I need practical advice here. What has worked for you? Really worked?
We have a lovely cat..for 11 years now and she never went outside of her potty box. We also adopted a sweet fatty cat 3 months ago. We love her now and obviously are emotionally invested in both of them. My husband is a bit more practical, and while he likes the cats, the "love" is not there like it is for my teen daughter and I.
This past week we discovered that one of them had pee'd in the dining room on the carpet and now can tell that this is not the first time. We did what we could to clean it (some odor pet stuff we had form when we had a dog a few years ago..using the wet vac, etc), and made arrangements for prof carpet cleaners to come on Saturday. They did a great job (carpets really needed it all over anyways)...but that area along the wall in the dining room still smells.
We plan to pull it up along there (thankfully its along the wall...about 2 feet in)..and attempt to "patch in" some padding so we can remove whats there, and the carpet cleaner gave a treatment suggestion for the sub floor wood (to use the product "KILLZ" on it).
But what do we do to the carpet itself? Is there anything that will really get that smell out of the actual carpet?
We have also taken steps to attempt to determine which cat is doing it...also added a second litter box to the house and we are locking one cat in my daughters bedroom with her at night (where she has food, water and a potty box as well)
Any other suggestions that actually work??
SO I pulled the carpet back..I just couldn't stand it any longer (hubby wanted to wait till the weekend when he could attend to it, but I am here all day and its making me insane, not knowing who did it, watching them and smelling it). Its way worse than I thought.
So I will have him look at it when he gets home and I think I will go get some Natures Miracle tonight if the local Petco has it and try that. I think we can just cut part of the padding and replace that..and hubby will likely want to try the sugestion the carpet cleaner gave us to do the Kilz product designed for odor (I looked a ttheir site and its an oil based product used for pet odors, smoke damage, etc..so we will look into that for treating the subfloor I think...)
Thanks for all the help and I will perhaps update again in a week or so if we are successful....
You've got a lot of good suggestions here, but one thing you should do is actually have 3 litterboxes, in different areas of the house, when you have 2 cats. Any time you have multiple cats, they recommend 1 box for each, plus 1. Cats don't like to share and you will find that they will often pick a favorite box.
We thought our cat ruined our basement - she sprayed all over (yep, she - didn't know females did it too) since got her fixed, and problem solved. We did get the smell out. We completely soaked the carpet down probably through the padding with Natures Miracle, let it sit overnight. Then we added another light coating again, and used a steam-cleaner with resolve cleaning agent.
The clothes - that was worse. We used to sort the piles on the floor in the family room, and one week she sprayed about 6-7 loads. I'd say, I got the smell out in the 1st wash for 90% of the time but some fabrics I had to wash a 2nd time.
My recipe - add clothes to hot wash, but I had a lot of gentles that needed cold, and it worked for them. 1 1/2 cup or so of vinegar, a scoop of oxyclean, and a cup of baking soda. Ran the wash for a few mins to get everything all stirred up, and then soaked overnight. The next morning, add detergent. I used to use Dreft, but found Arm/Hammer and Tide work fine too. It has to be enzymatic - I think most brand names are. Add another cup of vinegar during rinse cycle to soften fabric, and absorb more smell. I also added fabric softener. Line dry. If they still smell, repeat. I've been lucky - and haven't had any colors change/fade or anything stretch/shrink - even the dedicates - which I washed on heavy duty - figured with cat pee on them already I had nothing to loose.
The vinegar - neutralizes the pee - so the cat doesn't smell it again.
Oxyclean - breaks up stains (and I presume smells too)
Baking Soda - absorbs the odor - and makes bubbly action w/ vinegar.
Only have one item of clothing it didn't work on, something with some kind of elastic or something in the neckline.
Suggestion abou the source of the problem - take them both to the vet for a urine culture. Generally when cats do this it's either because the litter box(es) need to be cleaned more often and/or not enough boxes (which it sounds like you have fixed) OR because of an infection, which needs to be treated with antibiotic or the problem will continue.
This is not what you want to hear, but I've always had cats, and you basically have to replace the carpet and padding. I had this situation in two different houses in one specific carpeted room, and I had several cleaning companies tell me that they would do everything they could, and sometimes -if it had been a rare occurance -it would work, but usually the carpet and padding had to be removed. Often, by the time you notice it, the cat has been going in the exact same spot for a little while.
