Enzyme cleaner to take cat pee from wool rug

[Seeingadistance]

I had a cat sitter at the start of May and it seems that one of the cats has pee'ed repeatedly on a wool rug. It didn't smell too bad until the hot weather, and I've been trying to clean it with enzyme cleaner - Spray Away and Simple Solution. The smell has now gone from faint but unmistakable whiff of "Is that cat pee?" to "Fucking Hell, I'm getting gassed here!"

Please tell me that this is what happens when using these cleaners and when the rug is dry, the smell will be gone.

Or am I going to have to chuck the rug out?

Fortunately, the carpet underneath seems ok. Less fortunately, my longer term plan had been to replace the carpet with hard flooring and keep the rug!

I'm not sure you should use enzyme cleaners on wool as they can break down the proteins and cause disintegration.

I would use a dilute solution of a no-rinse wool wash (Eucalan or Soak) to saturate then blot then repeat until smell goes.

How big is the rug?
Can it be washed on a wool wash in your washing machine?

How long was the cat peeing there before you noticed and started using the cleaner?

If the pee has soaked into the bottom bit of the rug, you may find you never get the smell out unfortunately.

It's a very large rug, heavy rug. The pee smell goes right through to the back, which I soaked with spray this morning.

I hadn't thought about how the enzymes would react with the wool.

Bugger!

I used an enzyme cleaner on my wool carpet. It worked really well, but a year later it started fading in the spot I cleaned. Some kind of delayed reaction triggered by sunshine maybe? Carpet’s ruined.

Hi OP,

The only thing that's ever truly worked for me to get rid of the smell of cat urine out of my carpet is baking soda and vinegar. I don't know how to link stuff but a quick google will take you to the 'how to' pages for this.

Thank you!

I'm going to give it a couple of days to see if the smell fades a bit. Meantime, have been buying loads of bicarb of soda and white vinegar. Have moved it into kitchen so on a vinyl floor rather than carpet, and might try washing it with plain water first to see if that helps.

My poor rug!

My MIL always used water with ammonia 10/1 parts and a dash of dish washing liquid on her wool rugs; they never smelled bad.

My life in cat pee.

Took other cat to vet today - multiple delays due to road works meant the journey took ages and she pee'ed in the cat carrier. Or, more accurately, she cleverly managed to pee OUT the cat carrier, all over the passenger seat in the car.

Cat pee, cat pee, cat pee - where I am, there's the stench of lovely cat pee!

Rug is now outside, balanced on various bins, and doused in vinegar.

And now I really want a fish supper! It's all that vinegar...

Ha! I know the feeling (and the pervading stench). Hope the baking soda and vinegar method works for you. I'll keep my fingers crossed 🤞🏼 😌

I know this is an older post but I found it from a search and just wanted to clarify-is it bicarbonate of sofa or baking powder I need? I don’t have baking soda

Baking soda = bicarbonate of soda