How to Find and Remove Cat Urine Odor
You know this, because the scent is unmistakable.
The bouquet is somewhere between Pungent Ammonia and Noxious Musk. Worse, if you don’t remove cat urine odor it lingers for years. The source of this obnoxious and stubborn odor is the uric acid crystals which deposit on your carpet fibers, bond, and are re-activated anytime liquid touches them.
This is why attempting to remove cat urine odor with traditional household cleaners usually fails. Even worse, ammonia-a common household cleaner-not only re-activates the scent, but is so similar to the original smell that instead of removing cat urine odor, it sends kitty a message that he or she needs to mark this spot again, because some other cat has been peeing there!
So what’s a cat owner to do? Cat urine is not only intolerable to live with on a daily basis and embarrassing if you’re trying to entertain guests-but it also lowers the value of your house, and can cost you your security deposit if you live in an apartment.
First, work on preventing spraying of cat urine in inappropriate places in the first place. Find out if kitty is sick-take him to the vets. Find out if kitty is getting more particular about her litter box-change it more often. Find out if kitty simply feels threatened or insecure for some reason-invest in Feliway, a product that will calm your cat’s nerves.
Next, make sure you can locate the source, so that you can remove cat urine odor. One cause of immense frustration to cat owners is that though they can smell cat urine odor, they can’t find the spot, and therefore, can’t remove cat urine odor from their homes. Don’t bother crawling around on your hands and knees sniffing the carpet. Not only will you make yourself sick, and look silly-but the only thing you’re likely to find is the earring you lost last summer, wedged between the sofa and the baseboard.
Compared to other noses in the animal kingdom, the human nose is a weak and defective instrument. We can detect broad patterns, but we’re not great at focusing and tracking. Put simply, you’re not going to find the stain on your own unless your rugs are bright white-and maybe not even then. What you need to find and remove cat urine odor is a black light.
Luckily, you can find one of these small gadgets for under $10. When your cat urine odor fighting black light arrives, darken the room and turn on the light. Cat urine stains will actually glow in the dark, a fluorescent yellow!
Once you’ve found the source of the cat urine odor, you’ll want to purchase a bacteria/enzyme cleaner designed specifically to remove cat urine odor. Household cleaners are cheaper, but they will not do the incredible job that an enzyme cleaner, like PetCo’s Simple Solution, will do to remove cat urine odor.
The difference? The enzyme cleaners actually eat the bacteria and crystals so that the scent cannot be re-activated, and will not attract kitty to return to the scene of the crime.
Following these steps will ensure that you can remove cat urine odor, protect your property, and maintain your lifestyle without having to punish or get rid of your cat.
