Automatic Litterbox Central

I am looking for an odor eliminator. A good one! Please tell me what you have used, and how well did it work. The litterbox is located in the patio room off the kichen. The room has a stone floor and my female kitty likes to pee in the corner near the litterbox and it stinks. I tries cleaning it with bleach, lysol, vinegar, peroxide, blah blah blah and it still still has that stale urine odor. I have to keep the door shut to that room now especially when someone comes over. Please help. Thanks in advance!

Jinky

Try a product called nature's miracle. It has its own odor that I'm not completely fond of, but it does get rid of the urine odor.

to remove odors, use an enzyme or solvent based cleaner such as resolve or professional brand items.

just make sure that it doesn't bleach your carpet i.e. you don't steam clean your carpet much and the cleaner cleans the area too well

Try Febreze.

It astounds me how well this product works. Also it's veterinarian approved by ASPCA as safe to use around cats!

I've researched this topic ad naseaum, and as far as I can tell, the only products that *might* work are industrial strength professional ones, rather than their more diluted, more expensive counterparts that are available at supermarkets and pet stores. (See link below).

I've tried everything: oxyclean, nature's miracle, woolite, resolve, etc..
All to no avail...

Something called "See Spot Go" (or any other product containing 2-butoxyethanol) does seem to be the best out of the readily available products. However, 2-butoxyethanol is very toxic, carcinogenic, and absorbs through your skin, and is thus pretty unpleasant to deal with.

Some helpful links:

an article about cat urine w/ info about a study comparing products:
http://www.vetcentric.com/magazine/magazineArticle.cfm?ARTICLEID=1505

an industrial strength product that sounds promising:
http://www.thornell.com/pages/carpet.html
This is the product that I intend to buy.

Hope this helps.

-e.

I'm with you, epb9. I'm so sick of the subject of cat pee, and trying to find a solution for the problem. I, too, have tried them all. Ever been to http://www.planteurine.com? nice name! They sell a powder that supposedly absorbs the urine. Yeah, right. It sort of works, but Milo doesn't care, he will still pee there if he doesnt feel like wallking 2 feet to the garage door or 3 feet to the toilet. (yes, he uses the real toilet. When he feels like it)

Sometimes I feel like I cant even carry on a conversation with anyone with out cat pee coming up! I hate the fact that I know so much about it and STILL cant really resolve the problem! lol

For me, natures miracle and all of the other enzyme products made for this, just dont cut the mustard. My cats (actually only the punk boy) must have supercat noses:if there was ever pee there, he will smell it and make 'that face' then promptly pee on it.

I wish there was a home DNA kit so I could identify with certainity which cat is the culprit. I know Milo is guilty, he does it right in front of me! I have ever seen then girls go outside of their box, but thats not saying theyre angels. They can be sneaky!

I love the robot. It is the closest to perfect that I have found as far as litterbox goes. I've given up on trying to find creative useful things to do with the 3 million junk litterboxes in my garage!

Off to give bird a bath! Yecch!

Abbeytoo -- Haha... Yeah, I know what you mean about cat pee sneaking its way into every conversation. At first there was something amusing about the thrill of the hunt/quest for the perfect product, but then it just became frustrating.

I don't really understand why Consumer Reports or some other publication hasn't compared products, or why no one seems to know what the optimal product is. No matter where you look on the internet, no one agrees on which works. It seems like the problem should be solvable, and that there should be a well known wonder-product... I mean, you just need to figure out the right chemical reactions to neutralize the pee odor. Its 2004; don't we have the technology?!

About Nature's Miracle: Yeah, I agree. (As I'm sure you know ) The problem with biological/enzymatic products is that they won't work if you've already used some other detergent. And even if you haven't already tried all of the cat-pee-odor-removers on the smelly spot, it's likely that your carpet has been cleaned some time in the past, and has a soap residue.

I am somewhat confidant about the Odorcide 210 stuff that I posted a link about. Here's another link with more of a description: http://www.rhcarpetcleaning.com/en-us/p_15.html
They actually talk about the chemistry of the stuff, which makes it seem less like one of those "Sure, it works" mystery products. I plan to order it.. if it works, I'll let everyone know.

But, I digress

I *did* discover something interesting in my quest, though. I didn't mention it since Jinky asked about getting odor out, not about preventing cats from going there again. Ever heard of Feliway? It's a spray that contains cat facial hormones (the same ones that cats rub on things when they're content). It's supposed to be used to prevent spraying, rather than inappropriate peeing, by calming the cat. My cat doesn't spray, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. My theory being that cats rub their faces where they sleep or are comfortable, and animals don't want to pee where they sleep.
So: My cat has been peeing on one distinct area of the carpet instead of the litterbox. Starting a few days ago, I tried spraying the Feliway on the area where he pees. I spray the stuff there every morning. Weirdly enough, it worked. It actually worked! He hasn't peed outside of his litterbox once. The funny thing is that the area does still smell like pee, and if I can smell it, he certainly can. Yet, the hormones apparently signal him not to go there. Now all I need to do is deodorize the area enough that *I* can't smell it, which shouldn't be so difficult a task. I mean, the reason that none of the cleaning products are good enough is that cats have that supersmelling ability, so even if the area smells fine to you, the cat will smell any miniscule urine residue, and pee in that area again. But that's apparently no longer a problem. And hopefully, after he'll become conditioned not to pee in that area so I won't have to spray the area forever.

Hope this info is helpful...

Whew. That was a long post.

