How get cat urine smell out of the house?

[eks6426]

My husband''s cat from his previous marriage came to live with us last summer. He was an outdoor only cat. Then when the weather got colder we decided he would be an indoor only cat. In the previous house he had in/out privelages through a cat door. He is very dirty when outside so I opted for no cat door. We got him groomed so he would be clean and then let him live in the house. This cat is male and fixed. He''s old..probably 14 or so.

We have an inside only cat that has been mine. She uses an auto litter box in the basement. When outside kitty became inside kitty we got a 2nd litter box...regular kind and put it in a different part of the basement than the other cat.

One week in the house and the 2nd litter box was not used. But going on top of my clean clothes and my flokati rug was. I managed to get those clean. But I kept smelling cat pee. Checked all corners and nothing. I have hardwood floors so it is not like it soaked into the carpet.

I was home at lunch one day and 2nd kitty was scratching at the cold air return in my dining room. The cold air return is about 2 feet by 3 feet wood grid on the floor. My house is 1940s so it has the original floors and grates. I shooed the cat away then looked down the grate. Guess what...kitty has been going into the cold air return ducts. This explains why my entire house smells horrid and I couldn''t find anything in all the rooms that smelled bad. It was traveling through my heat system and smelling up every room.

So, we cleaned the pee up with vinegar & water then orange cleaner then Nature''s Miracle (enzyme cleaner) to get rid of it. We cleaned the metal heat duct area plus the wood grate as much as possible. But it still smells. Not as bad, but I can definitely tell. It''s driving me nuts! We put wax paper on top of all the floor grates to retrain kitty so I know there''s nothing new. Litter box is now being used and I haven''t found any place else in the house that he is going.

Any ideas? I can''t live like this.

 

[Christa]

Eew, that''s awful! I''d call a pro and have the ducts cleaned, I think.

 

[KimberlyH]

I feel your pain, Island, and I don''t have a cat! Our house is 2 years old; the woman we purchased it from built a $35,000 fiberglass sunroom (yes you''re reading the number correctly) off the main house for her cats and grandchidlren to live/play in. She carpeted the it and the whole shabang. The smell of cat urine came through the wall of the back of the house into our kitchen, mainly under the sink. We had the whole room removed, carpet incuded of course, and the carpet and pad were still wet from the cat urine a month after she moved out. We are building a patio over it and the cupboard under the sink still smells. I''ve tried bleach and amonia mixed with baking soda, the two most recommended and safest substances to use, and still haven''t totally gotten rid of the smell. I''ve been told by professionals and non-professionals alike that the pet smell removal stuff in the store is useless. I spray it with Febreeze all the time and empty it out every once in a while and scour (for the umpteenth time) and I always leave an open box of baking soda under the sink...I just can''t seem to get rid of it. I hope you get some great advice that I can use too.

Not intending to hijack, just wanted to sypmathize and share what hasn''t worked for me.

 

[JCJD]

Ewww.... Unfortunately, you may have to replace all the wood on the grates. Urine has probably soaked into the wood and may never be able to be removed completely. Plus, the presence of urine scent there may cause the cats to remark the spot. Can you ask your vet to recommend any heavy-duty cleaners? And please let us know what works for you!

Kimberly - do the bleach and amonia with baking soda work on carpets?

 

[KimberlyH]

JCJD,

I don''t know because we didn''t try, we hated the room even w/o the smell (we live on top of a mountain and the entire west side of the house has huge windows and the stupid room blocked our beautiful view) so we made no attempts as salvaging it. We used those products on the outside of the house (stucco) and inside the kitchen cupboards with little luck. I just keep replacing the baking soda boxes, scurubbing with bleach on occasion and praying it will go away eventuallhy.

 

[Lorelei]

Ammonia is a component of urine, so using anything with that in will attract kitty right back unfortunately!

I have had this problem with an insecure male neuter spraying, this year in fact. We stopped him in time with the use of a spray called Feliway, I think you can get it from vets in the States. Once you have cleaned the area with vinegar, club soda, anything alkaline, you spray the tiddle areas with the Feliway. It contains pheromones which reassure a spraying cat that he has no need to p-mail to remark his territories, which is probably what your cat is doing. If it continues, I would definitely get your vet to check him over, but it is possibly a territorial and insecurity thing. Apparently Natures Miracle is quite good for odour removal, I think there are old threads on it. Time too will help remove the smell, but I think white vinegar is as good as anything. Fear not, our house STUNK a while back, some of you might remember back in March when my sweet Teddy cat died, this really upset another one, not because he missed Ted, but Teddy used to keep him in strict order and when Teddy was no longer there, he was confused with all the changes. But our house smells fine now, we managed to stop the spraying in time.

