How to find and neutralize cat pee on carpeting and furniture.

We asked our customers to write to us with their experiences with cats – what causes cats to have accidents in the home, could there be some underlying medical issues causing cats to pee on carpets and furniture, and how do you clean up after your cat has urinated indoors.

If you’d like to share a story with us about your cats or dogs we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here with your article or short story, provide your US shipping address and we’ll send along a gift for any story we use on our website.

Elsie P wrote to us with her story about Jasmine the cat.

Jasmine is the cutest long haired cat you’ve ever seen. I’ve had her since she was two and never had any issues with her until she turned eight years old. The first sign of a problem appeared when she stopped using her litter tray for peeing. She still ate the same amount of food and drank the same amount of water, but the pee in the litter box seemed to stop.

I checked the house carefully, looking around all of her favorite spots to see if there were pee stains or odors. I couldn’t find any stains or wet patches but I could smell a lingering cat pee odor in the home so I knew something was going on.

Ultra Violet Black Light for detecting hard to find urine stains.

I talked with a neighbor who had three cats and he suggested I go out and invest in something called a ‘Black Light’. A Black Light is basically a small flash light that emits UV light and it allows you to detect cat pee on any surface; other types of organic matter too.

I searched Google for UV Black Lights and there were a lot of options for a variety of uses but I really wanted something that would work specifically with cat urine detection. I found an inexpensive Black Light on Uricide.com and noticed that they also sell pet odor elimination products in liquid form with spray caps. So I picked up a black light and a bottle of the Uricide for inside formula. The Uricide product is enzyme based and all natural so I was comfortable with using it in the home.

When the Black Light and my odor removal product arrived, there were clear instructions so I set about trying to find out where my cat was peeing. I have a larger home and not all the windows have drapes, so I waited until night time to start using the UV light, which works best when there’s very little ambient light.

It’s a little funny using a black light when stuff starts turning up in places you’d never expect. The first ‘hit’ was the carpet behind a chair in the four season room. I’d keep the windows open in the four season room so I hadn’t detected any odor, but sure enough the black light exposed cat pee stains directly behind my wicker chair. Jasmine looked a little sheepish when I began moving furniture and cleaning up her little pee area!

Using Uricide is easy. I cleaned the affected area with warm soapy water first and dried off the wet patch. I then sprayed the pet odor remover on the area and left it to do its thing. There’s some information I found on Uricide’s website about how enzymatic and microbial cleaning products actually work, and they basically take a little time to break down the bacteria and remove the odors and waste.

I also found stains in other parts of the house using the UV Black Light.

I also took Jasmine to see the vet, to make sure there was nothing ailing her. The pet determined that she has reduced kidney function, a fairly normal issue apparently in cats her age. He got Jasmine on medication and she miraculously started using her litter box regularly within a week of starting out on the meds!

So a big thanks to Uricide for a great product and for a lot of the useful information on their website. I found articles on using the black light, cleaning up carpets with pet urine odors and also an interesting article from another cat owner whose cat had some health issues and was also peeing on the carpet and furniture.

Elsie

Note from admin –

Thanks Elsie for an interesting story! We do receive a lot of feedback from pet owners having problems with dogs and cats peeing on carpets and furniture and many questions on finding and using pet odor eliminators like Uricide. It seems that if a dog or cat has been previously housebroken, then suddenly starts to urinate indoors, there’s generally some underlying health issues causing the problem. So don’t delay in getting your pet to see the vet if he or she starts to make a mess on the carpets or furniture!