-e.

Yes, I'm aware of Feliway. I even bought the thing that you fill with the Feliway and plug it into a socket. It is supposed to continually release the stuff to make EVERYWHERE off limits, or something. Truthfully, I really didnt notice a difference. What really sent me into a tailspin was the black light. Jesus! I thought crawling around with my nose buried in the carpet was sufficient. Man! That damn blacklight is an eyeopener. It looks like it rained cat pee everywhere. My house doesnt have that low rent cat pee odor-I'm too obsessed to let it get near that. I frequently have rug burns on my nose from patrolling the carpet. (yes, I really need a life!) But, wow, that black light...I have this area where the stairs are that is real real high up. I put carpet on the wall for them to climb on. It also has a bunch of staggered shelf things for them to climb on. I was blacklighting that area and there are pee drips down the wall starting at each shelf!!!! He must just hang his rear over the side and let it go!

My problem is Mr Milo's attitude. He is a shithead. sorry. Him and one of the girls DO NOT like each other. They are both 'afraid' that they wont be the one getting the most attention from me. Lucy is just plain fat and insecure, and very jealous of Milo, who is a tiny-in-your-face kind of cat. She hisses and growls and carries on like there is no tomorrow. Milo antagonizes her. Delibertly. Its really ridiculous. They all get their special time with me, they all eat the same food, they all sleep on my bed, they are just plain weirdos. Bed time is a major 'positioning' time. Its a race to see which one gets the 'good' spot. They nag me to come to bed! If, god forbid, Lucy gets up there before Milo, he will actually pick a fight with her and run her out of the room. He then calmly snuggles down and gets comfortable. She sits on the floor sulking.

None of them are allowed outside. I never bring in 'strange' cats. There is no damn reason to spray! Milo seems to think differently. An example of his bad attitude: I grow catnip for them. They each had some in their respective areas. The girls finished theirs and Milo picked up his in his mouth and went over to both girls and practically rubbed it in their face as to say "haha, I still have some' He then let it fall out of his mouth in front of Lucy, turned around, AND PEED ON IT! He peed on his catnip so Lucy wouldnt want it! What is up with that???? He also makes me get up in the middle of the night (note I said 'makes me') and go downstairs to watch him pee in the box. Once,I ignored his nonstop meowing, hoping he would just shut up. HE PEED ON ME! In bed! He seriously needs to go to kitty boot camp or something.

I'm rambling now. I could tell you a hundred Milo pee stories. It is his attitude. Feliway wont help that. Short of sticking a cork up him, I just dont know what to do about him. On top of all that, he is incredibly cute.

I have spray bottles by every chair in every room ready to squirt him when he misbehaves. It doesnt faze him. He likes water. He can work one of the bathroom sink faucets and Ive found him sitting in the sink in 3 inches of water.

Aside from my bed, the curtains in my bedroom, the kitchen counter, any piece of paper, clean laundry, on and on, one of my more favorite spots for him to pee on is the lint trap of my dryer! THAT sucks.

Anyone want an adorable little tuxedo cat? I'll pay shipping.

If you have any suggestions about what I can do with this punk, please let me hear them. I'm desparate.

a

Abbeytoo,

Have you talk to your vet? Our vet puts Harley on valium whenever he starts to have behaviorial-pee problems. It works very well.

There is a large study at Texas A&M on the subject. In some cats, they are just kept on valium to solve the pee problem. In others, they can locate and eliminate the annoyance/trigger and then take them off.

It might be a solution for you, since it sounds like this is behavior.

Let me know if you'd like to talk to our vet for a recommendation in your area.

Carrie

Thanks Carrie, I'll ask my vet about it. I've take Milo to the vet several times, hoping it was a physical problem. At least if it were, I'd have a chance. I'll try anything. Doesn't he sound like a monster? If he is not the center of attention at all times, he will be bad to have the focus switched to him. Sigh, but he is soooo damned cute its hard to stay mad at him.

will be calling the vet tomorrow. Thanks!

I have tried Kitty Calm down, or whatever it is. Its an over the counter liquid. When all three of them are bouncing off the walls, they all get a little dose, then its nap time and finally quite!

Sheesh! I got spayed because I didnt want any kids. What do I do? collect cats with attitudes!

I know about those spunky tuxedo cats. They are so cute they get away with murder over here, too. Luckily, Lily doesn't pee on things. She is very fastidious - but also a big brat.

Let me know how things work out. If your vet needs info on the treatment, e-mail me. I'll give you my vets name. He's done this for my cat and my friend's cat.

Is Milo fixed? I assume so but if not you should have it done. I would confine him to his own room at night and anytime he is misbehaving during the day. At this point retraining seems to be the only solution left. He clearly thinks he's dominant even over you. I would always ignore him when he's a brat and only give attention when he behaves properly. The second he misbehaves, time out. Also try finding a game that he and the girls love. When someone acts out, game over. I too have cats that don't like each other, but they all know one thing, I'm the top cat and what I say goes. If they misbehave, privileges are taken away.

Go to...

http://www.healthypetnet.com/cats/defau ... e=10053898

Besides having the absolute best pet food in the world...
I use the Bio-Deoderizor...under pet safe products. It has these enzymes that work wonders. If your cat sprays, this will take care of it very quickly. I spray it in the litter box and the enzymes eat up the microbes that cause odors! It is also totally pet safe. It is awsome.

P.S. I use it in my sink, my bathroom, everywhere! Good for anything that has odor, especially the fridge!