My car is ruined by skunk. UPDATE

Maintenance/Repairs
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If you straddled the skunk, it may not of darted under one of your tires. The skunk’s instinct when being charged at by a larger animal is to raise up its rear and squirt. It typically does not run.

So if you have enough ground clearance, you may not have killed the skunk, but it could have left a trail of stink water all down the center under carriage of your truck, or some low hanging part of your vehicle could have caught the tail and hinnie of the skunk and is hanging from there, along with the spray of stink water.

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I was and am grateful I was able to stop in time when a small child on a bike darted out in front of me from behind a parked car.

And the time a HUGE momma moose and her calf bolted across the road in front of me from out of the forest in Yellowstone National Park.

I’ve managed to brake in time to avoid deer on several occasions. Several friends haven’t been as lucky and have totalled two cars on rural roads due to deer strikes.

If I ever run over some poor cat or dog, I don’t think I could stand it.

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:slight_smile: Thanks! I am still feeling bad about the skunk. Hubby just left to take the SUV through the car wash before he tries to spray the vinegar and surfactant solution on the vehicle. He has really bad arthritis in his hands and thought that if the car wash could do some of the job, it won’t take so long to spray and finish it up. My back won’t let me do the job or I would do it myself. Getting old is a peach LOL

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It is hard hitting critters, I was on a 2 lane road with a gravel downward sloping shoulder, oncomng traffic, going 45mph and then 2 raccoons were right there in the middle of my lane, I hit them, felt terrible but felt evasive maneuvers were too dangerous, and cars behind me could rear end me if I slammed on the brakes, hope the fared well but doubtful.

I had one other scary experience, was driving into the sun, big thunk, pothole my thought. Get to work and there is a giant clump of long ladies human hair hanging from my bumper. OMG I thought, pulled it out and looked at it, A large clump of gum in the middle, no blood, figured someone must have cut it out tossed it and it ended up n my bumper somehow. I hope the OP does not mind digressions.

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About 15 years ago, a friend of mine totaled his car shortly after leaving my rural house at night.
As he crested a hill at about 45-50 mph, there was a deer in his path, so he jammed on the brakes. Unfortunately, his old Honda did not have ABS, and he skidded into a ditch, totaling the car.

He phoned me, and I arrived to guide the sparse traffic with my flashlight until the local gendarme arrived. That horse’s ass cop (I’m sorry for insulting the horses) announced that he was considering ticketing my friend for reckless driving because there wasn’t a deer carcass in evidence. My response, was, “So, because he didn’t hit the deer, your theory is that this sober person with a clean driving record intentionally drove his car into a ditch?”

Luckily, the a-hole cop saw it my way, and decided that a summons was not appropriate.

The take-away from that incident is that deer are indeed a major hazard on rural roadways, and if one wants to avoid even the possibility of a summons, I guess that one should try to hit the deer, rather than avoiding it.
:thinking:

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Yeah me and critters. I was pulling my trailer and just on the outskirts of town, three ran across the road. They never even looked. Another time three were on the side of the road in a 55 limit. I stopped, they started across, then stopped and went back, then stopped and started across, then stopped and went back. Slowly drove through. Then in town just a couple blocks from my house, one ran across the street. Pitch dark. Another one on the entrance ramp another time. So I dunno, deer, turkey, coyote, coon, but never a skunk. I drove a lot and at night. Unpredictable.

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I have no idea how old you are . . . I’m middle-aged myself

Anyways, I’m a blue collar guy with a bad back

And it’s not age-related, I’ve always been this way

Anyways, a few months ago I finally decided to take action and went to an orthopedic institute to consult with an MD

He prescribed back therapy session . . . that lasted about 3 - 4 months, twice a week

In addition, I was doing back exercises every day at home . . . and still am doing it

Bottom line . . . it’s helped tremendously.

There have absolutely zero “incidents” since I started and I feel peppier

I’m just throwing out ideas

I would regularly see all types of folks at the orthopedic institute

young, old, men, women, thin, heavy, etc.

