Managing Older Cats and Indoor Peeing / Odor Problems

 – Natural Ways to Remove Pet Odors from Carpets

We asked some of our customers to write to us with their experiences with older cats and dogs – what causes older cats and dogs to have accidents, could there be some underlying medical issues and how do you clean up after your pets have urinated on carpets or furnishings.

If you’d like to share a story with us about your pet, 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.

Feedback from Sally in the U.K

We adopted Bandit when he was a kitten. He was the most warm and loving of cats throughout his sixteen years right up until the point he passed away in early 2014.

Bandit was an indoor cat but her always had a strong urge to escape outdoors. He was always clean through most of his life and we never had issues with him using his litter box.

At around 14 years of age Bandit was diagnosed with reduced kidney function, a common problem in older cats, and it was around this time that the real issues started.

Bandit became reluctant to use his litter box and would have fairly frequent accidents around the home. He would generally always poop in his litter box but his urination could happen anywhere, any time. Part of the reduced kidney function issue came about when we noticed that his pee smell was extremely strong, resembling concentrated ammonia. Obviously this quickly became an issue for us to deal with around the home.

We tried many different natural ways to remove his urine odors from carpets and furniture. One such was that seemed to work for a while was using warm soapy water on the cleanup, then white vinegar followed by baking soda sprinkled on the affected area. The baking soda pulls out most of the odor but there was always a lingering pee odor which we could never fully remove.

To make a simple solution which lasted about a week we used –

3 cups white distilled vinegar
6 tablespoons of baking soda

Simply mix the ingredients then add two cups of lukewarm water and apply to the area with a soft scrubbing brush. You’ll need to make sure that any fabrics are color-fast before you use this formula. It works well for pet urine odors in carpets, but it isn’t perfect.

Hydrogen-peroxide and baking soda mixture – DIY Pet Odor Removal

We also tried Hydrogen peroxide, which is another good way to break down the urine naturally. The baking soda again helps to neutralize the odor, but it doesn’t fully remove the odor because it doesn’t fully remove all of the bacteria in the pee.

Bandit’s condition worsened quickly over a six month period or so and we noticed the intensity of his urine odor increase. Subsequent visits to the vet saw his kidney function drop from 75% to 55% and he became increasingly lethargic and week.

We needed a better solution to cleanup problems so we began using the Uricide product in place of the DIY odor removal remedies. Uricide worked great on even the strongest smells and generally it only took one application to remove strong urine odors. We used it to freshen up the area around Bandit’s litter box and he didn’t seem to object to the lightly scented product. Application of Uricide was a breeze, just spray from the bottle onto carpets and furniture then let it sit for a while before cleaning off with dampened paper towels.

We decided on Uricide because of the fact that it’s an enzymatic product which attacks the bacteria in the urine and eliminates all of the odor causing elements. It is also fully natural and perfectly safe to use in our home. It isn’t the cheapest product, the best rarely are, so rather than spray it around liberally we also utilized a UV Black Light, as recommended by Uricide, to track down all of the stains in the home and make sure they were fully odor neutralized.

Sadly, Bandit has to be euthanized when his condition worsened after several months of dealing with his health issues. He lived through to the ripe old age of 16, which is pretty good for a cat. We miss him daily.

Note from admin-

We’re sorry to hear about the passing of Bandit. For visitors to our website, please note that many issues concerning cats peeing outside of the litter box originate from an underlying health issue, so please talk with your vet when problems arise.

We also have resources which can help, use this page as a starting point for your research.