Be prepared: make up a 'skunk kit' each year.

**********Notes**************

1) Clean plastic mixing containers and utensils are preferred. Metals encourage auto-decomposition of the peroxide.

2) Hydrogen Peroxide 3% solution is usually sold in pint (500ml) bottles, so you'll need two. The 3% grade is often marked "U.S.P.", meaning that it meets the standards for medical use and purity as set forth in the United States Pharmacopoeia.

The use of other strengths/grades is not recommended unless you're a chemist, and even then a trip to the 24-hour drugstore is much better than a trip to the emergency room.

3) Use baking soda, not baking powder. "Arm and Hammer" is one popular brand. Baking soda is also called: Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Bicarbonate, U.S.P., Bicarbonate of Soda, and Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate. Do not confuse any of the above with Washing Soda, which is Sodium Carbonate. Washing Soda is about 100 times more alkaline than Baking Soda and can cause skin burns to both you and your pet.

4) Two preferred brands are "Softsoap" and "Ivory Liquid". As far as auto-decomposition of the peroxide is concerned, the surfactant package in these two is fairly inert. Heavy-duty grease-cutting brands such as "Dawn" are less inert, and hair shampoo is probably the worst.

5) Once mixed, the peroxide slowly breaks down into water and oxygen gas. Thus it gets weaker with time and so it should be used promptly. The exact rate depends on temperature, pH, and catalysts such as trace amounts of metals (iron,etc.) in the soap and/or tap water.

How much pressure will the complete decomposition of 3% hydrogen peroxide produce in a closed container ??? It depends on how full the container is. Assuming negligible solubility of Oxygen in water, a bottle half-full of peroxide will develop about 140 psi. A bottle 3/4 full would develop 420 psi. This can do a lot of damage.

Highly pure hydrogen peroxide decomposes very slowly if kept cool and in a dark place, a few percent a year. The more dilute solutions usually decompose faster (due to impurities in the dilution water) and have a trace of stabilizer added. So why aren't the bottles in the store bloated or bursting ? Look carefully inside the cap... you'll see some very tiny holes in the cap liner to let the oxygen gas escape. A good reason to always store bottles upright.

Look for an expiration date on your peroxide. If you're using stuff which has been sitting around in your medicine cabinet for years, buy fresh peroxide.

6) Use tepid water: lukewarm.

7) All brand names mentioned in this website are trademarks of their various owners.

(excerpted from Paul Krebaum's web site. Please visit his site for more in depth information...!)
 

How does peroxide, baking soda, and soap get rid of skunk smell ?
 

1) The soap acts like a surfactant and is just there to help wet the fur and get the oily skunk spray into solution where it can react with the baking soda and peroxide.  What happens next is all chemistry.

2) Skunk spray is mostly composed of compounds called thiols, and acetate derivatives of same. The human nose is very sensitive to low molecular weight thiols, a few parts per billion in some cases. (Thiols are also called mercaptans and are deliberately added to natural gas to help humans detect the presence of a leak.)
Methane thiol is the simplest organic thiol. The simplest thiol of all is hydrogen sulfide, which is inorganic. Hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs.

3) The baking soda is there to raise the pH of the brew, that is, to make it more alkaline. It splits teh thioacetates into it's main components, thiols and acetates, accelerates the reaction between the thiol and peroxide.

4) The only reaction after that is a simple neutralization of the acid with the baking soda to form the sodium salt, which is harmless, odorless and washes off with water.