Still mopping up after the 4th of July

July 10, 2017 9:15 AM

My poor terrified dog refused to go out to pee during the recent bout of fireworks craziness, and peed on our rug. Help me get the smell of hound pee out!

We own this rug, which is 100% wool, and our dog piddled on it overnight. It was probably stronger than usual because she had been holding it all day. I sopped it up and doused it with Nature's Miracle, and have repeated that process but was just not getting the very strong pee smell (and probably actual urine) out. The urine soaked all the way through to the backing fabric and I think I didn't realize how long I should have spent sopping it up before trying to clean it.

In desperation, I now have the rug draped over our patio set in our current very sunny, very warm back yard and have been alternately rinsing it with hose water and dousing it with Simple Solution (as I ran out of Nature's Miracle). Is there hope for this rug? I'm resigned to the fact that it is stained, but I want the urine and urine smell out so my house is livable and she's not tempted to go there again. I'd really prefer not to replace the rug if I can avoid it.

Kiki the dog, feeling much better now that the noise has stopped

posted by PussKillian to Pets & Animals (10 answers total)

How long are you leaving it alone to let the enzymes work? In my experience, it can take 5 24-hour cycles in a dense weave, but you're restarting the clock every time you rinse it and probably destroying the bacteria with sunlight and/or drying it out. And you probably should stick to one product. (A friend in cat rescue swears by Anti-Icky-Poo.)

Enzymatic cleaners tend to smell worse while they're working. When you get to a cycle where you re-soak the area and a couple hours later you don't smell pee, you probably got it all.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:29 AM on July 10, 2017 [2 favorites]

I agree you need to give the enzymatic cleaners plenty of time to work. It may take a few good soaks, and make sure you are letting it dry completely between applications. I recommend the Nature's Miracle Advanced in the red bottle.

Also, have you used Nature's Miracle in the past? And if so, are you sure the rug still smells like urine? Having used more than my fair share, I find that at this point my brain associates the smell of Nature's Miracle with the smell of urine, and sometimes I need to really think about what I'm really smelling.
posted by thejanna at 9:37 AM on July 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

We used to have a border collie who acted out by peeing on all of our rugs, and our procedure was this:

* Sop up as much as possible with a towel, which gets laundered ASAP
* Apply liquid cleaner (we used this eucalyptus stuff I can't remember the name of, but the enzymatic clearers you used should also work)
* Let the liquid sit for a while
* Sop up the liquid cleaner with another towel
* Coat liberally (like, way more than you think you need) with baking soda to draw up anything that the towel missed
* Vacuum the baking soda after letting it sit for a while

Seems like you'd done everything except the baking soda steps. Maybe give that a shot after applying another round of cleaner? (Obviously, the baking soda only does anything if the stinky stuff is in a liquid form.)
posted by tobascodagama at 9:49 AM on July 10, 2017

I also found that white vinegar killed off bad smells. (Cat pee in my situation. I'd use Nature's Miracle, let that dry and then hit it with white vinegar.)
posted by amanda at 9:53 AM on July 10, 2017

Seconding what everyone else has said about enzymatic cleaners -- you need to use a lot, and you need to hit the spot more than once.

You might also check the care instructions for your carpet and, if it's permitted, try a good hot-water-extraction carpet shampooer.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:56 AM on July 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Ack, completely forgot - we did one round with a rug doctor as well.
posted by PussKillian at 10:37 AM on July 10, 2017

Nature's Miracle has been coasting on its originally well-deserved reputation for years now; the company was bought out and the formula was changed/cheapened such that it doesn't really work worth a damn anymore. A dog breeder/handler friend of ours clued us into Alden Odor Solutions' Enzyme MPC, which actually works. It's seriously amazing and well worth the cost.

In the meantime, rinsing and direct sunlight ought to help.
posted by Funeral march of an old jawbone at 10:38 AM on July 10, 2017 [2 favorites]

When we had cat pee troubles, Anti-Icky Poo did a lot better for us than than Nature's Miracle. Seconding the advice to saturate and then let it completely dry, then re-evaluate.
posted by charmedimsure at 2:32 PM on July 10, 2017

I think there is still pee in your rug, and it needs to be washed out. You can rent carpet cleaners. I wash wool rugs on my driveway. I washed one today, in fact, and a cotton rag rug. Wet rug. Add small amount of detergent mixed with lots of water. Scrub by skating on the rug in clean sandals or bare feet. Rinse very well with water. Roll up rug, stand on it to squeeze out water. Then I either spread it over a ladder laid on the ground to dry, or hang over the deck railing. This process avoids the stain ring. In my case, it virtually guarantees that it will rain, even though the forecast said no rain for 7 days. For animal pee, I would additionally rinse the rug with water and white vinegar (mild anti-pee and anti-stink properties), then soak the affected area in an enzyme product. On hot days, I sometimes move a rug around the driveway; hot asphalt is a good dryer.
posted by theora55 at 4:25 PM on July 10, 2017

Response by poster: I'm about to mark this resolved, but what happened was that I successfully got the pee out by washing it on my back patio and letting it back in the sun. It faded terribly, but was not stinky...until a foster dog named Elvis casually sprinkled it again. Instead of repeating the whole process, I have opted to spend the bigger bucks. I sent it out to be professionally cleaned.
posted by PussKillian at 12:31 PM on August 9, 2017 [1 favorite]