first time dealing with cat urine/spray, help!

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Herawood - 06 Jun 2006 23:38 GMT

Hi all,
I'm not a new cat owner, but new to this problem. I have 2 male
neutered cats with no history of peeing outside the box. And then we
moved...
I put them with their cat box and food/water in a large walk in closet
for a while-- while the movers were in and out of our new place. Later
that day I noticed a foul stench in the closet. I thought maybe it just
needed to be aired out. Now after all our clothes are in and I've tried
lysol, urine stain removers etc. NOTHING has worked and the smell is
still there. I used a blacklight and didn't see anything. My husband
thinks the apartment people may have put in a new carpet but kept the
old carpet pads and the smell might actually belong to the old tenant's
cat.
I don't know what to do and now all my clothes have to be
washed/laundered to get the smell out...assuming I can ever use that
closet again. We've ordered "zero odor" from tv, I'm assuming I'll have
to soak the entire closet since I can't detect any stains. Anyone have
a sure fire way to deal with this? Should I call and request the
aprtment people replace that section of carpet, even though I can't
prove it may not be our cats?
HELP!

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Spider - 11 Jun 2006 11:55 GMT

> Hi all,
> I'm not a new cat owner, but new to this problem. I have 2 male
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> prove it may not be our cats?
> HELP!

Hi Herawood,

Since you've been so sadly overlooked, I thought I'd try and answer your
query.

I am usually able to remove urine odour after a couple of doses of carpet
shampoo. Other well-known odour removers are vinegar, or bleach, or lemon
juice. Of course, cats need to be refused access if anything is to work,
but I'm sure you've dealt with that. It doesn't really matter whose cats
soiled the carpet; it's the smell which has lingered, rather than the
behaviour. However, even if your predecessor's cat had soiled the carpet,
your own cats may still wish to over-mark it, and therefore must be
excluded. I assume your cats are happily settled in now?

If the odour is still intolerable - and if "zero odor" hasn't worked - it
may well be worth while removing the soiled carpet. Unless your carpeting
*has* to be maintained by the apartment service team, consider replacing the
closet carpet with vinyl, which is easily wiped, or carpet tiles which are
easily replaced/removed for cleaning.

Hope this helps,
Spider

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