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You are right! A good chiropractor or MD can help with bone and muscle problems. I found an amazing chiropractor in Mesa, AZ - Dr Heidi with Gonstead Chiropractors. I was in agony when I first went to see her with sciatica and she got rid of it completely! I am no longer in AZ but in MO and there is no one like that here in our rural area. I did find a new Chiropractor a few towns over who I went to see once a month or so back and the first visit wasn’t bad but no major earth-shattering results. I was going to go back but mother nature decided to liven up my life by giving me shingles. 3 weeks later I am not contagious, rash all gone, but nerve pain is way up there. Just as I was dealing with that, I hit the skunk. There comes a time in life when you just have to throw your hands up in the air and laugh…it beats the alternative.When I was a kid I wanted to be older…this is not what I expected.

On the up-side, the truck smells a lot better after hubby took it through the car wash, better than I had hoped for. It’s still sitting out near the horse pasture and there it will stay until the dog doesn’t wrinkle up his nose and back up when he gets near it! :slight_smile:

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Docs are fine, they are in the family, but one of my Secs had back problems and went through about 3 surgeries and worse every time. When we both called it quits she was due for another and the prospect wasn’t good. I only mention that surgery should be the last resort. Now there is a tree cutter up in Canada goes by Buckin’ Billy on youtube. He had a tree come down on him and was in much pain until he discovered a set of exercises that made it better. He just demonstrated it in one of his sessions a couple years ago. Great guy if you want to know how to sharpen chains and cut trees down, but if I had back pain, I’d be trying his exercises.

OK, here it is. You can look at the one where he almost died too to get an idea of what he was dealing with.

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Think how he felt!

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You need to be carful with chiropractors. About 20 years ago the head of the American Chiro Association or whatever it is was on CNN and during an interview he said about 85% of what they do is mental. In other words, they’re BSing the patients and laying a placebo trip on them.

About a dozen years ago I suddenly came down with arm weakness. It took both hands to start the car, shift it into R or D, and I couldn’t even sign my name anymore. I went to a chiropractor who did a bit of BS stunts including twisting my neck. It accomplished nothing.

I went to the top neurosurgeon in this area who did an MRI and informed me my spinal cord was completely crushed at C2 and C3. Flat as Scotch tape and he had no idea how I was even moving or alive. He was doubly appalled at the thought of the chiropractor twisting my neck and said I could have died instantly and on the spot.
A month or so later (after neck surgery) the chiropractor’s office called me for a followup visit and when I told them about the crushed spinal cord and neck surgery they could not get off the phone with me quickly enough. SLAM and they were done with me.
And they had told me the usual BS line; you just have bad posture is all. A number of visits will correct this…

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Additionally, a lot of them make much of their money by peddling overpriced vitamins to their patients. Even if those patients are already taking vitamins, they are told that the Chiroguy’s vitamins are better.
I worked with a woman who was told by her Chiropractor that they matched vitamins to patients by their blood type. Essentially, a load of bull manure…

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I want to be extremely clear on one thing . . .

I did NOT go visit a chiropractor

I visited an MD . . . a doctor, in other words . . . at an orthopedic institute which is affiliated with UCLA health.

This is the real thing, not some fly-by-night operation or some guy that just tells you what you want to hear and then “pops” your back and sends you on your way, only to return every week for the rest of your life

There were initially 12 exercise sessions, and I extended it by another 12

But the whole premise was that the rehabilitation specialists watch you do the exercises, step in when you’re making mistakes, watch you progress, and give you a list of exercises which you do on your own time

This is fixing the underlying problem, not just masking the symptoms

From what I understand, chiropractors do NOT operate on the basis of fixing the underlying problem . . . which might be weak back muscles, poor posture, and lots of other things . . . but instead they just “treat” the symptoms and make you feel better immediately, but don’t actually do anything to head off the problem or make any kind of progress

I never even considered going to a chiropractor

I know plenty of people who are obese but don’t want to do anything about it. And to go along with that, they’ve got back problems . . . quite possibly connected to the extra weight . . . but don’t want to fix the underlying problems. They just want their back popped every week.

And some of these guys are popping EXTREMELY powerful pain pills every single day, multiple times a day, in fact, which in some cases would endanger their commercial driver license, if they were ever pulled over and/or given a random drug test

I don’t want to be one of those guys

Which is why I chose to go to an MD and do back therapy and exercises

You want to fix the problem

You don’t want to just sugarcoat it and pat yourself on the back

There

I’m done