Last Sunday, we were going about our daily business when we realized we had a colorless wet spot on the living room carpet. Given we have toddler who was then running around with a sippy cup we deduced she was the culprit. I smelled it at the time and it didn't really have a strong scent so we mopped the puddle casually up with a towel and went about our day.
Four days later, my nose started twitching as I was playing with Daisy in that same spot. The smell of rancid urine was wafting around my nose and it wasn't that "you forgot to change my diaper recently, Mum," kind of smell. I crawled over to the approximate spot where I remembered the wet patch and almost gagged - piss it was and, just as I thought, not a toddler's. Then it came together with our youngest dog, Maggie - aka: my one-second-from-a-Craigslist-sell-off mutt - inexplicably peeing on the rug in front of the back french doors a couple days earlier. Yup, the b**ch had peed on our 1-year new shag pile. (I hate that dog.)
No worries, right? Some Nature's Miracle, some paper towels, some Febreze and all is right with the world.
NOT.
We have repeated this ritual 3 times since Wednesday, literally drenching the carpet to try and get deep-down into the fibers and still the smell is deep and equally as rancid. We even pulled out our carpet cleaner and gave it a good soaking today and still it smells no different.
I am seriously freaking out. What if the smell doesn't come out? What the hell do we do? I can't live in a house that smells like dog piss! I also can't afford to replace the carpet.
BUT IT GETS WORSE
The towel I initially used to mop up the "spill", I later threw in the washing machine with a couple of other items. BAD IDEA. When I opened the machine after the first wash, the smell was just as bad there! It took two more go throughs with the fabrics and one empty run with just bleach just to get it to go away.
BUT IT GETS EVEN WORSE.
Although I thought the smell had been washed out of the towel, after I put it in the dryer I realized notsomuch. Now the dryer smells like dog urine and we can't get rid of it!!
We have ditched the offending towel at this point (as well as the other stinky items that accompanied it) and run the dryer repeatedly with Dryel sheets, lavender laundry sachets, even one of those dryer Dry Cleaning cloths to see if it would absorb the smelly microbes. It smells great right after the cycle is done but go back about 30 minutes later and the smell is just as bad. We did a test run with an old towel to see if the smell transferred to new fabrics and the answer, sadly, was yes. Towel #2 in the garbage.
Now we have a load of laundry sitting in the washing machine (and several loads waiting to go in) that we can't dry for fear of turning them into a pile of dog's piss.
So, we're thinking... new dryer?
I mean, like, SERIOUSLY!?
Like I said, I am FREAKING OUT.
The only saving grace in all this? We're not holiday entertaining this year. I'm guessing you all just thanked your lucky stars on that one.
6 comments:
Mmh. That's really amazing. Have you tried calling your vet and seeing what they use? There has to be something that kills that smell. I'm freaking out for you! As for Nature's Miracle, the smell won't go away until it evaporates so the only way you know if it worked is if you let it dry completely and then smell it. I know, not great.
What is with that dog??
I don't know but the only emotion that comes to mind when I see her is irritation.
Vet said she may have had a bladder infection; hence the unusually rancid odor and the loss of toilet training.
Problem is the deep pile of the carpet and that it took us a few days to realize it. It just soaked in and made the carpet fibers its home. :o(
I'm forwarding this to my dog rescue friends, they might have some suggestions.
Bicarb is the first thing that comes to mind, but I wonder if that would just do the same thing as Natures Wonder.
My second thought was heat, but apparently that didn't work in the dryer.
Then I was thinking bicarb and heat together... But my son was saying something about bicard creating an explosive gas or something from Mythbusters yesterday.
Good luck!
Oh great, thanks Koda for the bomb-making advice. Sheesh. ;o)
Let me know if the vinegar helped. You poor thing, I can't even imagine the irritation.
We tried the dryer thing several times but to no avail. We use vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and Nature'e Miracle.
Borax is beginning to take some of the rancidness out of the carpet, which is the only good news. We are resigned to buying a new dishwasher. My mother, who knows about these things, says it's in the drum and the gaskets.
Ack.
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