How to get skunk smell off a pet
Getting skunk spray odor off a pet is notoriously difficult and leaves owners searching for an effective solution to eliminate the horrific scent. Without the right approach, the powerful smell lingers on the animal and makes cleanup a frustrating ordeal.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- This comes up 11.5× more often in r/CleaningTips than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Giving the pet a bathDid this help you?
- 2Hiding shoesDid this help you?
- 3Using a homemade mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish soapDid this help you?
- 4Staying in a hotel roomDid this help you?
- 5Opening every windowDid this help you?
- 6Using bowls of coffee beansDid this help you?
- 7Placing a tarp and a bowl of baking soda over the crawlspace accessDid this help you?
- 8giving the dog a bath with vinegar and dish soapDid this help you?
- 9applying baking soda for a short periodDid this help you?
- 10using Scout's Honor skunk odor eliminator and leaving it on for 10 minutesDid this help you?
- 11airing out the houseDid this help you?
- 12Taking out the litter box more frequentlyDid this help you?
- 13Burning candles and incense or wax melts to mask the smellDid this help you?
- 14Opening windows every nightDid this help you?
- 15Running air purifiers in every downstairs roomDid this help you?
- 16Vacuuming and brushing pets dailyDid this help you?
- 17Washing pet crates and bedding weeklyDid this help you?
- 18Mopping floors weeklyDid this help you?
- 19Changing air filters more frequentlyDid this help you?
- 20Sprinkling baking soda on floors before vacuumingDid this help you?
- 21Using air purifiersDid this help you?
- 22Leaving windows open for a cross breezeDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My roommate has a cat, they live upstairs, I live downstairs, yet the whole house smells like cat.”source ↗
“I burned a candle yesterday and it didn’t help, just smelled like lavender and cat.”source ↗
“I am pregnant so this smell is really bothering me.”source ↗
“My sofa is the scott sectional from The Brick in the black colour and the material is plush chenille and polyester. I cannot get the smell out.”source ↗
“I am desperate to fix this and honestly annoyed because after a week i still smell skunk.”source ↗
“Certainly that will be step #1 once she move out but I’m struggling to enjoy being in my own home in the meantime.”source ↗
“It's so hard to get that smell off 😞 Poor kitty”source ↗
“The pros are coming in 4 days, but this is going to be a miserable 4 days. I’ve got every window open, several bowls of coffee beans, a tarp & a bowl of baking soda over the access to crawl space.”source ↗
“Has anyone here found smell survival tricks to get me to Wednesday?”source ↗