As much as you love your furry companion, it can be frustrating if your cat is urinating on the carpet. This type of accident can occur in even the best human and feline relationship. However, the bigger question is, ‘what should be done after the accident occurs?’ Unlike water, this is a stain that cannot be ignored for the simple fact that it will only cause your carpet to become smellier the longer the urine stays in the carpet. Even if you become ‘nose blind’ to the smell, visitors to your home will not be. This brief guide will give you tips on how to treat these stains.

Quick Action Is Important

The quicker that you are able to treat the urine stain, the more effective the cleaning process will be. On the other hand, a long sitting stain is much more difficult to remove, and is likely to become a permanent part of the carpet. This applies to all stains, even cat urine stains.

Change Paper Towels Regularly

If you have been using a paper towel to remove the urine, and the paper towel becomes soaked, you need to replace it when a clean and dry towel.

Do not put the dirty paper towel in the kitchen trash or else the smell will permeate the trash can. Dispose of the used paper towel in the outside trash can.

Even though, with this approach, you may end using an entire roll or two of paper towels, it is the ideal alternative to using a urine soaked paper towel the entire time.

Use A Natural Homemade Cleaner

Take one cup of lukewarm water and vinegar with 1/3 to 1/4 teaspoon of dish washing detergent. Liquid detergent works best. Place this cleaner into a bottle and apply it to the stain. Be sure not to over soak the stain because that may cause it to spread.

Rinse And Repeat

Using a paper towel, gently blot the solution into the carpet where the accident occurred. You can also use a wet vac to remove the moisture from the carpet.

Rinse the treated area, and repeat the process again if necessary.

Do Not Use Heat

While cleaning the carpet with this solution, you may be tempted to either add hot water to the solution or use hot water to rinse the carpet.

You should never use hot water to clean a cat urine stain or use heat to dry the stain. Heat will allow the stain to set in the carpet. It will also cause the odor to become even stronger and pungent.

It is important to keep in mind that these tips work the best with a fresh stain. If you are dealing with an older urine stain, you will need to take a different approach.

Hire A Professional Carpet Cleaning Company

If you are able to smell cat urine, but the carpet appears to be clean, most likely this means that cat urine was able to soak completely through the carpet. It may have even stained the flooring that is underneath padding.

You can use a black light and see if you can find out where the stains are in the carpet. Unfortunately, the above mentioned cleaning advice is unlikely to make the stain and odor go away.

For a deep set stain, the only option you have at this point is hiring a professional carpet cleaning company. This option is certainly less expensive than installing new carpet.

A carpet cleaning technician is a skilled and knowledgeable professional who knows the best way to treat and remove this type of stain from your carpet.

How To Prevent Future Accidents

Most of the time when a cat has an accident on the carpet, it is an accident. But, there are some steps that cat owners can take to avoid future accidents.

The one thing to keep in mind is that cats have a sense of smell that is much stronger than humans. So, if you have more than one cat using a single litter box, that may be the reason why the accidents are happening.

For each cat, you should have a litter box, and then there should be an extra one. This means that if you have three cats, there should be four litter boxes in the home.

It is also important that the litter boxes are large enough. As cats get bigger, they outgrow litter boxes. For adult cats, use the largest litter boxes available.

Litter boxes should also be cleaned at least twice a day and thoroughly cleaned with warm water and unscented soap each week. After the litter box dries, apply new litter.

It is important to note that if the cat can still smell the urine from the previous accident, it will likely use the same area of the carpet. So, if you want to be sure that all of the odors have been removed from the carpet, hire a professional carpet cleaning team.

Cat urine is pungent and can destroy your carpet if proper action is not taken immediately. Fortunately, by following these tips, you can live in your home and it will not smell like a litter box.