Pet Odor Products

[GentleLake]

What's your favorite product for removing odors? Specifically urine but also feces.

 

With Tilly being over 17 1/2 years old there are lots of accidents. Mostly pee but sometimes poop. She just doesn't seem to be in control of her bodily functions any more.

 

I know Liz P had mentioned one she really liked, but I haven't been able to locate the post and her mailbox is full.

 

If anyone remembers what it was or has any suggestions, I'd really appreciate hearing them. I need to buy a 55 gallon drum, so I need it to be cost effective as well as effective on odors.

[gcv-border]

IIRC, the one Liz P suggested was Zero Odor. I have used it successfully - for odors.

 

I still rely on Nature's Miracle for stain/odor removal. They now have several different types of formulations - with a couple being 'extra strength'.

 

I also have been impressed by Folex, but I don't think it deals with odors - just stains (I have mainly used it for vomit/diarrhea stains).

[GentleLake]

Thanks, Jovi. That was it!

 

At this point stains aren't an issue. I just had to tear up the carpet because it's been ruined, and it was so bad that the finish has been eaten off the hardwood floor underneath it. <sigh> So I really need something I can use on the wood since now when she pees it soaks into the wood.

 

No sense doing anything with the floors until she's gone.

[juliepoudrier]

l like Odoban.

 

Is the peeing completely random? I've had great luck with washable pee pads or whelping pads in sleeping areas and the like (places she spends a lot of time). It's costing me a fortune in washing and drying, but is helping to save my sanity.

 

J.

[GentleLake]

Yes, the peeing is completely random. It's not unusual for her to come in from being outside for a while, go into the living room and pee. <sigh> Sometimes it will be days between accidents, and then it will be every day for a while. It was worse in the winter because it was so brutally cold I couldn't leave her out very long.

 

And she doesn't pee in her crate, and it's not leakage. In fact, it'll be a huge amount of urine, and then she walks through it and tracks it everywhere as she paces in circles.

 

If I were to use pee pads I'd have to be covering the entire living room and half of the dining room floors. Just not practical. She really just seems to have lost awareness.

 

I'll look into the Odoban as well. Toxicity and price are 2 factors I need to consider.

 

Thanks.

 

ETA: How heavily it's scented is a factor as well. I react badly to synthetic fragrances.

[juliepoudrier]

This is when I'm thankful that I live in a converted garage with concrete floors (and floor drains). My old girl will no longer tolerate being in a crate, so I have found pee pads useful for where she sleeps an in an Xpen if I have to pen her up in the house. I have learned not to go through the house barefoot in the dark at night... Would an Xpen help? Kat is less stressed in one, and I bought huge whelping pads to cover the floor under the pen. She has room to move around without having complete run of the house. I understand the tracking. There's nothing worse than coming home after a long day at work and smelling the problem as soon as you open the door. The circling and tracking poo is the worst. The places she can get it are rather astounding.

 

Kat also goes through periods of relative calm followed by seemingly endless days of accidents, more urine than poo, but I get both.

 

I am also sensitive to fragrances, both synthetic and natural (and I love flowers, but they don't love me. ). I find the Odoban tolerable. It's supposed to have a Eucaplytus scent. As long as I don't have to sit in the midst of if for any length of time, I can manage it without getting physically ill.

 

J.

[simba]

I have been told very firmly that old-dog incontinence is just because you are not being the leader enough, the dog needs to know who's boss and then they will go in the right place (bitch pissing her bed in her sleep, due to my un-leader-like demeanour). So, well, watch Cesar Milan like my friends do apparently?

 

Currently putting peeing on command for that reason, at least it gives me a slightly better chance of her having less in her bladder. I am sure you have considered that, just offering it up.

 

Maybe a bathroom carpet (bath mat?) with rubber backing so at least there's a chance for you to wash it before it hits the floor?

[gcv-border]

Currently putting peeing on command for that reason, at least it gives me a slightly better chance of her having less in her bladder. I am sure you have considered that, just offering it up.

When your dog becomes so old that she is deaf and almost blind, verbal or hand commands will do no good. The owner has to adjust as well as they can to the dog's needs (i.e. getting her outside at appropriate times) or accommodate the dog (pee pads in an X-pen).

 

Seriously, the dog is doing the best it can with reduced capacities. They are just such sweeties. It is really hard to fault them regardless of how frustrating it can be sometimes.

[GentleLake]

I'm going to hope that you're just passing on something you've heard and aren't actually advising it, Simba. BS advice like this is just one reason I have no respect for the CM & his ilk followers. If she could help it she would. Maybe we should just all get mean and leader-of-the-packy with the old folks in nursing homes who can't control their bodily functions any more either.

 

This is a dog who was immaculately house trained. She just doesn't have the mental and probably physical capability to be in control any more. And I doubt she'd be capable of learning to pee on command, even if she could hear me. It's pretty obvious when I see her do it that she's not even aware it's coming until it's too late. Dementia destroys an old brain.

 

I probably could do the ex-pen thing with a mat of some kind, and maybe I will. But my house is small and it wouldn't leave much room for anyone else.

 

Julie, you're right, tracking poop is even more fun. Especially since she's pacing while she's pooping so it's all over the place. I'd had a gallon of Odoban in my hand once but wanted to check out the toxicity before purchasing. And I'll have to open it an take a sniff, too.

 

Thanks for sticking up for the oldsters, Jovi. I don't think they're any happier about this than people are when it happens to them, and there's no way I'm going to add the stress of my becoming all totalitarian on her in her final months. She's the reason I learned more positive training methods in the first place. She deserves as comfortable and easy a hospice experience as I can provide.

[simba]

I was trying to inject a little sympathetic humour, although it didn't come across well. I have a little old girl who loses control over her bladder when she sleeps, and I got a Very Firm Talking To along the above lines. Edit: and got really pissed off by it, pardon the pun.

