Cat pee next to wall
April 12, 2024 7:15 AM Subscribe
I have two carpet shampooers that, with enzymic cleaners, are great at removing cat pee stains in the middle of the room. When it is against the wall, they both struggle with sucking up the pee. Is there any solution for this problem?
I spend hours on my hands and knees pouring enzymic cleaner, sucking up with wand, pouring water, sucking up with wand, but then the next day, it still smells like cat pee and the whole area I cleaned is a light yellow color like all I did was suck the pee to the top of the carpet, not into the vacuum. I'm really struggling!
Our cat is 16 and has a litterbox that she likes in every room of the house. Apparently she's never really been litterbox trained and sometimes prefers to pee on the wall. She's fixed.
I'd take any advice at this point. But even if I were able to get her to use the litterbox, how would I ever clean up these pee spots? They are all over the house!
I spend hours on my hands and knees pouring enzymic cleaner, sucking up with wand, pouring water, sucking up with wand, but then the next day, it still smells like cat pee and the whole area I cleaned is a light yellow color like all I did was suck the pee to the top of the carpet, not into the vacuum. I'm really struggling!
Our cat is 16 and has a litterbox that she likes in every room of the house. Apparently she's never really been litterbox trained and sometimes prefers to pee on the wall. She's fixed.
I'd take any advice at this point. But even if I were able to get her to use the litterbox, how would I ever clean up these pee spots? They are all over the house!
The enzyme cleaner thing I have (Nature's Miracle) recommends actually not sucking it up but rather applying to the affected area and just...waiting. I think it is supposed to break down the smell at least. It can take a few days, but seems to have worked for us.
posted by Maecenas at 8:55 AM on April 12 [1 favorite]
posted by Maecenas at 8:55 AM on April 12 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I spend hours on my hands and knees pouring enzymic cleaner, sucking up with wand, pouring water, sucking up with wand, but then the next day, it still smells like cat pee
Try just squirting a hefty dose of enzyme cleaner onto the spot that's your best guess at where puss's spray was aimed, then just leaving it there.
The thing about enzymic cleaners is that the longer they're left in contact with the urine, the more of it they destroy, and it takes the cleaner at least as long to chase the urine through whatever it's soaked into as the urine took to soak into it in the first place. All you're really doing by following an application of enzyme cleaner up with a rinse is diluting the enzymes and giving the urine more liquid to use to transport itself deeper into your underlay and further through your carpet.
the next day, it still smells like cat pee and the whole area I cleaned is a light yellow color like all I did was suck the pee to the top of the carpet, not into the vacuum.
It's not so much that you sucked the pee to the top of the carpet as that that's where the water in it has ended up evaporating from, concentrating and ultimately leaving behind assorted stinky compounds that were dissolved in it before it evaporated.
You're better off just leaving enzyme cleaner to follow the same wicking path pioneered by the urine, so that eventually some of it catches up to the urine's wicking front and reacts with it in place. A few days later you might still see some discolouration appear on the surface, but by then you'll probably find that the area smells much more like enzyme cleaner than rotten cat piss.
Then deploy the carpet shampooer, using actual carpet shampoo, which is good at dissolving and lifting out stains from carpet surfaces though not so much from their deep dark insides.
posted by flabdablet at 9:08 AM on April 12 [6 favorites]
Try just squirting a hefty dose of enzyme cleaner onto the spot that's your best guess at where puss's spray was aimed, then just leaving it there.
The thing about enzymic cleaners is that the longer they're left in contact with the urine, the more of it they destroy, and it takes the cleaner at least as long to chase the urine through whatever it's soaked into as the urine took to soak into it in the first place. All you're really doing by following an application of enzyme cleaner up with a rinse is diluting the enzymes and giving the urine more liquid to use to transport itself deeper into your underlay and further through your carpet.
the next day, it still smells like cat pee and the whole area I cleaned is a light yellow color like all I did was suck the pee to the top of the carpet, not into the vacuum.
It's not so much that you sucked the pee to the top of the carpet as that that's where the water in it has ended up evaporating from, concentrating and ultimately leaving behind assorted stinky compounds that were dissolved in it before it evaporated.
You're better off just leaving enzyme cleaner to follow the same wicking path pioneered by the urine, so that eventually some of it catches up to the urine's wicking front and reacts with it in place. A few days later you might still see some discolouration appear on the surface, but by then you'll probably find that the area smells much more like enzyme cleaner than rotten cat piss.
