skunk smell??

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OK I had a patient today claim that she has horrible under arm odor that smells like a skunk... I told her I had no idea and that she needed to consult her Dr. But now I am curious... I figure there is something underlying causing this, anyone have any ideas? Its simply for my own knowledge. But the poor lady has even stopped going places for fear that she will stink everything up...

Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

what i want to know is why is she sniffing her armpits....if she knows she smells bad, she needs to bathe and use deoderant and it might get rid of the smell....

anyway, maybe she has some kind of underlying sz disorder and that is an aura? i have epilepsy and when i used to seize alot before i got the right meds i would smell something like rotten eggs or burning wood.

i agree with the psych consult too!

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Specializes in PEDS-HEM/ONC.

Maybe it's hormonal. When I was pregnant with my last daughter, I could not stand the smell of my clothes. It was the strangest thing. It was only my clothes and the odor wasn't horrific, it just bugged the heck out of me. As soon as I had the baby this went away. Maybe I needed a psych consult, but I believe it has to have been something related to the hormones.:bugeyes:

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Specializes in Hem/Onc, LTC, AL, Homecare, Mgmt, Psych.

I used to have this LTC patient that smelled like tacos all the time-- esp her underarms -- despite good hygiene! We never had tacos on the menu in the nursing home so no one knew why-- Maybe all us staff members needed psych evals.

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Specializes in LPN, Peds, Public Health.

Thank you all for your responses...

I can't really say much about the sniffing her under arms part because I have been known to do that too ! (NOT in front of a patient!!) haha... But yes the info was passed on to the Doc so hopefully he can make something of it.

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