Skunk Dog
Ruby guarded us in the coach every night, and fended off the javelinas to keep them from eating our prickly pear. She scared off a few coyote as well, and kept the local wildcat population at bay.
She also was exceptional in discovering and alerting us to skunks, usually by barking followed by the presence of a strong odor. The first time it happened, it was in the middle of the night, I had just happened to get up for a drink of water, and looked out the window.
Ruby was lying on her bed like a little doggie angel and the next thing I knew was in the air, and then amid lots of snarling, she had something black and furry in her mouth and was furiously shaking it. I was terrified that she had got a hold of our neighbor, Aurora’s, black persian cat, so I jumped in my sneaks, grabbed a broom and headed out to defend the kitty.
I got about six feet from her when the wave of spray hit. This was not a Kitty Cat….. it was a POLE CAT!!!!! Fortunately, I was only hit by the odor, not the spray itself. Ruby was not so lucky.
Tomato juice doesn’t work. A small box of baking soda, a bottle of peroxide and Dawn detergent worked well. But the Pet Odor remover PDQ works just as well as anything and you can simply spray it on and work it in.
However, this has happened so often, that we just don’t even bother with anything anymore.
Ruby licks. We haven’t been able to stop her licking everybody. It is her special way of greeting friends and loved ones. She licks everyone she can get her tongue towards. We had hoped that taking Ruby off the chain and into the fenced front yard would help curtail her tendency to get skunked.
Wrong. Those little guys seem to be able to worm through the fence and get in like nobody’s business. Ruby seems to have negotiated a truce with those critters, most of the time. But though she doesn’t chase or attack them anymore, she is friendly and curious when they come through the yard.
But remember what I said about her special way of greeting friends? Got her into trouble, and the way I figure that it had to happen, she was sleeping out in the grass, and a skunk wandered by, used to the dog so guard was down. Ruby happened to wake up just as the skunk wandered by, its butt right by her face.
Well, what could be a friendlier thing for a dog to do to another, but lick its butt? This, however, so startled the skunk, that it delivered its full load, immediately and directly into Ruby’s mouth.At first, we thought she had simply taken a direct hit in the eyes, as her face swelled up and she was rubbing her face on the ground. She gagged and spit out mouthful after mouthful of foam.
We didn’t know if we needed to rush her to an emergency vet, so we ran to the Internet, and found out that while she would be miserable, it wouldn’t kill her.Couldn’t let a miserable dog spend the night outside, thus the house and bedroom dog began its more pampered life.I rubbed her down with PDQ all over her face the next morning, and while her fur smelled normal, every time she opened her mouth, we would be hit by a wave of pungent skunk aroma. She had swallowed it.
- I learned there is nothing you can feed a dog that will take skunk breath away.
- I learned it takes six weeks for the skunk smell to go away from dog breath.
- I learned to accept skunk breath as a household odor.
I am pleased to announce that for seven weeks, we have been skunk encounter free!