If you have an elderly (sometimes incontinent) pet...

[StillMedusa]

What cleans the carpet best? We have a nearly 19 yr old cat who has taken to peeing on the landing (yes she has a tray upstairs there, and another downstairs). She is in slow kidney failure and is a bit senile also,so can't help it.
Downstairs is hard flooring so cleanable easily but the landing carpet is grim..we have steamed it, scrubbed it, put pet enzyme cleaners on it, but when she finally goes , the carpet will go too.

However until she does... has anyone found anything truly brilliant, and would a steam cleaner actually help (we have hired one a couple of times but would need to do it weekly)? Or do we just take up the carpet now and chuck some lino down for her remaining time..I'm assuming she won't be alive this time next year...but then, I said that last year she is still a feisty little creature!

From Maxi Zoo "simple solutions" odour remover spay in the green spray bottle I found worked well to break down any enzymes remaining that leave a smell.
Also baking Soda put on and left for a while then hoovered off, for a more natural cleaning product...

For however long your feisty puss has left, I hope all the days are happy

Can you put puppy pads down, will she use them?

One of our cats had a stage of protest pooing on the carpet when we couldn't get her regular cat litter for a few weeks, the best we found for removing the smell was Vanish carpet cleaner, the powder. Assume it would remove wee smells too!

Good luck to her getting another year, our old boy surprised us with a good 2-3 years longer than we expected so you never know!

I would admit defeat and put Lino down at this point, just a cheap one that you don’t mind throwing away in the area she goes.

Is she going next to the litter tray? We have taken to putting puppy pads around the litter tray for our old cat. While she uses the tray reliably she doesn’t always realise her arse is hanging out of it and misses, the daft old git 😂

The carpet can only take so many hits really and it may have gone into the underlay which will make cleaning hard. The vax carpet cleaning machines can work wonders but I think it would have to be done so often for you it wouldn’t be worth it if you are going to throw it out after she is gone anyway.

We have two elderly dogs. The vax is a godsend.

However, we use a very dilute mixture of bleach and water. The bleach breaks the urine down completely. If you get the dilution right (DH is a master at it now) then it absolutely does not bleach the carpet. It may take a bit of trial and error. Start very very dilute and go up. But yes, maybe the carpet has to go now if it is really bad.

Sympathies. It is hard.

Puppy pads are a good idea, thanks..I'll get some. Isuspect she might deliberately pee on them just because she can..but that would still be better than the poor carpet! She still has a naughty streak and peed on DD2s boyfriend's clothes when he left them on the floor Just because..they were there!

I'll pull up some carpet and see how bad the underlay is, if it has reached it I'll admit defeat and buy some cheap lino for time being. She drives me nuts ,but then totters over and purrs and purrs and I forgive her . I could do without the old lady yowling too, but she's also a bit deaf !!