Here Kitty, Kitty..

Hi!!  I love Kitties.  They are so pretty and fun to chase.  I chased a kitty and my owners thought I needed a bath.  Humans are so strange.    Here is what he looked like:

We have a problem with skunks in the area.  If you haven't had the pleasure of smelling the fine aroma of a freshly skunked dog, count yourself lucky.  It's pretty awful.  Believe me, when we get one of these emergency baths in, they go in the tub immediately.  The worst part about skunk spray is that apparently when you add water to it, the smell gets stronger.   So, even dogs we thought weren't that bad, show us that isn't the case when we start their baths. 

Getting rid of the nasty smell is a bit tricky, and nothing is guaranteed to remove it completely.  I will say using tomato juice doesn't work.  We get alot of "red" dogs in for baths after their owners have tried that old time remedy.  One client didn't have tomato juice, so she tried tomato soup.  Yeah..that doesn't work either.  Wow..that was disgusting. 

If someone wants to try their hand at home, we give out the following recipe, which many of you have heard of.

1 quart of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
1/4 cup of baking soda
1 to 2 teaspoons liquid Dawn dishsoap.

We used this for a few years too, and it does work pretty well.  The key is the dish soap, as skunk spray is very oily and the Dawn helps to break it down.

We've changed strategies now, thanks to this bad boy:

It works VERY well.  We give a cleansing bath 1st...and if the smell is strong enough, we mix dawn into that shampooing.  Next they get the Smelly Pet.  After that, they get a leave in conditioner which smells amazing.  Smelly pet also makes a leave in spray.  The really bad ones get a dousing in that as well.  And, yes, we charge extra for this service.  Sadly, we still always have to give a disclaimer, as no matter what you use, for a month or so afterwards, every time the dog gets wet, you will smell it again. 
The worst part of doing these baths, is that the skunk smell will get into your nose...and that's all you can smell sometimes for 1/2 the day.  I'm asking everyone else to "smell this dog" and tell me if it still smells like skunk..  nice.    I always hope I can just go immediately home when this is part of my day..I always worry that I smell of skunk too.  Not cool.

Smelly Pet also works for dogs who have rolled in deer or bear poo, and the ever popular dead fish.   Lucky for me dogs love to smell bad, it helps keep me in business!