About Pet Odors in Carpets

Risk Factors

If you have an old friend or a new baby, you have a challenge. Incontinence challenges the old and infirm in the animal world just as with humans. Babies need to be toilet-trained, no matter what species they belong to. If your pet is high-strung or nervous, accidents may be exactly that. If you had to sit in the house all day and wait until someone came home to use the toilet, you might have problems, too.

Face the unpleasant facts. Pet accidents are organic. Urine and feces contain waste material, enzymes and the bacteria that feed on it. Depending on what your pet eats, it can be a pretty awful mess. Once you've cleaned up the stain, you've only scratched the surface. Liquid carries those organisms and bacteria deep into the fabric or "pile" of the carpet, through the webbing that binds it and into the padding underneath it. Short of pulling up, cleaning or replacing the carpet, you'll never get it all out. Your only hope is to kill the organisms that cause the smell. "Intact," or un-neutered, animals leave particularly stinky messes due to the added presence of reproductive hormones. If the picture of ugly creatures setting up housekeeping in your new white Berber carpet comes to mind, you've got the general idea.

Get on the job immediately. The longer those organisms are there, the deeper they go, and the more generations they produce. Clean up the spot immediately by blotting and cleaning with water. If you don't find the spot before it sets, there are products that you can buy to clean it. Your first choice, however, should be a gentle, non-sudsing solution like water or vinegar and water to use to blot stains. Use a vinegar solution for surface stains (it neutralizes odor as well as cleans). If the spot is old, persistent or large, you may need to soak it overnight with biodegradable bacterial or enzymatic cleaners. Vets often sell or can recommend products that will eat the bacteria that cause the odor and then starve, leaving only water and carbon dioxide.

Avoid ammonia and heat. Steam cleaners will set stains, so if you want to use power, keep the fill cool---vinegar and water works well for this. Baking soda can also work on pet odors, providing you first soak the area thoroughly with vinegar and blot as dry as possible before sprinkling the baking soda.

An animal will not always return to the same spot but is more likely to if it can smell itself or another animal. Ammonia replicates the essence of urine, so avoid it---or cleaning compounds that contain it. Clean up spots immediately and don't bother rubbing Bonzo or Millie's nose in it---they're already panicked because you're upset. It may make you feel like you've made a point, but it just confuses them.