How to get rid of that awful smell

Oh gross. My husband took the dogs across the street to potty while I was getting my coat on for our walk. I got ready, ran across the street, and he was struggling a bit with two dogs and said "Jack's eating something that's crunching."

I told him to leave it but he did not, so I went fishing in his mouth. I think I was too late, and I am a bit concerned about what it was, but my more immediate problem is...

I immediately realized my mistake when a huge waft of some foul scent from the Bowels of Hell reached my nostrils. I was wearing gloves at the time, instantly said "The gloves have to go" and tossed them to find Whatever had already seeped through to my hands.

I threw out the gloves in an outside bin, and two hand washings and hand sanitizer failed to totally remove The Scent. Anyway, we finished our walk and came home. I cleaned up flashlight, leash, and wiped Jack's mouth area with baby wipes, then fed quite a lot of alfalfa treats (freshen breath) and a mint-flavored large dental stick.

I then gave an experimental sniff near his face and Blech! Nasty. I got some rags and a bowl of vinegar and water and washed his snout and the sides of his face and his ears (HOW did he get his EARS!). Still gross. So I sprayed some paper towels with a grooming spray I have (waterless shampoo/show sheen sorta thing) and rubbed the whole area.

That sort of helped but I think mostly masked it. I can't really bathe the area well because it's his eye/ear area and of course I can't spray lots of water around his ears. Any other ideas besides the vinegar water and show spray to help knock back the stench?

And I have NO idea what it was. Smelled more of death than poop, but honestly both dogs have found dead mice, birds, snakes etc and never eat them; they roll in them. So I think maybe it was fox scat or something similar?

Hope my poor guy's ok but didn't want to make him vomit because if there was something picky in there that might make it worse.... They always say not to induce vomiting if you don't know what they ate.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on December 7, 2011 at 8:50am

Update to say that the peroxide/baking soda/dish liquid did the trick of getting rid of the last of the smell. Fair warning: he DID smell like peroxide and baking soda after that. It is not the most pleasant smell on its own, but it is a thousand times better than that other smell and then the peroxide scent went away over night. I must say, too, that he was much more tolerant of me washing him with that than with the perfumey grooming spray.

He seems none the worse for wear. If he gets too excited he throws up yet he can eat the most foul thing and be fine. Go figure! I, however, could hardly eat my supper that night and was still gagging whenever I thought of the smell well into the next morning. It took a good 18 hours or so to get it out of my scent memory. Nasty stuff.