Combatting Common Pet Odors: 

Getting Rid of Pet Urine Smells at Home

Stubborn Pet Odors at Home

Have you ever gone away from home for a vacation and returned only to notice that your place, well, stinks? You might have just recovered from a case of “nose-blindness.”

Nose-blindness means that your nose has become accustomed to your environment, bad smells and all. So when you leave your home for a while and come back to unpleasant odors, chances are you are smelling odors that have been there the whole time.

The smell is coming from inside the house.

There are so many causes of persistent odors at home. If you have pets, your home is susceptible to even more smells, mysterious pet odor, and mustiness. It can be hard to admit, but yes, Fluffy is probably making your house stink. You might not even notice this stink because of nose-blindness--but that doesn’t mean it’s not there!

One of the most common smells in a home with animals is pet urine odor (especially cat and dog pee). Chances are, if your home smells like urine, you’ve got some work ahead of you, but the smell can be eliminated if you take the right steps. Let’s take a closer look at pet urine odors and what to do about them.

Urine Trouble

Dog and cat urine smells aren’t just gross, they can also affect the health of your household. 

Many people are sensitive to the chemical ammonia and spend a lot of time and money on finding non-toxic simple cleaning alternatives to ammonia-based products. Unfortunately, animal urine contains ammonia. Pet owners might now know this, but their dog or cat’s urine could potentially affect their household health.

Ammonia is an irritant that can cause health issues in adults and children alike. Some health effects of ammonia exposure include:

• Coughing 
• Nose and throat irritation
• Skin and eye irritation 

Even though ammonia has a distinctive odor, you might not always notice when you are at risk of ammonia exposure. Ammonia smells can cause olfactory fatigue or adaptation, meaning that individuals are at risk of prolonged exposure to ammonia without even realizing it.

Detecting Sources of Pee Smells

If you notice urine smells in your home, your best bet for eliminating urine smell will be to do a little bit of detective work. Try to find the spot (or spots) where the urine odor is most concentrated. 

Follow the yellow pee smell. If your dog just did his business outside and your cat’s litter box is clean but you are still catching whiffs of cat urine smell, it’s time to sniff out the source of the odor--literally.

Keep an eye out for spots and stains. Check for dark spots on the carpet or hardwood floors that might indicate a problem area that your pet keeps visiting. You might need to add this step into your regular cleaning process.

Use a blacklight. If you have tried to sniff out the source of your odors and searched for wet spots or stains but still can’t find the main culprit, try using a blacklight. Blacklights make it easier to spot an old pet urine stain by causing the proteins to glow.

Figure Out Why Your Pet is Having Accidents

What are the underlying causes of your pet peeing in the home? Consider these reasons as you investigate the persistent cat and dog urine smells in your household.

Steps to Eliminate Pet Urine Odors

Unfortunately, cat pee smells and dog pee smells don’t just linger on surfaces, they also attract your pet to return to that spot again and again. 

Take these steps to remove dog and cat urine smells from floors and surfaces:

• Clean soiled areas thoroughly using your preferred pet urine removal treatment. Do not use strongly scented cleaners, as they might entice your pet to try to mark over that smell. Your best best is to use an enzymatic cleaner for pet urine odor removal.
• Make soiled areas inaccessible to your pet so that they cannot keep visiting the scene of the crime.
• Use a pet odor neutralizer on the newly-cleaned spot. This will help remove the cat urine smell or the dog pee odor.
• Make sure your dog or cat isn’t urinating due to a larger medical problem. Take them to the vet to get them checked out.

Free Your Home from Pet Urine Odors

No matter how sweet and obedient your pet may be, no animal is immune from accidents (especially when instinct kicks in).

You might not notice the cat urine odor coming from outside the litter box or wafting from the corner by the couch all the time-- but once you catch a whiff of the scent, don’t ignore the signs.

Remember that you are susceptible to nose blindness, so chances are if you are smelling something suspicious, it’s an odor that needs to be checked out. Cat and dog pee smells are critical to address because urine is concentrated with ammonia, an irritant that affects adults and especially young children.

Once you have taken the steps to eliminate pet pee odors, your family will get to enjoy a healthier home environment, free from these preventable irritants.