 

[ladykemma]

check also for urinary tract infection

 

[WTNLVR]

I only have dogs, but we use simple solution available at pet stores. It removes the odors so even the dogs can''t smell anything. I had it recc. by kennels and by vets. Don''t know how it will work on cat urine though, that stuff is nasty. Good luck.

 

[CaptAubrey]

Mrs. Aubrey and I have had cats as long as we''ve been together, and have dealt with our share of accidents. I''m sorry to say the situation as you describe it sounds bleak. Cat urine odor has an amazing ability to penetrate and saturate just about anything it comes into contact with, and getting it out, unless you can shampoo with hot water, can be next to impossible.

You need to have the ducts professionally cleaned. There are ways of doing this effectively, though they are expensive.

 

[JoangA]

I have been very successful with this product: http://www.odorxit.com/

You need to really soak the areas though. I used it on a leather couch, removed the smell & didn''t ruin or leave a stain.

 

[honeybee]

I would say that if you've tried every cleaning option, the next best solution (short of ripping up the floors) would be to rent an ozone machine. I think you can rent them from contractor supply places, possibly even one of the general home improvement stores. I know that contractors use them in situations where smells (smoke, decay, etc.) have been absorbed into the drywall and other such porous surfaces. I have friends (brace yourself : icky story).....whos relative died in a house and wasn't found for a few months. After the fact they took it upon themselves to revamp the house and didn't want to tear the house down to the studs b/c aside from the smell the drywall was fine. They rented the ozone machine, and voila...smelled like a new house again. I know, I know...gross, awful, but moral of the story, ozone machines work wonders!

 

[monarch64]

Date: 11/16/2006 4:02:05 PM
Author: KimberlyH
I feel your pain, Island, and I don''t have a cat! Our house is 2 years old; the woman we purchased it from built a $35,000 fiberglass sunroom (yes you''re reading the number correctly) off the main house for her cats and grandchidlren to live/play in. She carpeted the it and the whole shabang. The smell of cat urine came through the wall of the back of the house into our kitchen, mainly under the sink. We had the whole room removed, carpet incuded of course, and the carpet and pad were still wet from the cat urine a month after she moved out. We are building a patio over it and the cupboard under the sink still smells. I''ve tried bleach and amonia mixed with baking soda, the two most recommended and safest substances to use, and still haven''t totally gotten rid of the smell. I''ve been told by professionals and non-professionals alike that the pet smell removal stuff in the store is useless. I spray it with Febreeze all the time and empty it out every once in a while and scour (for the umpteenth time) and I always leave an open box of baking soda under the sink...I just can''t seem to get rid of it. I hope you get some great advice that I can use too.

Not intending to hijack, just wanted to sypmathize and share what hasn''t worked for me.

aw blast...your house is beautiful from what I remember of your home painting thread and gazebo out back. So sorry to hear that a kitty has marked it all up for his/her own...Just wanted to say I hope you find the remedy.

When we moved into our first/current house, we had just gotten a new puppy and I had already had a kitty (Tinkerbell)--she was SO sweet, until we moved into the house. After we had had the new puppy for a few months in our apt., and moved into our house, she peed everywhere she could, seemingly marking as her own. I placed several litterboxes around, hoping she would adapt, but she did not. I took her to the vet, trying to find out if she had a health issue....she did not. Finally I ended up adopting her out to a gal I worked with whose 23 yr. old cat had just passed...everyone involved was happy. I''m not saying you should let go of your kitty, just relating my story. Thanks for listening! I miss her still!

 

[diamondfan]

Cat urine is really potent and stays behind, getting absorbed into porous things. You may seriously have to have a professional come in.

A house we bought when we moved here had a basement with unsealed concrete. The previous owner had cats and adopted a bunch more. When I would open the basement door it REEKED, years later.

Turned out the pee had filtered into the unsealed concrete, and was just in there. I had to power wash it with some chemical and let it dry, do it a few times more and then seal it on top with special marine grade sealant. What a nightmare but there was not getting it out otherwise.

 

[KimberlyH]

Date: 11/18/2006 1:30:51 AM
Author: monarch64

Date: 11/16/2006 4:02:05 PM
Author: KimberlyH
I feel your pain, Island, and I don''t have a cat! Our house is 2 years old; the woman we purchased it from built a $35,000 fiberglass sunroom (yes you''re reading the number correctly) off the main house for her cats and grandchidlren to live/play in. She carpeted the it and the whole shabang. The smell of cat urine came through the wall of the back of the house into our kitchen, mainly under the sink. We had the whole room removed, carpet incuded of course, and the carpet and pad were still wet from the cat urine a month after she moved out. We are building a patio over it and the cupboard under the sink still smells. I''ve tried bleach and amonia mixed with baking soda, the two most recommended and safest substances to use, and still haven''t totally gotten rid of the smell. I''ve been told by professionals and non-professionals alike that the pet smell removal stuff in the store is useless. I spray it with Febreeze all the time and empty it out every once in a while and scour (for the umpteenth time) and I always leave an open box of baking soda under the sink...I just can''t seem to get rid of it. I hope you get some great advice that I can use too.

