Smell in my house - does this sound like a cat?

[Jillyhilly]

Posted here for traffic. This smell, which comes and goes, is driving me mad. Smells a bit like BO. A bit sharp and vinegary and a bit sweet. One day it’s there, the next it’s gone, then a couple of days go by and it’s back again, so I don’t think anything is dying beneath the floorboards -presumably that would be a more consistently horrible smell?

We have a cat, but I can’t believe he’s peeing all over the place - he is very healthy, eating well etc. My partner has just suggested that another cat could be coming in through the car flap and peeing. Could it be that? I have just been round the place again, pressing my nose up against the carpet, sofas, beds etc. Smell is in my nose now but I still can’t find the source. What can I do? It’s just a bit depressing to come home to “that” smell of an evening. Any ideas?

Could it be old electrics? Or main electrical input into the house needed changing and started to smell weird, only really noticed it when there was lots of electrical items on at once, so oven, washer and dishwasher, then it went again. Have a sniff around your electric metre (be careful) when you've got some appliances on

Oh crikey, hadn’t thought of anything like that MrsWednesday. Thanks, I’ll have a check.

Is it a sweet smell ? If the cat is male they spray, my house used to smell like that until I got mine neutered x

Normally with electrics you get a fish smell.

My friend has cats and her house always smells like strong wee. It is very vinegary and sharp, nearly burns the inside of your nostrils. It's definitely her cat's.

Next doors casts got in one time and weed in dds bed, it had a bo, wee, vinegar smell.

Could your cat have weed somewhere out if sight ? The smell really does travel.

or the cats brought something in with it and its died somewhere !

Do you have Valspar paint ?
www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2017/07/bq-offers-refunds-after-paint-found-to-smell-of-cat-wee/

If he's spraying you won't really see any evidence (no puddles for instance). They usually just kind of lightly spritz against surfaces, often vertical surfaces. So get sniffing up sofa legs, the sides of bookshelves etc. Also, they like bestowing their special aroma on things like stacks of magazines/papers etc.

Definitely not a fish smell. More the vinegary.

We’ve had the car for a couple of years, I wonder why he would suddenly start doing this? It’s only been the last month I’d say.

Right, I’m going for another sniff.

We had a smell in our house when we first bought it. It did smell a bit like BO, and it came and went and seemed to move from room to room.
It turned out it was actually a slow gas leak. There were gas pipes under the floorboards and the joints had failed in two separate places.
But you don't need to crawl around sniffing for two weeks like I did. You can phone the national gas helpline on 0800 111 999 and they have a sort of electronic nose thing that will detect where it's coming from.
The weird thing is that it didn't smell anything like gas is supposed to. It was a sort of stale dirty smell.

We experienced the electric smell when we had (accidentally) plugged a tumble dryer into an extension lead. It smelled like copydex glue and the smell was coming from the overloaded socket at the wall. It only smelt when in use.

With all the rain we have had could it be something that is only smelling when it is getting wet/ damp - any water coming in anywhere when it rains?

Sounds like the cat to me.

I got this recently when I suspected cat pee. You need to wait till it’s really dark for it to work properly. I managed to find the place where my cats were peeing and then used the cat wee stuff from pets corner

UV Torch,TechRise 12-Led LED UV Flashlight Pets Blacklight Dogs/Cats Urine Detector, Ultraviolet Flashlight Find Dry Stains on Clothes, Carpets or Flo
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0722KD1Z9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_oAtXBoJbtsAJT?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

That link didn’t work as it doesn’t look like they sell it now.
It’s similar to this

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GU55270/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_qfaxEbDXG3JZP?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

This thread has been incredibly helpful, if a tad worrying! I’m going to check out the gas leak thing and get one of those cat wee torch things - this is why I love mumsnet, who knew such a thing existed?! I really don’t think it’s electrics as the smell bears no relationship to when anything is running, and we haven’t painted for ahem quite some time so I don’t think it can be the paint. Thank you everyone for your suggestions!!

I could of written this thread a few years a go, kept smelling cat wee.we have three but they have never sprayed in doors before. My husband couldn't smell it and I honestly thought I was going crazy to the point I was googeling brain tumors. In the end I set up a cheap Web cam in the kitchen and caught a local un neutered Tom cat sneaking in through the cat flap and spraying! We promptly changed the cat flaps to type that reads their microchip. That kept the bugger out. I wasn't going mad.

Oh bloody hell Camenbertsmuggler that’s exactly what my DP said might be happening earlier today!

Also, cats might pee in the house if they have a uti or a blockage. Is your cat his usual self?

I have cats, mine don’t pee indoors but I get other cats spraying against our front door, often go out and get a wiff. It sort of smells like overripe peaches.

Yes we have had this - thought it must be our cats but it was a marauding neighbourhood cat coming in through our cat flap. One of ours got very stressed out and started losing his fur
We kept an eye out and chased away the burglar quite vigorously, he stopped coming after a while.
I'm now a bit worried as I went to the door to let our cat in the other day (the little buggers sit waiting to be let in even though the cat flap is right there). But then realised that it wasn't him, it was a different cat that looked just like him only a bit bigger. Ours was also just outside, a few feet away, they were staring at each other. Our dog appeared in the end and weird doppelgänger ran off but I hope he doesn't start hanging round and upsetting our cat again

If your cat isn't neutered, get him done - that should stop him spraying (and is the sensible thing to do anyway )

If you think that another cat might be coming in, swap your cat flap for a microchipped controlled one, so that only your cat can get in (I'm assuming that your cat is microchipped, if not get that done asap !)

If you get a black light be aware that it will also show up other things like drink spills that you think you have removed, bits of stuff you can't identify and you need to bend down and get fairly close to what you are looking at or you can miss the spray.

Neutered male cat pee smells, but nowhere near as bad as interloper un-neutered male cat pee. I have twice had to spray a room with Simple Solution and wash surfaces after a visitor snuck into our back room. He always heads for it as it is where our cat used to sleep so presumably it still smells of our cat or he remembers it is our cat's room and wants leave his calling card.

Changing the cat flap would be ideal but we don't have one due to having indoor cats, so he wanders in through the door.

The cat is neutered and microchipped. And very much his usual self, so I don’t think he’s unwell. I’m going to get a microchip catflap, which I didn’t realise existed until now. Another cat getting in does seem like the most likely explanation - I’ve had to chase a couple of lurkers away recently.

It does sound like cat pee! My cat has all of a sudden started doing a sneaky pee indoors. Ive caught him either having done it or about to do it or in the act about 6 times in the last 2 weeks. No idea why he is doing that all of a sudden! The smell drives me mad if I can't find it.

My neutered male cat still sprays occasionally, usually at this time of year. I wash down all the cat height surfaces in the offending area which gets rid of it until he does it again. It's literally just at the beginning of spring and near the cat flap. Annoying but easy to remove with a bit of cleaning spray/wipes.