Sad Puppy Dog Eyes: Image by Martin Cathrae, FlickrTrying to potty train your pet and having troubles with urine stains or odors? Keep reading to learn what to do about urine.
Location
It's important to find every place that your animal might have urinated or sprayed in, so that the incident doesn't reoccur. If your animal can still smell the urine, they'll likely continue to think of the area as their own private bathroom. To find every area that might contain urine, use your nose in tandem with a black light. The black light will find every stain, even the old ones.
Turn the lights off, and scan your home with the black light. Look everywhere, even behind furniture. If you find any stains, lightly outline them with chalk so you can find and clean the stains when you turn the light back on.
Home Remedies For Urine Stains
Some products that are commonly found at home can do wonders to remedy urine stains and smells. Here are some effective at home remedies.
- White Wine Vinegar
- Baking Soda
- Hydrogen Peroxide
- Soap
- Lemon Juice and Water
By mixing these ingredients in the right amounts, you can make an effective at-home cleaner. To start, mix one part white vinegar with two parts water to create a cleaning spray.
If that's ineffective, you can try mixing about 15 ounces of hydrogen peroxide with two tablespoons of baking soda, and a couple squirts of liquid hand soap. (Source: How To Clean Cat Urine Odour, unknown author). Follow up with a lemon juice and water spray to help neutralize any remaining odors.
Wet Urine Stains
It's best to clean up any urine stains immediately after your animal goes, while they're still wet, and before they soak into the carpet or upholstery. The process will be significantly easier before the urine has dried. Here's what to do about fresh urine stains.
Washable Items
Machine wash any washable items, and add about one pound of baking soda with your regular detergent to help absorb the odors. If you can still smell urine once the load is clean, wash it again, this time with an enzymatic cleaner like Nature's Miracle Stain And Odor Remover.
Soak up as much urine as you possible can with newspaper and paper towel. Lay down some paper towel, and some newspaper on top of it. Once the urine is soaked up, place the urine-soaked newspaper in your pet's actual bathroom area to help encourage them to go in the right place. Thoroughly rinse the affected area with clean, cool water. Afterwards, use white vinegar and water, or a baking soda, soap, and peroxide mix to clean the stain and smell. Follow up with a lemon juice and water spray to further eliminate the smell as a precaution.
Dried Urine Stains
While it's best to eliminate urine stains right after they happen, it's not always a possibility. If this is the case for you, try cleaning it up with one of these remedies.
The Home Remedy
Once you've used a black light to find the stains, use a white vinegar and water mixture and thoroughly scrub out the stain. Let it soak for a few hours, and then use a vacuum to suck up any remaining moisture. If the stain remains, use a stronger baking soda, soap, and peroxide mixture. Make it thick, into a paste by adding more baking soda than you would normally. Apply the paste to the stain with a spoon, and try to get the paste as deep down into the carpet as possible. Let it soak, and then remove the paste by scrubbing with luke warm water. Vacuum the moisture up, and the stain should be eliminated. Again, follow up with a lemon and water spray to make double sure that the odor is eliminated.
If All Else Fails
If the home remedies just don't seem to be working, you can use luke warm water to wet vac the affected area. After the initial wet vac, use an enzymatic pet stain remover like the one mentioned earlier to scrub out the stain. Afterwards, use your wet vac with some pet stain shampoo like Nature's Miracle Orange Oxy Stain And Odor Remover For Pets to shampoo the carpet. Mix lukewarm water with white vinegar and wet vac one more time to ensure that the shampoo comes out of the carpet, taking the urine with it.
After you try these methods, your urine stains should be completely removed. No more annoying urine odor, for a fresher cleaner house.
Also Read: Solutions For Pet Odors In The Home for more ways to fight pet odors.