Then deploy the carpet shampooer, using actual carpet shampoo, which is good at dissolving and lifting out stains from carpet surfaces though not so much from their deep dark insides.
posted by flabdablet at 9:08 AM on April 12 [6 favorites]
Best answer: By the way, the most likely reason that your existing procedure works better in the middle of the carpet than it does at the edges is that urine applied to the middle of the carpet doesn't have access to the nooks and crannies around the nailing strips that secure the edges of the carpet to the floor.
Your carpet's underlay probably also includes a plastic film on top that acts as a water barrier, so that when your cat and then your shampooer wet a spot in the middle of the carpet, it's only the carpet on top that soaks it up, the entire surface of which your shampooer has access to in order to suck it out again. At the edges, quite a lot of liquid is going to find its way underneath that barrier and just stay in the underlay because the suction can't reach in there.
Enzyme cleaner, though, will go anywhere that urine already has, if applied in roughly the same spot. Water follows an existing damp trail much faster than it establishes new trails into dry material, so as soon as the enzyme cleaner touches some part of the existing urine-damped spot, that's where almost all of the rest of it is going to wick into as well.
posted by flabdablet at 9:21 AM on April 12 [5 favorites]
Your carpet's underlay probably also includes a plastic film on top that acts as a water barrier, so that when your cat and then your shampooer wet a spot in the middle of the carpet, it's only the carpet on top that soaks it up, the entire surface of which your shampooer has access to in order to suck it out again. At the edges, quite a lot of liquid is going to find its way underneath that barrier and just stay in the underlay because the suction can't reach in there.
Enzyme cleaner, though, will go anywhere that urine already has, if applied in roughly the same spot. Water follows an existing damp trail much faster than it establishes new trails into dry material, so as soon as the enzyme cleaner touches some part of the existing urine-damped spot, that's where almost all of the rest of it is going to wick into as well.
posted by flabdablet at 9:21 AM on April 12 [5 favorites]
Flabdablet has excellent advice for the clean up. Is your kitty trying to use the box and missing or is she just spraying around the room? When I was having problems with this, my senior girl was getting in the box but peeing out the front. I was saved by putting her box inside a big clear plastic storage tote and cutting an access hole into it similar to this. I put puppy pads in front of the inner box and around the sides so if she missed it was all contained and quickly cleaned up. I would definitely recommend the clear tote and no top for this as many cats don't like to be enclosed when they go but you obviously know your cat so do what you think she'd prefer. If she'll use it, it's a great solution. If she's getting any of your furniture or your bed, these blankets are an absolute godsend and are the only thing that stopped me and my bf from burning our house down during out girl cat's final months.
I also am an absolute BRAND EVANGELIST for biokleen bac-out enzyme cleaner after literal years of struggles with this. Far and away the best I've tried and has a much milder leave behind scent than nature's miracle/roccos/all of them as a bonus. I also like the bissell pet stain carpet cleaner in the blue bottle when using the wet vac. I would recommend doing your big douse like Flabdablet recommended with something like BioKleen and then you can do the follow up with the vac and bissell.
If you want more advice on how to help with spraying in general, would be helpful to know more about where and how she is tending to do it. It's hard to stamp it out entirely especially with a senior but you may be able to improve it or at least get some other protective implements to help you not lose your mind.
posted by amycup at 11:54 AM on April 12 [2 favorites]
I also am an absolute BRAND EVANGELIST for biokleen bac-out enzyme cleaner after literal years of struggles with this. Far and away the best I've tried and has a much milder leave behind scent than nature's miracle/roccos/all of them as a bonus. I also like the bissell pet stain carpet cleaner in the blue bottle when using the wet vac. I would recommend doing your big douse like Flabdablet recommended with something like BioKleen and then you can do the follow up with the vac and bissell.
If you want more advice on how to help with spraying in general, would be helpful to know more about where and how she is tending to do it. It's hard to stamp it out entirely especially with a senior but you may be able to improve it or at least get some other protective implements to help you not lose your mind.
posted by amycup at 11:54 AM on April 12 [2 favorites]
I'm thinking maybe something like puppy pads that you could just change out might be easy, I would lay them under the litter box and tape to the wall,
There are wee-wee pads now that have sticky tape at the corners for the similar use case of a dog that lifts its leg to pee against a wall.
posted by praemunire at 1:13 PM on April 12
There are wee-wee pads now that have sticky tape at the corners for the similar use case of a dog that lifts its leg to pee against a wall.
posted by praemunire at 1:13 PM on April 12
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As far as cleaning between the wall and carpet I don't know that there's a better way. I invested in a better cleaner than I had been using, but if I find an area that's a tight fit I also just soak with cleaner and then blot it up by hand with towels.
posted by snowymorninblues at 8:47 AM on April 12