Cleaning carpet with urine stains has gone wrong. Help

[tskelly93]

My rabbit Nachos loves peeing right infront of my other rabbits cage. I’ve been using a Vanish product to help remove the urine stains (said it was pet friendly on the bottle, but it never lasted long, as soon as Nachos comes out she makes a beeline to Chaos cage and does her thing. I know it’s territorial marking as theyre unbonded and were working on bonding them. But I was fed up of the carpet stinking and the stains, so I had the great idea of dousing bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar all over the stains. Now this is an area about 4 inches wide and 7 foot long. I worked it into the carpet, rinsed it with water multipul times and dried it with kitchen roll but it was still damp and pee coloured liquid coming off.

I’ve gone over the area with my hoover after leaving it over night to dry abit more and it sucked loads of pee coloured water out of it, and a fair amount of the bicarb. But I’m concerned that the carpet isn’t safe for the buns to stand on due to the amount of bicarb and vinegar I used. Is there anything else I can do to make my carpet safe, or any way to tell that it’s definitely safe for the buns?

[Wick & Fable]

To my understanding bicarbonate is baking soda? It’s very important that’s all out. Unsure about what happens, but doesn’t it dissolve in vinegar? Vinegar is safe for a rabbit cleaning spray (spray bottle with water and vinegar). I wonder if you could douse the area in vinegar to really get that soda out.

I don’t want to be negligible and say “it’s probably not that much that it’ll harm your rabbits”. That could be the case, but the priority, if possible, is getting all that powder out.

I will recommend sticking to a water/vinegar spray for cleaning stains. Much safer, and still effective. Wick’s pee is bright orange so it really loves staining everything, but the mix works well for our light carpet.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[tskelly93]

Yeah bicarb is baking soda, I heard that it would neutralise the smell and deter her from peeing in the area. It does dissolve in vinegar, I thought the vinegar would help clean the carpet better than just bicarb on its own (it’s a mess of pee, like she must go at least every 15 mins when she’s out). I’ll try and get as much out, I can still smell it on the carpet so I don’t want to let then lose. And ill give the vinegar spray a go, my carpets beige and it was orange/dark brown but the vanish spray wasn’t working very well plus I was wary of the chemicals

[Q8bunny]

I used to have cream wool area rugs and couch. Here’s what I did when my fosters peed to mark:

Dab forcefully with dry paper towel to absorb all remaining pee.

Douse stain with water & vinegar mix spray and dab with dry paper towel again from the outer edges of the stain toward the center (it prevents wicking rings).

Dab with rag dipped in baking soda and lemon juice mix (strain he mixture if you don’t want leftover crumbs), let sit for a few minutes, and dab again with dry paper towel from outside in.

Let dry and if any traces of stain remain (which usually don’t), dab with hydrogen peroxide solution, then after a minute, water, then dry paper towel again.

It sounds more complicated than it actually is. But it meant stain free cream decor without having to launder or shampoo after every accident or territorial spat.

[Q8bunny]

Of course, now that I live on a more convenient continent, I’d buy one of those hand-held rug and upholstery shampooing machines. LOL

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