Anti-icky poo may work. It actually breaks down the ammonia in the urine that causes the smell. So it is not masking the urine but breaking it down. This will help to prevent the cat from re-visiting the spot.
I would rule out medical issues. If there are not any underlying medical issues it may be stress associated with cats coming together. There is a syndrome in cats known as feline interstitial cystitis and is a diagnosis of exclusion. Things your vet may recommend feliway, increasing water intake (water fountain, etc), introducing wet food (C/D specifically), continuing with cats separate and re-introduce them once you are sure that the litterbox is working, giving the guilty cat formulated glucosamine-chondroitin, etc. It is not an easy fix and not all cats will respond to all things.
Good luck.
Eco-88 has gotten out everything I've used it on. Cat urine, cat spit-up (gross!) and even when my daughter left a 32 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips within reach of our dacshund - that will eat anything. Thankfully, the dog is still alive and my beige carpet is spot free.
When we moved into our current house we faced a similar problem- but in our master bedroom right under the bed along the wall. We tried EVERYTHING. Vinegar solutions, professional carpet cleaning, very expensive urine-gone cleaner from the pet store... and nothing worked. The carpet in the bedroom was very plush, high quality stuff and we hated to rip it out, but that is exactly what we finally had to do. When we ripped it up, I was afraid that a new carpet might not even take care of the problem, as the urine had soaked into the beautiful wood floors underneath, but the new pad and carpet have worked miracles and we no longer have that awful cat urine smell in our bedroom. Sorry I couldn't share a less drastic solution!
I have no suggestion for the smell, my cat peed on clothes that we could throw in the washer- but be sure to have the cats- particularly the older one, checked for a bladder infection- or urinary tract infection.
Simple Solution works best and it doesn't have that rubbing alcohol smell that Natures Miracle does. I also suggest to taking the cat to the vet. Cats that stop using the litter box usually have an infection or crystals in their urine.
Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract litter worked for my adult cat pee'r.
She was declawed which is often a pre-cursor to carpet wetting.
~A.
What is KILZ?
I have used it during painting to hide old water sports, but have learned that new paint usually goes on wwell enough to cover.
If it is the same thing, I dont know what you will gain from it for actually covering the smell.
Have you checked with insurance company or the red cross to see what has been used in places of flooding and or smoke damage.The smell of old water or smoke has to be comparable to urine.
Check withthe local kennels for cleaning products, I cant remember smelling urine when looking at pet shops or humane society.
I have used Nature's Miracle and it worked fantastic! We even had a problem with it on a mattress in our guest room, everytime someone stayed over the pets would get upset and pee on it. We had to put an entire jug on the mattress and let it air dry but the smell is all gone and the peeing has stopped. Good luck to you!
Before the Kilz we have some wonderful, 100% natural products that can help the smells. We also had a problem with one of the cats all of a sudden urinating on piles of paper, argh, and the problem seemed to be full litter boxes. Let me know if you'd like more information. Good luck.
I may have the largest cat in my vet's practice - his largest was 31 lbs. He's about the same age as yours, and he's getting a little messy with the litter box and missed right onto the carpet a few times recently.
Nature's Miracle has worked for me, but the trick is that you have to treat it, and then absorb as much as possible. We had to treat 3 times putting towels over the area with a heavy weight on top to wick the liquid out of the carpet.
You should call your vet, though, based upon the advice below. Cats don't just start going on carpet for no reason. There's like a medical explanation behind it that needs to be treated, or you're going to be constantly chasing your tail.
Nature's Miracle is supposed to be good, but I would also try Feliway. It could be stress from either cat. The old one could not like the new one, or the new one isn't comfortable yet. The pheromones could help the situation and prevent it from happening again.
Sol-U-Mel is great for stains and odors...even cat urine.
I know you already got them cleaned once, but I would suggest this company to spot clean that area of carpet:
http://www.allerganx.com/minnesota_commercial_carpet_clea...
I used them last month to clean a couch that had been peed on repeatedly by our cat in an attempt to not have to throw it away and I was impressed.
