My dog Sprocket got into something incredibly, horrifyingly, stinky tonight. It smells like chemical onion.Very strong smell. He's still drooling, but he isn't showing any signs of poisoning, just drooling a LOT. I gave him milk, and bread just to help his stomach. He is showing no signs of distress, but this stuff is killing me. Does anyone have any idea what it might possibly be? I am confounded ...in East Central Texas.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), December 19, 2001

Answers

Are you any where near natural gas processing facilities? Does the chemical smell remind you of the smell of either natural gas or propane? If so it could be what you're smelling is ethyl mercaptan. Thats the stuuf they use to give odor to natural gas, which in its natural state is odorless.

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), December 20, 2001.

Sorry friend, no clue! Whenever our dogs have come home smelling rancid (YUCK), we have always put them in the bathtub and poured tomato juice over them, rubbing it into their fur, then rinsing with warm water....great fun to do this in the Winter when you have to then blowdry the dog as well, but it DOES get rid of any disgusting odor you can imagine.....my old buddy Molly, the 12 year old Corgi collie mix, used to love to roll in the neighbors compost piles as well as manure piles and anything else she could find that smelled evil..of course she has a thick coat of dog hair..sigh....I'm glad the your dog isn't acting sick.....God bless.

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), December 20, 2001.

A friend who had hunting dogs said that it was direct impact skunk! It doesn't smell like skunk on the road at all. He got a bath with baking soda and vinegar and hydrogen peroxide and flea soap and now he doesn't smell too bad at all...just kind of a PigPen emmanation;).

It really doesn't smell like skunk at all, but I never had a dog get skunked before, so what do I know. Thanks for your help!

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), December 20, 2001.

Ann says she'd heard tomato juice ( maybe acidic like vinegar).

-- Rick (Rick_122@hotmail.com), December 20, 2001.