Our question this week was:

Can I use plain alcohol to clean up where my cat has peed in the hall on the carpet?

Trina Arpasi

Answer

Hi – thanks for your email. Your question is can you use plain alcohol to clean up a cat urine accident. Well…the short answer is yes you can but it probably won’t be the most effective product that you can use. Actually, I wouldn’t expect alcohol to do much to help the urine odor at all.

I have some great suggestions for cleaning up urine odor:

Figure out where your cat is “going”. Is it one spot or multiple spots? If the area is wet – sop up as much of the liquid as possible with plain paper towels. Once it is as “dry” as it can get, use a proprietary product that enzymatically breaks down the urine odor molecule. Use a good quality product and DON’T SKIMP. Use as directed. The products often recommend saturating the area in a way that may seem “extreme”. Do it. The cat urine will often go down to the pad or baseboard in carpets and you need for the product being used to remove cat urine odor to do the same. Remember, this is not a time to skimp. Use the products as directed. Some of my favorite products include: Urine-off, Nature’s Miracle, SeaYu Petrotech Odor Eliminator, Anti Icky Poo (AIP), Odorban, Odornil, and Nilodor..

Best of luck!

Dr. Debra

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