Best way to wash fabrics so cats can’t smell previous poo!

[AppleTreeOwner]

Am after advice on how to clean blankets/ sheets/ towels that our kittens have pooped or peed on, leaving no residual scent.

History- adopted 2 kittens with diahorrea, long story short it wasn’t ‘ stress’ ( which the centre said would settle) and is a food intolerance. They were black cats that no one wanted. It is getting better after a stressful 3 months and food monitoring. Needless to say they would have frequent poos all over the place. We used puppy training pads/ sheets/ towels/ blankets to protect furniture.
They are using cat litter trays well now but have the odd bit of diahorrea. We are finding that if they smell washed sheets ( that have previously been pooped ) on they will see it as a toilet spot. They are not good enough yet for us to risk not covering furniture.
We have tried different wash temperatures 40’ definitely doesn’t work, 60’ not working. Using biological washing powder.
Don't really want to do 90’ cycles due to energy costs- but would if that is what is required.
Can anyone recommend wash cycle/ temperature/ washing powder that gets rid of all scent?
We are committed and love them dearly, now 8.5 months.

Enzyme solution from the pet shop, soak the affected parts before washing

Thanks, I‘ll have a chat with local pet shop. I have only seen the sprays and they did’t seem to work, other advise included biological washing powders .
Seems like a good enzyme soak may be a solution.

You can get big bottles of Simple Solution from Pets at Home or online. It is often sold as a dog item due to the size of the bottle, sprays of the same stuff are sold in the cat section and are much smaller.

Vinegar might also work for you, it is recommended for floors (white vinegar). Soak the items in it with water, or soak in Simple Solution, then wash.

It might be that they associate the fabric with somewhere to poo, in which case you will need to retrain them.

Try laundry sanitiser in the fabric softener compartment

But I agree that it could be the texture of the fabric rather than a residual odour

My black cat responded extremely well to a raw diet. It’s PurrForm. They’re gorgeous!

Thank you for the posts, very helpful.
~have already bought a bottle of the ‘ simple solution’ to try for the fabrics
~ am going to seriously consider the raw diet company recommended in the new year.
Love my cats, even more than chocolate

What a pair of beauties. 😍

Thank you , thank you, thank you BlueKaftan for the raw cat food Purrform suggestion.
We had managed to go through a lot of different food trials ( the response in one was quick) and ended up using BLINK wet food- this was the least adulterated and tolerated the best. However, one still accidents on furniture and outside litter box.

We have changed to the raw diet and the cats have been on it for 7 days and the change has been REMARKABLE- have have been no poops outside litter box for 4 days, no more squishy poops ( starting to be normal) , no more stinky poops and cats love the food.

Bit of commitment , it being frozen and all but they are worth it. They are now almost 9 months only and we are feeling more positive about their bowel health and the future.

The vets kept recommending for Royal Cain specialist kibble and foods which was dreadful and made them quickly worse- MN has given the best advice so far!