Now normally I always put Sprocket outside with a little flash light on his collar so that I can see him when he's roaming around in the dark on our fully fenced property. We have a full acre of land so it can difficult to spot him without it. Perhaps this light is what has been us being successful in avoiding the dreaded SKUNK! I don't know the answer to that but I will continue to use it.
As we all know the mornings lately have been dark at 5:45am and typically the dogs stay in bed until I finish my shower and get dressed and then it is their turn to get up. On Monday however, when I got up Slicks also got up and started to whine so I thought maybe she really needed to go out. So I took them out before I showered. Absentmindedly I didn't put the light on Sprocket because I could see a little bit and I just wasn't thinking.
I opened the door and they flew outside (which is normal) and immediately Slicks started to bark so I ran outside to stop her from barking as it was 5:45 in the morning. It was instantaneous. the SMELL UGH SKUNK. In hope the spray had not hit the dogs I ran to Slicks and I couldn't smell it directly on her. But poor Sprocket was rolling, snorting and jamming his head into the grass.
I ran back into the house to get the Skunk Off Spray I had luckily bought in preparation to this ever happening. I quickly read the directions and ran back outside with a tea towel to wipe away the hit on Sprocket. Unfortunately, I couldn't really tell where he had been hit likely because he had been rolling around so much. So I rubbed his face and neck down and then sprayed the Skunk Off on him.
At that point I made my first mistake by bringing him inside and letting him go - he ran straight to my BED! NOOOOOOOOOOO get off... The second mistake I made was to take him the shower. Apparently you should keep them dry? I don't know but it really did make it worse I believe. I had some hand made dog soap in the shower and I scrubbed him down along with some Skunk Off Spray. At this point my nose was fully full of Skunk Stink so I had no idea how bad anything was. It was at this point as I got out of the shower that my company came out of the spare bedroom to see what all the commotion was and they were hit with the smell. Not wanting to get fully skunked they ran back the spare room as they were due to get on a flight just after 8:00am... What a morning.
The third mistake I made was I took off Sprocket's collar and I left it in the kitchen sink soaking with hot water and the Skunk Off Spray... well lets say that that mistake was HUGE!!!!! don't ever do that, when I got home that night from work the house was unbearable with skunk smell. I had to have every window in the house open for 2 solid days with an essential oil diffuser running 24/7 to get the smell out. God only knows if it is actually still smelling because I can't smell it anymore but likely it still does because Sprocket still smells.
I gave him a second bath over the weekend - and it doesn't seem to really help. It is slowly getting better but my goodness it is bad. The worst part of this whole thing is Sprocket has been extremely itchy since all this took place. I don't know if it is from the actual Skunk or the Skunk Off Spray, but he is really irritated by it and also the skin all around his eyes (especially his right eye) is very scabby and off colour, poor pup.
So I have learned some valuable lessons in all of this. Always have the light on him as I think this has been helping avoiding this situation, also I may invest in some motion detection lights for the back yard. I am also very thankful that it hit Sprocket and not Slicks as some of you may know that I am still unable to give her a bath or hold her long enough to get a towel on her to do much of anything. Especially if she was upset about the whole situation. So it always could be worse!!!!
Who has a Skunk story to share? Any tips on ridding the smell off of Sprocket??
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