 

The peeing on command wasn't so much for housetraining, it's more that if I can persuade my girl to go, she will pee less when it's uncontrolled just because she has that bit less in her bladder. It depends on whether your girl can still pee when she wants to though, and it's just something that helped her.

 

Like I intended to try to convey, I didn't have the information necessary to know whether it would be helpful or unhelpful, not all incontinence is the same etc, they are very different dogs in very different situations, just this helped a bit with this particular dog. Consider it as having been dropped at your feet like a tennis ball, rather than shoved insistently at your knees like a cold wet tug toy. On reading your next post, it's not helpful, and that's fair enough.

[GentleLake]

I often tend to read things seriously when they're not always meant to be. That's why I said I was hoping it wasn't what you were advising, but what you'd been told. I was getting a little pissy that someone would offer that advice at all. LOL But to people invested in that mind set, it seems that dominating your dog will cure all their ills.

 

It'll all be over all too soon . . . and then I'll be missing having to clean up after her.

[gcv-border]

 

Thanks for sticking up for the oldsters, Jovi. I don't think they're any happier about this than people are when it happens to them, and there's no way I'm going to add the stress of my becoming all totalitarian on her in her final months. She's the reason I learned more positive training methods in the first place. She deserves as comfortable and easy a hospice experience as I can provide.

I have a very senior girl too. She is probably the most determined being I know. She insists .... and if she doesn't get what she wants, she barks.... and barks .... and barks. Sometimes it is a guessing game to figure out what she is trying to tell us. But she eats well (due to medication) and is still enjoying her trips outside.

[juliepoudrier]

I don't think I've been able to sleep through the night for the past year, thanks to old dog restlessness and the need to pee. Unfortunately, by the time she starts moving around it's generally already too late. The vestibular and back leg weakness from a spinal embolism just add to our joy. Poor Kat has a very bad haircut in the back because invariably she tries to poop and then her leg goes out and she ends up sitting in it. I spend a great deal of time just going out in the yard and getting her back on her feet. Sometimes it is incredibly frustrating and I do wonder if my washing machine and dryer will last through this, but when I get frustrated I just think of all she did for me when she was younger and how much I'll miss her when she's gone, and we push on through. I can't even begin to imagine how dominating her would do anything but make her even more miserable than she already must be, given the struggle she has every day just to try to get the things done that all the young dogs do seemingly without a second thought. And she still has such will to go on and be a part of things.

 

I also want to say how much I appreciate the people who take care of the old ones rather than passing them on so as not to have to deal with all these sorts of issues. Yes, it's heartbreaking, but it's also a beautiful thing to be able to love a dog in its twilight years.

 

J.

[Tommy Coyote]

I took Julie's suggestion and bought Odorban and I like it, too. It smells really clean.

 

God bless the people who stick with their old dogs.

 

I had some customers with an incontinent male dog due to a bladder tumor. They rigged up baby diapers so instead of going up and down they put them on sideways and secured them with a little harness so they wouldn't fall off. It worked really well. You do have to be really careful to change them often. It looked pretty funny but it worked. Then they would just pull the tabs loose and take them off when the dog was outside. He had no control at all. And it gave them at least another 6 months with him.

 

Another customer uses those belly bands and they worked pretty well. She bought some that were kind of a soft fabric and pretty wide so they were a lot more comfortable for her dog. But he couldn't wear them all the time because they caused sore places on his penis. But she just put some petroleum jelly on the sore places and they cleared right up.

[GentleLake]

Thank you, Julie. You expressed so well how I feel about Tilly and old dogs in general.

 

Of course I don't enjoy having to clean up after her, the incessant pacing or expense of having to replace floors, additional vet bills, etc. But I'm thankful every day that I have another day with her. And I owe her that for so many reasons, not the least being a summer she spent as an only dog while I slept about 20 hours a day as a side effect of a medication. She didn't have accidents then even when I'd tell her to leave me alone when she'd try to wake me up to ask to go out. When she'd finally really have to go and insist, I'd drag myself to the door to let her out. She never complained that I'd forget to feed her or that sometimes her water dish was bone dry. I couldn't have asked for a better dog that summer. I only hope I can be half as good to her now.

 

Just saw Tommy Coyote's post come thru. I do have diapers for Tilly, but she's got such a thick plume of tail that it's hard to put on her. (I have an idea for modifying the design for dogs with thickly furred tails, but haven't done it yet.) She never really liked it and would squirm, but now that she's more senile and arthritic she often fights any kind of handling so it's just more than I want to put her through several times a day.

 

So, off to buy some Odoban today.

[gcv-border]

...she often fights any kind of handling so it's just more than I want to put her through several times a day.

Yup. I wish they would just relax. I just spent 3 days cutting out a mat from behind one ear. I had to do it a little bit at a time. Now for the second ear.

[TDFOSTER]

We have found that the Zero Odor is awesome. Jade had 4 urinary tract infections in the first several months she was with us. She was potty trained but you could tell that she had no control when the UTI's were in full swing. There is no odor since we used this product. We know have a Boston Terrier with UTI and a Shitzpoo that is aging and won't ask to go out and mom forgets to put him out. I am totally sold on the Zero Odor. I didn't believe there was anything out there that would work but I was proven wrong again.

 

And I agree totally with Julie and the older dogs. Am grateful for those who love them and take care of them.

[GentleLake]

I got some Odoban. The scent is tolerable, barely. It's at least partly synthetic (I can tell by the way I react) so I don't think I'll be able to use it in the winter when the house is closed up. <sigh>

 

I can't imagine I'll still be needing it (as much) then though. Of course I've been saying that for the past 3 years.

 

I'll probably pick up some Zero Odor as well.