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I pulled up masonite to expose a fir floor, and found old cat urine underneath. Phew. Any ideas (besides burning down the house) to eliminate the odor? I have heard about using a black light to find the urine chrystals, and need to know the products and distributors of some sort of treatment.
Thank you, Nancy S.
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Try using vanilla extract/water mixture.
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Vinegar will neutralize the acids. There are several commercially avaliable products.Try a carpet cleaning supply store.These products have enzymes that eat the odor causing bacteria and die off when the source food is gone.If the urine has soaked into the wood, chances are that you'll end up having to replace it. If it's near a corner or wall, check the base shoe,base board and the plaster/drywall. It may have wicked up the wall, in which case it should be cut out and replaced.Spray the framing w/vinegar or the enzyme and let it dry before sealing it back up.Generally, cats have more acid in their urine than dogs, and an older cat has more than a kitten.So, if it was a kitten-you may get it out, if it was an old cat-Cut it out and replace.Probably a little more than you wanted to know about urine!I used to clean carpets, I know ALOT more about carpet stains that I'd like to!Jeff
*There is an enzyme solution you can purchase for this problem that is highly effective. You have to keep the area wetted down and covered with poly for 2 days. A vet or good pet store should be able to tell you what its called. About $30 a gallon when we used it a couple years ago after trying every folk remedy we heard about.JonC
*The most commonly touted product available at pet supply stores is called Nature's Miracle. I've had moderate success with it; some people swear it's the best and totally effective; other people report it's useless. It was mentioned in another thread on this forum a couple of weeks ago, too.I've been battling the cat urine problem for decades. I currently have 54 cats on my farm (rescue, placement, retirement, etc.), and all the cats come in for the night. (No coyote bait here). I recently got a new product from my vet called The Eliminator from EVSCO. Claims to get rid of odor and stains from carpets, but the technician says she successfully rid a dog of skunk smell with it! I haven't tried it yet.But I know from experience that once it's in the subfloor, it's probably there forever as far as the cats are concerned. You might get rid of the smell as far as your nose goes, but the cats can still detect it. If your objective is to mask it for your nose, you'll probably be able to. And Jeff is right...once it's wicked up into the sheetrock, you have to replace the wall. That stuff retains the smell for eternity and gets all mushy and crumbly. Gotta rip it out.One warning...don't use anything with ammonia in it. Just makes it worse.
*Let me get this straight-----that was 54 cats in the house? How big is the house?
*Wouldn't sanding and refinishing the floor work? Or if your going to carpet over it then sealing it with kilz or bins (shellac)?
*We had an 16 year old cat that started having problems on our floors. We found that carpets are not repairable. But we found that a good washing of the wood floor and a coat of sealer does a good job of hiding the smell. Note I said a good job not an excellent one. After the fix, the odor is more prevelent during times of high humidity. If you get down at the cat's level I can smell it all the time but at my normal level it is not noticeable. We have found out that any rug or carpet is fair game for cats that are in need or sick. You may not notice it until they have used the rug several times and the floor was wet with urine.
*Nancy---the product the vet tech recommended is The Equalizer (not Eliminator). I checked last night. The frequent references to Kilz in this forum have persuaded me to try it. The testimonial from the guy to had to clean up after the dead guy convinced me. The cat urine smell does dissipate over time, at least as far as the human nose goes.Lonecat---appropriate name. Right now the 54 cats are in a single wide trailer. Gives new meaning to the word trailer trash. It's far from ideal, but then most people figure no house is ideal with 54 cats. It's making even me nuts. We're in the trailer while construction on my house is being done. By next month, we'll be out of the trailer and the vast majority of the cats will live in the kennel/cattery I had built as an extension to my garage. The kennel has radiant heat floors in concrete slab, with a drain in the center of the floor. The lower 4 feet of walls are OSB. The floor and walls will be painted with that 2 part epoxy paint they use in laundry rooms. So I will be able to hose this kennel down. I have a 7.5 foot long commercial stainless steel sink and drainboard for food prep. Impervious to cat urine. The kennel has indoor and outdoor (screened in with chainlink) living areas. A separate room of the kennel is for the 2 dogs, who have their own dog door to the outside.A few (less than 5 at a time) cats with no behavioral problems will be allowed in the main house.There's some other guy who frequents this forum who has a bunch of cats. I think he's in Canada. Gaby maybe?
