# Pet Odors. Myths, Tricks, Failures



## ToolManTimTaylor (Jul 8, 2008)

Hey all,

I am sure that everyone who has a cat, dog, geraffe, whatever can attest to the fact that they are not "Wizz friendly" 100% of the time. 

Me, I have a Cat issue and before everyone goes off the handle shoot it, feed it to the Giraffe .. whatever I want this thread to go towards helping.

My cats that we have had for 5 years have taken to making the entire laundry room as their urinal. We clean up the mess immediately and take measures to stop it. Using Zep products, Urine be gone and stuff like that has ended up in failure. We replaced the litter boxes, even litter brands but it still is an issue. 

There are a million tricks on the internet and some are ridiculous at best but one I have heard that good ol' cheap Vodka works on cat urine. Tomorrow I am off to the liquor store for a couple six packs :yes: and a bottle of cheapo booze for the felines. Now this method does seem like it may work for a couple reasons. 1: the alcohol content 2: The complex sugars from potato mash in Vodka break down urea.

Time will tell.

TMTT


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## shumakerscott (Jan 11, 2008)

*Great timing*

As I have been looking for wood worm cures I noticed that Borax and white vinegar will work on urine. Might as well throw in some vodka and maybe lemon juice. Just what I have seen, good luck.


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## Charles (Jul 9, 2008)

shumakerscott said:


> As I have been looking for wood worm cures I noticed that Borax and white vinegar will work on urine. Might as well throw in some vodka and maybe lemon juice. Just what I have seen, good luck.


Does that only work on wood or can it be used on carpet too?

I usually use one of those enzyme concoctions they sell at the pet store and then use a shop vac to suck it out. Usually works pretty well...


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## DIYtestdummy (Jan 16, 2008)

Try Lemoquat, if you can find it. Urine is normally alkaline, so you need a good acid to neutralize it. Close off your laundry room! You need to catch them in the act in order to correct them.


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## ccarlisle (Jul 2, 2008)

Fact is that urine comes out acid then becomes alkaline with time. Species-specific, age-specific and diet-specific, pet urine contains a good half-dozen chemical families (acids, bases, hormones, fats etc), most of which need thorough treatment for complete removal.

One of the toughest odors to completly eliminate.


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jun 17, 2008)

ToolManTimTaylor:

What you need to do is identify those areas where the cat urine is, and then have some way of measuring whether the treatment you are using is effective.

What you need is a black light to illuminate the urine. That's correct. When urine is deposited on a surface, it gradually breaks down into organic salts that fluoresce under ultraviolet light. Professional cleaning contractors use high quality versions of the same inexpensive UV lights that bars and strip joints use to detect counterfeit money to detect cat and dog urine, and even people urine too.

http://www.baneclene.com/catalog/ultra_violet_light.html

Since it's the urine that is fluorescent, using a black light will tell you by the amount of decrease in fluorescence whether the treatment you are using is effective in eliminating the urine salts or not. If you don't see the spots getting dimmer under UV light, then what you're doing is doing no good.

Before you go and spend a bunch of money on vodka and tomato juice and anything else you hear "might" work, why not educate yourself about cleaning up pet urine.

Go to:

http://www.cleanfax.com

and type "black light" into that website's search tool in the top right corner of the web page and hit "Enter". That will bring up all the articles dealing with detecting and eliminating pet urine using a UV light. That will get you educated on how to find and identify pet urine, and what products professional cleaning contractors use to remove it.

You should also look in your yellow pages phone directory under "Janitorial Equipment & Supplies" and see if you can find a local janitorial supply shop to see what they sell (or recommend using) to remove old pet urine stains. But, beware, not all of these places have equally knowledgeable people. Maybe phone around to some of the janitorial service companies (that just do the cleaning) to see who they'd recommend when it comes to something like urine stains. The local veteranarians may also be of some assistance in helping you find a reliable expert on the subject, or a product that works well on cat urine.

I've been told that a product sold in pet stores called "Nature's Miracle" works very well in removing old urine stains and odors.
http://www.tisol.ca/content/pet_supplies/natures_miracle.asp
http://www.naturemakesitwork.com/home/index.php

In all honesty, I believe the only way vodka is going to work is if you drink it yourself. Then, you won't even care about the pet urine odor in your laundry room. But, that's only a temporary solution.


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## JohnDIY (Feb 29, 2008)

Do your cats even like vodka?


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## JohnJak (Jun 28, 2008)

I love going to jobs sites, walking into the house and smelling cat urine.


