Cat smell..how do I make it go away?

[AllStressedOut]

Well, I guess it was bound to happen. Beaux has finally gotten comfortable in his new home and has sprayed! GRRRRRRRR The smell is so bad I can't sleep. It's 4:14 AM and I smell it in my room and in my difficult children room. I think he sprayed their laundry.

How do I get the smell out of the carpet? Clothes? Does vinegar work?

I'm tempted to take all the clothes to the laundry mat tomorrow to get caught up so there aren't any dirty clothes on the floor or in baskets and husband can steam clean the carpets.

I'm not kidding, I can't sleep the smell is so strong! He managed to spray the living room, difficult children room and my room while we were gone shopping for school clothes today. Busy little booger.

GRRRR.........HELP!!!!!

 

[SRL]

I've not had to use it but Nature's Miracle is supposed to work very well. I've seen it at the big pet supply places.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/104...ure%27s+miracle

 

[Marguerite]

To get it off machine-washable stuff - splash with vinegar first, then wash as normal. If necessary, splash with vinegar, soak in enzyme soaker, then wash as normal.

To get rid of the smells in other areas - try citronella, eucalyptus oil or ti-tree oil. No guarantee, but it might help. Especially eucalyptus.

Marg

 

[flutterbee]

The cat's male, right? A neutered cat shouldn't be spraying...the instinct is no longer there. If he had reached maturity before being neutered (meaning he had started spraying before he was neutered), it's become learned behavior. If he was neutered at the right age (6-7 months), then his spraying is for another reason. Just be glad he's neutered (I'm assuming he is since you adopted him from a shelter)...the smell would be much, much worse if he wasn't.

I worked in a vet clinic 17 years ago. Back then we gave depo shots to cats that sprayed; it takes away the urge to spray. I don't know if they still do that. There is also a pheromone type thing you can get that you plug into the wall like a glade plug in that is supposed to be calming for the cat, if that's the reason he's spraying. You might want to talk to your vet.

I never had much luck with vinegar or Nature's Miracle. When you do the carpet, you need to make sure to get the water down deep. In the past, I've used a garden sprayer to soak the carpet with water mixed with steam cleaner soap, then used the steam vac to pull the water out. The steam vac's never got the water down deep enough. It should come out of the clothes just by washing...if he is neutered, that is...just be sure to smell the clothes before drying them to make sure. Bath mats are another story. There was no getting it out of the rubber backing.

There is a product called Out, I think...can't really remember. You can get it in the pet supply department at walmart or kroger. It's a white bottle and I think the label is pink and yellow with a drawing of a cat and a dog on it. It works really well for surface things...such as spraying the carpet. If he's only sprayed an area of the carpet once, it should work fine as it probably hasn't gone into the padding.

 

[Fran]

I have been using Nature's Miracle with good success but I don't have cats. One of the new dogs seems to like to leave a puddle in one spot of the living room. Soak up all the excess fluid before saturating with Nature's Miracle.
So far so good for us but cat's may be a different story.

 

[meowbunny]

Nature's Miracle took out most of the smell in my car when one of the cats got locked in the garage for two days and used the car seat for her toilet while I was on vacation. I actually need to get another bottle of it and re-saturate. That should get rid of the rest.

Good luck! I had a sprayer even though he was neutered young. He would spray when upset. He also was very fussy about his cat litter. If it wasn't the right kind or wasn't cleaned three times a day he had a spot in the dining room he would use. I could never get the scent out of there. It actually took new pad and carpeting.

 

[AllStressedOut]

I don't know when Beaux was neutered, but I was told that he is by the shelter. If he wasn't, I would have had to sign a contract to do that. I figured he was doing it to mark his territory, I know cats are very territorial. But then that wouldn't make sense in the boys room. Maybe he smelled their "unmentionables" and figured this was the place to go. lol

I'm on the hunt now in my room. I couldn't sleep lastnight because of it! GROSS!

Thanks everyone!

 

[susiestar]

None of the male cats we had ever sprayed. They would have left or been outside only cats immediately after that. Our oldest cat, Freckles, who we lost this year, peed everywhere. At first we tried all the interventions, then learned she just forgot where the litterboxes were.

I threw lots of clothes away. There is a product at WalMart called Kids and Pets. It is in the cleaner aisle, and it worked, esp if I soaked the clothes first.

To get it out of the carpet I actually went to the farm supply and bought some large bore needles. With big syringes. I injected the Kids and Pets into the carpet and then let it dry. I then steam cleaned. It was a long, arduous task. It did work, but I am still planning to replace the carpets with tile before we get another pet.

Susie

 

[witzend]

Sorry about the smell. There's nothing worse! Our new dog is a bit of a stinker, but nothing like cat spray!