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Hey, everyone:
Thankyou for all your help, You've given me some good ideas. I only have 2 kitties, plenty kitties. The one who made the mess is long since in catnip heaven. I'll try the enzyme, then the vanilla, the vinegar, then the Kilz. If I put down a layer of heavy plastic, then 1/2" outdoor glue plywood, and roll flooring, I should be able to defeat the worst of it. Beauty is not a concern, this is the laundry room. I sure appreciate your assistance. 54 cats? Wow. Nancy S.
*As an afterthought, I have found something that may make working in a room previously used by cats more tolerable: In the icky spots, sprinkle a 1/4" layer of clumping cat litter. It rapidly holds down the odor, and makes the room smell sickly sweet, but at least its better than the original smell. It sweeps up easily, too. Nancy S
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Geez Rufus...54?
I gotta hand it to you man. I have 10 and they all live in the house. They come and go as they please and they prefer to be outside most of the time. I take care of a lot of strays outside aswell but I'm at my limit as far as cats in the house. Finally, a guy with more cats than me (more..there's an understatement). Since you're now in the lead maybe some of the razing I got can be directed at you for a little while(hee hee)
You have a good heart Rufus.
Nancy if you're reading this, I also have a cat with a problem. We call him Liberacy...he's the pee-ianist. That's my feeble attempt at humor. Seriously though, he tends to pee in the house frequently. I use a moderate concentration of water and bleach to get the smell out. If the urine has been sitting there for a day or two before I find it, I first clean it with a regular household cleaner, let it dry, then I spray my bleach mixture to remove the smell. I works instantly. I'm not familiar with some of the other products mentioned but I'm sure they work well. If you're going too use bleach, use all the appropriate precautions because the stuff can be nasty. Wash the area after with water aswell. And whatever you do do not, I repeat DO NOT, mix bleach with anything else especially amonia. It's extremely dangerous.
Good luck
Gaby
*Hiya Gaby,What a kind heart you have!(And this is certainly after the fact to the original poster.)About your little peeanist (cute!)--have you tried lemon-scented anything in the areas he like to pee? Supposedly, cats do like the smell of lemon. Also, I'm sure you've already done this, but for folks new to this board or topic, be sure to see a vet in case this is a symptom of a kidney prob.One other thing--if you feed your cats raw food (chicken, beef, liver, not pork), they need less water because of the high level of water in their food. If the kitty is eating canned food (WAY high in sodium, not to mention garbage such as cat collars!), perhaps he is very thirsty.Most often, I've found, kitties peeing not in their litter box is more due to stress than to anything else. Have you heard of Rescue Remedy? It's a combo of Bach flower essences, to alleviate stress, and works for people, too. ()If he has a fave place to pee, I've heard (but not tried it, since I'm very lucky w/my kitty) that you can place aluminum foil over the area. Apparently they don't like the sound it makes (or footfeel) when they walk on it. I'd definitely try the lemon peel or lemon scented oils.Thanks for taking care of our furry kids :)Purrs,kai =^..^=
*Thanks for the suggestions Kai. I'll definately give them a try. I didn't know about the lemon scent. My cat is actually trying to mark his territory. He's one of the smallest but he's also the most dominant. He's fixed but I guess he doesn't know that. Stress probably has something to do with it since he is among 9 other's. He does the same thing out in the yard. I noticed that during the summer when he's out more often he sprays much less inside although he still lets us know that he didn't forget about us.Thanks again.Gaby
*Before selling our house last year, we ripped out the old carpeting, in part because of the old kitty urine stains. What I found worked well was to put several coats of kilz on the spots. Seemed to work quite well. I've got 5 cats and didn't have a problem until a strat female adopted us. Well, she's not spayed (that's coming 1 March..yippee) and when she goes into heat she tens to mark her area looking for an elusive male..anyway, when I find those areas, I saturate it with "Simple Solution", found at pet store. It soaks in for 5 minutes and then I blot up the liquid. It pulls the stain and does a darn good job at killing the odor. Geeze...can't wait until 1 March!