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## ToolManTimTaylor (Jul 8, 2008)

Nester, It's funny you mentioned the Black Light as I have a couple of them from my property management days and when I broke that out to prove to my wife that the cats are doing something wrong (God forbid because they are her cats) She freaked. I then went another step further and showed her the bathroom :laughing: :whistling2:

John, One cat does (Actually rolls in it) , the other winces. :surrender:

DIYTD, I take it Lemoquat is lemon juice? We keep the litter boxes in the laundry room.

ccarlisle, Combine DOG AND cat , eveicted occupants and the board of health and THAT my friend is a rawnchy smell that never ever goes away. :furious:

John, I ...... um .... yeaaaahhhhhhh :icon_confused: Maybee if you work for Servpro?


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## ToolManTimTaylor (Jul 8, 2008)

And I never made it to the Liquor store yet :no:


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## DIYtestdummy (Jan 16, 2008)

ToolManTimTaylor said:


> DIYTD, I take it Lemoquat is lemon juice? We keep the litter boxes in the laundry room.


No sir, Tim. It is/was used in hospitals and veterinary clinic, but I've seen it at hardware stores and in industrial catalogues. There was another product we used in one of the vet clinics that I cannot remember the name of. That stuff was a miracle cleanser! I don't even think a blacklight would pick up traces or blood after you used it.

ccarlisle - Can't argue with you there.


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## ccarlisle (Jul 2, 2008)

If my hunch is correct, "Lemonquat" is just a quaternary disinfectant perfumed lemony. Now 'quats' are always used in complete deodorization treatments of pet smells because bacteria feed on the fats in the urine and add to the smell. So an easy fix is kill the bacteria. Still leaves other elements of urine to fix: the ammonium salts and the yellow colour to name but a few.

Oxidizing agents and reducing agents are both in our toolbag - as is a thermal fogger. :yes:


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## Janet (Jul 29, 2008)

Pet urine...pee---uwww. I recently moved into a place that reeked of dog urine and after peeling back the carpet and underlay (vomiting twice in the process) I found that the pee had seeped through to the gypcrete surface. Visions of replacing the floor vilely danced through my head. I managed to neutralize (almost immediately) all but one of the troublespots with Zep Ordorstroyer (the commercial concentration...not the stuff sold at the hardware store). For the MAIN troublespot, I had to scrub out the gypcrete and my heart sank when I found the smell had gotten into the particleboard sub-floor. I 'Zepped' and scrubbed the crap out of it and as a last ditch resort, threw in some Pine-sol (a phenol) to boot. I let everything settle in for a couple of days---->don't know which is worse, pee or pine-sol---->and when I was satisfied put a couple of coats of Kilz primer on top of it---->just to be sure. And just to be sure, I let the Kilz sit for a few days before beginning to patch up the hole in the gypcrete. To date, the only smell I have to deal with is the sickeningly sweet smell of too much Fabreeze in the remaining carpet that the prior owner had used instead of cleaning up after/training her pet. 

I'm indebted to Ryan at Petcetera who steered me to the Zep product (rather than try to sell me a product they sold), and seriously greatful that I don't have to replace my floor/subfloor!

It's been a *GD* nightmare and taken a good 3 weeks to suss out, but it's finally over. To wit, I've dubiously crowned myself the "queen of pee"


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## JohnDIY (Feb 29, 2008)

Oh I see, I thought you got them drunk so that they wee'd out in the street (or is that just me :whistling2::laughing


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## Beth777 (Jul 3, 2008)

Nature's Miracle liquid can be bought by the gallon at pet stores. It can take a couple of weeks to work as the enzymes slowly work. My friend used a LOT of Nature's Miracle to deal with pet problems, and she managed to keep her very clean home smelling nice only through great diligence!

You thoroughly clean the area, then you saturate with Nature's Miracle and wait for it to work.

I would be pretty frustrated if the cats' continued bad habits caused an ongoing problem with this. I have heard that bad habits in cats are very hard to break. Have also heard that cat urine problems can indicate a health problem in the cat. Maybe a consult with the vet could help?

I'm pretty sure if you give the vodka to the cats you won't have the urine problem anymore, but you will still need some gallons of Nature's Miracle, and some marriage counseling....


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## ksbnellis (Jun 7, 2011)

*Cat urine*

I sure would like to know how the vodka thing works for you. I have 4 indoor cats with many cat litter boxes that sometimes get overlooked by my felines. It is the throw rugs in my house and i use them to maintain my new floors in kitchen and dining room.:huh:


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