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: AllStressedOut</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I don't know when Beaux was neutered, but I was told that he is by the shelter. If he wasn't, I would have had to sign a contract to do that. </div></div>

OK, I had to laugh at this one. We are large dog people, not cat people. But with a dog, it's pretty obvious whether they have been neutered or not. (No way to really know by looking if they've been spayed.) It seems to me that boy cats have - um - things that you can check for? At least I think they did last time I got close enough to look at one...

:rofl:

 

[Steely]

Yes, perhaps a glance down yonder would answer your question. :blush:

I had 2 male cats, and once they were neutered never sprayed.....but that is all I know about male cat's neurosis.

If I remember right white vinegar worked best for me.......and now with the dogs I use woolite pet stain removed. I have a female cat that sometimes gets fussy, and if she pees once on something it is a goner. Even if I wash it, she can still smell she marked it, and she pees on it again. Mainly these are things like towels left on the floor. So obviously we just try not to leave any clothes or towels on the floor. Cats are truly fussy ones though!!! They can be a bit vindictive, and if they are disgruntled, they let you know it in nasty ways.

Good luck.

 

[flutterbee]

They also seem to like plastic grocery bags, too. Don't as me why. But, at least you can throw those away.

WW - is your female spayed? The urine from an unspayed female is very strong. Same goes for an un-neutered male, too, though. Cat urine, period, is just strong. Bleck. But when they're not fixed, it's 10 times worse.

Cassie would go through spells where she wouldn't use the litterbox. Her urine, however, didn't have a lot of odor and by the time I noticed a smell, she had been going somewhere else often. Fortunately, it was always the same spot and it was always in a corner. I would just pull up the carpet there, replace the affected piece of padding and soak the heck out of the carpet with the steam vac. She wouldn't go there again.

We did have one male cat growing up who was neutered at 7 months and started spraying when he was 8 years old. We had several cats, but they were all male and we had added a female (spayed). That's when he started spraying. I had a spayed female cat that sprayed, too. We had taken her in as a rescue at the age of 3 years and she was very uncomfortable with our other cats. She needed to be an only cat.

 

[Big Bad Kitty]

Word of warning.

If you like your face the way it is...and you decide to check yonder to see if a male cat is still in possession of his, erm, jewels...don't make the mistake of saying "oh look, poor Bandit has some dingleberries" and try to pull them off.

 

[Steely]

:rofl:

OH Kitty.............I bet AllStressedOut appreciates that prized word of caution.

WG, yes my kitty is spayed, she is just a fusspot. Finally when I moved her litter box from the garage, to the inside (lovely, more smell to contend with) she was happy and rarely makes a mess now. Apparently she did not like getting winded walking to the garage, and maybe, possibly, getting a little hot, to pee /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/tired.gif

 

[SRL]

I believe some cats will start spraying when they have urinary tract infections. If he hasn't been seen by a vet and you don't know if he's neutered, might be a good time to have him seen.

 

[flutterbee]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Big Bad Kitty</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Word of warning.

If you like your face the way it is...and you decide to check yonder to see if a male cat is still in possession of his, erm, jewels...don't make the mistake of saying "oh look, poor Bandit has some dingleberries" and try to pull them off. </div></div>

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

OMG!!! I can't breathe, I'm laughing so hard!!!



About 10 years ago, my mom bought a house and the house came with a cat. Very pretty, sweet, grown cat. My mom named the cat Lily. My mom can tell the gender in a hamster, so noone ever questioned her determination that the cat was female. Besides, it was a very feminine cat.

6 months later, Lily was walking down the basement steps in front of my mom and my mom - to much shock - realized that Lily was, in fact, not a girl. Lily was neutered later that week and had a name change. Lily became Lily Bob.

 

[AllStressedOut]

OMG, I don't know which one of you made me laugh harder!

Witzend, my husband is fixed and I can still see his dingleberries.

 

[SRL]

Once we had a gander named George that started laying eggs. I was pretty young but I think we still called her George afterwards.

Have you done anything like changed kitty litter or got a new litter box recently?

 

[AllStressedOut]

We just got Beaux 3 weeks ago. I bought petsmart brand litter and he didn't spray until this Saturday. I am starting to think he was mad at us, because this was the first time he's lived here that no one was home. We went school clothes shopping for an hour and came home to a stinky house.

 

[witzend]

ASO, My husband was "fixed" years ago too, and he still has his. Different concept, though. With our husbands they are just stopping the sperm so they get to keep the dingleberries. (Snip snip) With dogs and cats they're stopping the testosterone and all the rest, so they don't. (CUT CUT)

:smile:

It sounds as though maybe Beaux needs a crate for when you go away. He'll probably hate that tool, but better than spraying! Or maybe it will make him spray all the time. (This is why we have dogs - no spray!)

 

[AllStressedOut]

Ouch! Okay, he does have something. So my next question is, if a boy cat is fixed, how do you know its a boy? Doesn't the rest of the equipment look the same?