*Gaby,I confess, I'm not a guy. I'm a 'gurl', as Lisa would say. Rufus is the name of the best cat ever (what else) who died in 1988. I use that name in all sorts of situations. So, gurls are more prone to be kind to kitties and go overboard. I wish I had only 10, seriously! You're lucky if only one is spraying! Don't I wish! I just can't turn away when I find one in need, and I don't turn any away that just show up at my farm. I occasionally find homes for newcomers, but not many. I get them all vaccinated and altered and treated by the vet if necessary, so they are well cared for. This is not one of those horror house situations you read about in the paper! But there is constant cleaning required and you learn real early on to put your papers and other belongings away. You also install child proof (i.e., cat proof) latches on cupboard doors.My spraying problem is certainly due to the stress caused by the high density and whatever competition they apparently feel. And it doesn't stop just because they're fixed. I've even had some females that spray...I've seen them do it. I have some that spray outside only and seem not to do it inside. Thank God for small favors.I've tried just about everything...lemon oil and lemon wedges, since I heard the same theory that Kai mentioned: cats don't like citrus. Didn't make a bit of difference. Tin foil: they just piss on it. The commercial things to keep critters out of your garden don't work and some of them smell too awful for humans to abide. I've given up with trying to prevent it and now try to pretect my stuff. I keep things like my computer covered with plastic (one of those barbeque covers works great). I have rooms that are off limits to known offenders.I'll have to remember the Liberace name. Can I use it? The latest cat that adopted me just before Christmas is a big headed, torn up tom who had apparently never been inside before. He took about a month to learn about using the cat box, so his name became Mr. Pooper. He gets it right now, but the name stuck.
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The only sollution I see to cat urine is the "Final Sollution!" My female cat of 9 yrs. has peed on the basement floor every day. Yes, she's still alive - by virtue of my daughter who won't let me destroy it. Of course she doesn't help with the daily paper towel urine routine, nor does she feed the cat. I've recently finished the aforementioned basement, working around puddles of piss and have everything completed except the floor. When this cat dies,(I hope today) I can finally finish the basement and take a break from daily cat-piss-clean-ups.
Don't get a cat, 14-0
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I have 2 cats. Mother and daughter. The daughter has six toes on each front paw. (This extra toe is a large one, outside the tiny 5th toe that is normal, so it looks like a thumb.) I used to have 4 cats, if you make a wild guess why it's only two now, you will probably be half right.
When I was at my wits end about cat urine in bedclothes, I discovered using lemon ammonia got the smell out the very first time I used it in the washer. Nothing else worked, not even all those 'miracles' from the vet and the pet store. I used half the bottle of lemon ammonia in the one load of laundry, and rinsed the load twice before taking it out of the washer.
I don't know how this will help with a urine on the floor problem, especially in light of the advice NOT to use ammonia... Maybe its a matter of using the lemon ammonia, and then washing the area thoroughly afterward.
By the way, I have just one dog. His name is Rufus. LOL
*Has anybody tried a concentrated solution of lye? It's pretty good at destroying organic compounds. Everybody complains about cat piss, but I can't smell it.
*For a while there I thought the guys might let up since there was another guy who had more cats than I do. Oh well...like I said before Rufus(ette), you have a good heart. The world needs more people like you.You're welcome to use the Liberace name. It actually came from an old Benny Hill show where he used the same joke. I wish I was that original. Take care!Gaby
*I've been giving serious consideration to trying the bleach solution suggested above. I don't think I've ever tried that, and I guess I'd rather put up with the bleach smell than the urine smell. What we need is not so much something that gets rid of the smell that offends humans as something that repulses the cats and makes them steer clear of their favorite marking spots. Maybe bleach will do it!Gaby... yep, I don't know of many guys who have multiple cats on their own accord. Usually, some female dragged them into the situation. My longtime human male companion is just as dedicated and hard working in cat care as I (also responsible for bringing some home), but I doubt he'd take this on by himself. Are your multiple cats your "fault", with no woman influencing you? There are a few men with that inclination; we could use more.Unfortunately, we cat collectors have a bad reputation since most people who take on double digit cat or dog care haven't got the $ to provide proper care. And they don't seem to be willing or able to do the constant cleaning and picking up to make the environment habitable. As my vet (who owns a Jaguar, probably financed mostly by me) says, I'm the only multiple cat person he's met who's sane. I think the difference is that I recognize this is not a good situation and I don't want 54 cats, but I'm not going to just dump them off at the pound or neglect them.So I just handle it...my own little charity, as it were. It makes me sad that I don't have time to spend even a few minutes petting each one every day. So I rotate...pet a few every night.
*When we bought our present house, a dog had used just about every square inch for relief. We were told to take the floors to the bare concrete, vacuum, spray with Lysol and then sprinkle with baking soda and after a while, sweep,and not use any water, cleaning products or whatever. It worked perfectly. I just hope Lysol knows the difference between cat and dog urine!! Good luck....
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I pulled up masonite to expose a fir floor, and found old cat urine underneath. Phew. Any ideas (besides burning down the house) to eliminate the odor? I have heard about using a black light to find the urine chrystals, and need to know the products and distributors of some sort of treatment.
Thank you, Nancy S.