Victory over stench is sweet

Work stinks.

I’m not talking about my job, which I love. Honest.

No, it was a certain emanation noticed by a colleague who innocently approached my desk and asked, “Has there been a skunk back here?”

Early that morning my ever-curious dog, Earl, had gotten sprayed by a skunk in the backyard. Before I could catch him, he sped back into the house through his doggy door, frantically rubbing against everything in sight, starting with the bed.

It was like a Pepe Le Pew cartoon with Smell-O-Vision.

As much as I tried to clean the smell, starting by giving Earl a bath, my olfactory nerves were so overcome that I missed items. Like my sweater, which I had brought into the office that morning. Even my hands carried the stench, though I had washed them repeatedly.

And so began my quest to eradicate skunk spray from dog, furniture, clothes and body. You’d think there’d be solid information on how this can be done, but the Internet and the friendly advice of friends -- all of whom stood at a distance -- were full of misconceptions.

There are remedies, however, based in science. One was even featured in a chemistry journal.

It would be wise to heed them. They probably will be needed more often as we continue to encroach on natural habitats.

Veterinarian Sylvia Domotor, whose office is in Monrovia in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, said skunks had found a highly agreeable habitat in suburbia.

“They’re very adaptable to living in communities,” said Domotor, who has practiced in San Gabriel Valley communities for more than 20 years. “They’re small, nocturnal. They use sewers as highways, and bushy backyards are perfect for them.”

Also, residential communities partly shield them from two of their natural enemies: coyotes and bears.

“In this area,” Domotor said, “skunks are not even what I consider to be mountain animals anymore.”

Earl and I just wanted our house back. And as for my career and social life, essence of Pepe wasn’t likely to be a boon to either.

Luckily, an unassuming engineer in the Midwest hit upon the prime solution to skunk smell several years ago when he wasn’t even trying.

“I was working on a project that produced hydrogen sulfide gas as a byproduct,” said materials engineer Paul Krebaum in Lisle, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. “The gas vented up and then came back into the building through the air-conditioner intakes.”

This didn’t make him popular with others in the building.

“The gas,” he said, “had your basic rotten-egg, sewer-gas odor.”

Krebaum mixed a compound that neutralized the odor. It was placed in filters in the venting system, and the complaints stopped.

The project he was working on never made it to market. But in 1993, a colleague mentioned that the family pet had gotten sprayed by a skunk.

The common wisdom was to use commercially available, often expensive, concoctions with marginal results or a home remedy such as tomato juice that merely masked the smell for a while.

“All you ended up with was a pink dog and a pink bathroom,” Krebaum said.

He figured that a weakened version of the solution he used to deal with the gas, which was a cousin to the skunk smell, might work.

Not only did it work, but the ingredients also were available in most supermarkets.

Krebaum, 47, has modified the pet version over the years. Here’s the current formula:

Mix together a quart of hydrogen peroxide (3% strength), a quarter cup of baking soda and 1 or 2 teaspoons of liquid soap. Many brands will do, but Krebaum said Softsoap and Ivory Liquid worked particularly well.

Wearing latex gloves to protect your hands, massage the solution into the fur, being careful not to let it drip into the pet’s eyes. Let it sit for about five minutes and then rinse with warm water.

That’s it. The skunk smell should be completely or almost gone. The process can be repeated if the smell is still prominent.

The process works by breaking down skunk spray, which is composed mostly of highly pungent compounds called thiols. Spoiled food and rotten eggs also contain the highly nose-sensitive thiols. The end product of that chemical process is a sodium salt.

Krebaum said the mixture was safe for dogs and cats if used carefully.

“The stuff that people put on their hair to bleach it is far stronger,” he said. “The worst that could happen with a pet, I figured, is that it would come out a shade lighter.”

He gave out the formula to those who needed it and considered making it as a commercial product. The main problem was that the solution, as formulated, had to be mixed just before being applied or it would lose its effectiveness. Worse, it produces a gas that could make a closed container explode on a shelf.

He figured out how to possibly get around these problems but still wasn’t enthusiastic.

“The people I was working for at the time weren’t interested in this kind of product,” Krebaum said. “And I already get paid well as an engineer. So I thought, ‘Why not just give it away?’ ”

He published the formula in Chemical and Engineering News in 1993 and later exposed it to a huge audience when he put it on the Web at home .earthlink.net/~skunkremedy/ home.

Earl is a smallish mutt of about 20 pounds, but I mixed up a double batch that evening to make sure I could get the solution deep into his fur.

I put him in the bathtub and the process began. Although Earl looked at me with those what-did-I-do-wrong eyes, he didn’t squirm much as I applied the mixture. For the area near his eyes, I used an old washcloth.

I let a bit of the solution wash over my hands too, then rinsed us both with tepid tap water.

As I dried Earl and wrapped him in clean towels, there was none of the stench that had packed such a wallop.

Then came loads of laundry that included everything he had touched, including old sheets used to cover the furniture during the day.

I added to each load a scoop of OxiClean stain remover -- more of Krebaum’s advice. “It basically uses a hydrogen peroxide-like compound,” he said. Everything came out smelling fresh.

By 2:30 a.m., I got to bed, with a fluffy, sweet-smelling, slightly lighter-in-color Earl curled up beside me.

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david.colker@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The right mix

Here’s a formula to eradicate skunk smell on pets.

1 quart hydrogen peroxide (3% strength)

1/4 cup baking soda

1 or 2 teaspoons liquid soap

Mix ingredients just before using. Apply to pet, being careful to avoid the eyes. Leave on coat for about 5 minutes. Rinse with tepid tap water.

Notes:

Use fresh hydrogen peroxide (it loses strength over time).

Wear latex gloves when applying.

Never keep mixture in closed container.

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Source: home.earthlink.net/~skunk remedy/home.