Had a old cat with no control, and he decided it was a good idea to pee down the floor heating vent. Didn't really catch on that this was going on til the heat came on a couple weeks ago. Yikes, what an odor! I called one of those duct cleaning outfits - but they seem kinda like a scam. How are they going to get dried pee out of a duct with a vacuum and some "sanitizing mist"?
Should I just have the ducts replaced? I did just get out the shop vac and enzematic cleaner, we'll see if it did any good...
I would keep hitting it with neutralizing solutions, they make stuff called "Out !" that works well, but it comes (or used to) in two varieties, one general-purpose and one for cloth, you want the general-purpose.
I've had a couple of calls that resemble this one. In both cases I suggested replacing the duct. In both cases they declined, saying that they'd try some cleaners and sanitizers first. Personally, I'd rather breath cat piss than toxic vapors. My first choice OTOH would be to remove and then cap off that run, that is, if I couldn't afford to replace it. Save up the money if you have to, but you'd be doing yourself a favor by replacing it.
If it is round sheet metal pipe and accessible, replacing it is cheap and easy. If you are talking square pipe or spiral round pipe or some other, that is another ball game.
Except for the fact that it *won't work* on cat piss. Believe me, I have cats and I have Fabreeze. If you're able to get to it to actually wipe it clean that's another story. OTOH, if you take it apart to get to it, then you might as well skip the scrubbing and install a new duct. Just my two cents :) BTW, unless its a completely sealed duct and bare metal on the inside, then you're SoL because insulation and porous material can't be scrubbed and will be destroyed by rinsing ;)
Assuming the pipes are in na open basement ceiling, just remove the screws and take the pipe down. Take it outdoors and run the garden hose thru it. Pour some bleach in it, and run a rag or mop down the pipe, and rinse again with hose. OR, just replace that piece of pipe.
If you can not remove the pipe. use your hand, or a stick with rags on the end and clean with strong bleach water. If the pipe is horizonal, the pee would run very far into the pipe. Cats dont pee all that much liquid. If it's vertical, you may have to hang a brick or other weight on a long rope, then make a "rag blob" that fits rather tightly and run that bleach water down on the rag. Work the rope up and down.
On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 00:29:58 -0500, RP wrote: Thanks for the advice. I do have partial access, but it's not an easy job to get those pipes out. Cleaning it yesterday did have SOME affect (probably 70-80% improvement), but it's not all the way better. The pipes are the easy round type, lucky me.
Even I don't always abide by the K.I.S.S. principle!
Oren "My doctor says I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes."
Actually the kitty is already dead - he had cancer and died this summer. He was missing the litter box cause he was old and sick.
This weekend, I bit the bullet and replaced all the ducts on that line
- what a pain, but the smell is gone. Those pipes were ruined, you could tell after I took them out. Rusted and they had stuff in 'em way past where I could reach inside, plus some on the outsides, between the floor boards, where it had leaked thru the seams. Used aluminum flex ducting to replace the curly bits - made the job a bit easier.
Thanks for the followup, I too had a sicky kitty that did the same thing. Since I have an unfinished basment, I removed the ducts and scrubbed them down from below.
I had this problem and managed to solve it. I have two cats - one older one and one younger. One or both of them (I believe the younger one) was urinating down the vents. One cat was still using a litter tray, but one was also pooping in the dining room. They had both used litter trays at some point. I tried putting a litter box over the vent they used the most often, but they would find another vent. I put pieces of wood with nails through it over the vents (made from the stuff they use to hold carpets down), but the cats still used the vents. I was also worried about a human or our dog stepping on the nails.
What worked was to make covers for the vents out of cereal box packets. I attached these with Scotch tape and it covers the vent so the cat can't pee down them. I put them on all the vents in the house (which meant eating a lot of cereal!). At the same time I got two litter trays and took the covers off of them (so it was just a tray with litter) so the cat wouldn't be afraid of going inside a small area. I left the tray which was being used where it was and put the other tray one the spot where the cat was pooping.
So far I've not had any problems (it's been a couple of weeks). My only concern with this solution is hot air from the vents coming through the vents and setting the cardboard on fire. You may want to get store bought cowels which do the same thing, or try doing this in the summer when hot air isn't coming out of the vents.
We have 2 cats, the male uses the box which is even equipped with a small exhaust fan to the outside of the house. BTW, last 2 cats ever due to allergies and what follows. The female likes to anoint things. Now that she's older, it sort of stopped. We're careful about leaving plastic bags in her reach. Also, anything with a strong smell, might be target. However, she still likes to pee on the cloths dryer or washing machine ... go figure. I cobbled together an X10 solution. I put a little wireless motion detector to the side of the washer and dryer. Also, there is a Universal Module right there, which beeps 4 times, rather loudly, when the space is invaded. There is also a manual controller which lets us shut it off when we want to use the space. Problem completely solved. The things stupid people do in order to have pets!!!
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