Not intending to hijack, just wanted to sypmathize and share what hasn''t worked for me.

aw blast...your house is beautiful from what I remember of your home painting thread and gazebo out back. So sorry to hear that a kitty has marked it all up for his/her own...Just wanted to say I hope you find the remedy.

When we moved into our first/current house, we had just gotten a new puppy and I had already had a kitty (Tinkerbell)--she was SO sweet, until we moved into the house. After we had had the new puppy for a few months in our apt., and moved into our house, she peed everywhere she could, seemingly marking as her own. I placed several litterboxes around, hoping she would adapt, but she did not. I took her to the vet, trying to find out if she had a health issue....she did not. Finally I ended up adopting her out to a gal I worked with whose 23 yr. old cat had just passed...everyone involved was happy. I''m not saying you should let go of your kitty, just relating my story. Thanks for listening! I miss her still!

I remember the thread, monie, but it wasn''t me who posted it. I just wanted to go visit it was such an appealing yard! I did a quick search to remind myself who wrote it because it was such a beautiful house. Ours is only two years old and I think DH would flip if I wanted to repaint the exterior already.

The cat belonged to the previous owner, so the issue is gone, it''s just the smell that remains. We can''t have indoor pets, DH is deathly allergic to pet dander.

I''m so sorry you still miss your kitty. But it sounds like she''s in a really good, safe place.

 

[Efe]

I have had success using a product called Urine Out, which I got from my vet. I have dogs though so it may be a different story with cats. Their website is www.urineout.com. It certainly is worth a try.

 

[Christa]

Any luck with this yet, ID? I''ve been wondering . . .

If you want an "it could be worse" story though--friends of ours had a skunk get into their house a couple of weeks ago (contractors left an opening uncovered), and basically everything they owned was ruined. They are out of their house--insurance is working on it, but they''ve been told it will be up to six months!

 

[eks6426]

Well, we are still working on the cat urine problem. It is significantly better but not gone. The Nature''s Miracle worked to a point, but what we found works the best is an air purifier that generates ozone. It neutralizes it in the house. Unfortunately, kitty still shows significant interest in the cold air grates. We covered them with wax paper and we find him shredding them periodically. We''ve moved on to aluminum foil now. The spray says it takes up to 2 weeks to neutralize...we''ve sprayed several times and are now just waiting. If we turn off the air purifier I can smell it some but not as bad. The grate is in my dining room which is really just nauseating to eat. Unfortunately I have a small house with a dining room that is actualy used daily. I am considering setting the litter box directly on top of the grate to see if that helps him get the point.

If this does not stop, kitty will go back outside. We''ll have to build him some sort of heated shelter because it gets very cold in northern Indiana.

 

[VRBeauty]

Just a note of caution that you shouldn''t use that ozone generator any longer than you absolutely have to. The ozone those machines generate caustic and generally not good for you... out in the open, it''s generally known as smog.

I also have problems with a male cat who feels compelled to mark his territory. I''ll have to give that Feliway a try!

 

[JCJD]

Date: 11/20/2006 3:01:35 PM
Author: IslandDreams

If this does not stop, kitty will go back outside. We''ll have to build him some sort of heated shelter because it gets very cold in northern Indiana.

IS - I understand that this urination thing is really frustrating, and it''s going to be a lot of work to tackle both kitty''s behavior and your poor house''s smell. But cats are so much healthier as indoor cats. They don''t fight as often, they aren''t exposed (and exposing your indoor kitty) to horrible incurable diseases, like FIV or Feline Leukemia. They won''t be abused and tormented by ignorant people looking for a good time hitting baseballs or something at the cat. They won''t easily get hit by a car or mauled by a stray dog. And what if he becomes ill or injured and you have to bring him inside the house again? You''ll probably be starting all over with this problem again. Stick with it, reinforce his behavior every time he uses the box properly (good boy, chin scratch, treat) and clean up anything he pees on ASAP. If you tackle the problem now, you won''t have to deal with it again. If you give up, you will start all over the next time you bring him inside.

 

[nejarb]

I had the same problem w/ a nice rug that my parent''s cat peed on when it was rolled up in their basement. When I took it to use at my apt I dropped it off at a "professional" rug cleaner but it still smelled. then I used 2 bottles of the Nature''s Solution stuff (spray, leave in sun, vaccum, repeat, etc) and that helped alot, but I could still smell it a little. finally, I bought this stuff called "zero odor" and that got the smell completely out. You should try it. I don''t know if it''ll work on wood as well as it did on an area rug, but it might.