From: watcgl!nb.rockwell.com!guthrie (Karen Guthrie)
From: LAURACLE <watcgl!cpvax.cpses.tu.com!b_lmcgilve>
From: Victoria Neff <watcgl!icpsr.umich.edu!vln>
From: watcgl!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!lynne (Lynne D Jeffers)
From: watcgl!pacvax.pacersoft.com!lynne (Lynne Chantler)
From: watcgl!apollo.hp.com!betsyp (Betsy Perry)
From: Judy Leedom Tyrer <watcgl!snap.la.locus.com!judy>
From: Joanne Petersen <watcgl!hpcc01.corp.hp.com!joanne>
From: wex@cs.ulowell.edu (Paul M. Wexelblat)
From: srb@aretha.jax.org (Susan Dewey)


The following is a compilation of the responses that I received.  Press 'n'
now if you want to skip it.

******************************************************************************

Try Outright.  You get it at the pet store.  It's some sort of
enzyme and it works extremely well.  Absolutely harmless (well,
maybe if you _drank_ the bottle...).

*****

Yow, you've got quite a combo there!  While I can't help much on the baby
stuff, Outright (available in most pet stores) does a good job on cat urine
odor (Nature's Miracle is also supposed to be good, but I've never used it).

Since smells will tend to come up out of the subflooring after a while, the
ultimate solution (for heavily effected areas) is to:

       1) Paint the subflooring with a couple of coats of paint (to keep the
          smell from coming up).
       2) Replace the carpet pad in the effected area
       3) Treat the area with Outright (follow the directions on the bottle).

For a quick fix, just do (3).

*****

Supposedly, professional carpet cleaners have some sort of enzymatic
cleaner that removes such odors from carpet.  I recently had someone
clean my carpets and use the enzyme method (I wasn't home to watch
it, but the man said he uses a special machine that works the enzyme
into the carpet and does whatever is needed to do the rest of the
work).  For a couple of weeks (about 2) it was difficult to tell if
the pet odor was really gone (the carpet cleaning also used some
sort of deodorizer and it took a while for that smell to go away)
but the pet odor is definitely gone now (most noticeable after being
gone for about 4 days, leaving the house all closed up during hot
weather).  The professional carpet cleaning service I used was a 
little more expensive than some others I've used, but the pet odor
was completely gone afterwards, as opposed to some less expensive
professional cleaning services that left some of the pet odor afterwards.

*****

I do not know how to eliminate old urine smells from carpets, however, the
following procedure should work for fresh urine stains:

  1) Blot up as much urine as possible.
  2) Prepare a mixture of 1/4 C vinegar to 1/4 C water
  3) With a sponge, scrub the above mixture into the stain
  4) Blot up as much of the vinegar solution as possible
  5) Cover the spot with a paper towel.  Put a section of newspaper on the
     paper towel.  Cover this all with plastic.
  6) Weight the paper down with several heavy books, or bricks, etc.
  7) After 12 hours, remove the paper.  If the carpet is still damp, repeat
     the above starting at step 5.

I have tried the above on very old urine stains (the previous owner had a cat)
without success.  I am considering pouring baking soda on the stain between
steps 4 and 5 to see if this eliminates the odor.  Step 8 would then be
vacuuming the soda up.  I'll let you know if this has any effect.  Finding old
stains, incidentally, is as simple as following your nose.

****

I find that most smells can be removed with baking soda.  If they are really
bad and all over you could try getting a steam cleaner and running it over the
carpet after you had liberally shaken baking soda on it first.  The steam might
help with any germs too.  Try it on a small place first just in case the color
hates the stuff.  For small stains I use amonia in water...again test colorfast-
ness.

****

For urine odors, probably the best treatment is one of the enzyme-based
products like Nature's Miracle, Outright! or Rug Doctor Pet Odor Remover.
You need to dilute these with water, and soak the carpet as far as the
urine has penetrated.  Keep the carpet damp for 24 hours (I cover the area
with towels soaked in plain water and a plastic bag or shower curtain) then
dry the area after 24 hours (or you get moldy carpets!)

Repeat if needed.

If you do this when the temperature is higher, you'll have better odor
removal than if you choose a cool day.  Might even be worthwhile to 
run the furnace now in more northerly areas.   Cost: ca. $8-$15 for 
a bottle that will do major carpet spotting.

I don't know if Nature's Miracle, etc., will do much on sour milk, but it
may.  If it doesn't work, try Odor Mute, a powder odor killer originally
developed for de-skunking dogs.  Unlike the enzymes, this does not break
down the odor molecules, so the odor sometimes comes back.  Luckily it's
cheap, non-toxic, and water soluble.  I pay about $3 for a bath-soap-bar
size box, which makes about 5 gallons of solution.

Odor Mute leaves a little powdery residue as it dries-- vacuum cleaner time!

Try pet stores and farm supply stores that have a pet care section for
these products.                             

Joan Maxwell was told that if you had trouble locating pee-spots, to 
try looking at the carpet under UV light.  They fluoresce.  Haven't
tried it myself, but apparently it does work!

****

Go to your local discount pet store ...or...cleaning suppy store.  You want
an ENZYME rug cleaner.  Some brand names are Outright and Spot Away.  Don't
get suckered into buying a perfumed soap based cleanser.  You need to test
it on a small area first to make sure that it doesn't like the color out of
the carpet.  Saturate the carpet with this stuff.  Make sure that it soaks
down into the pad.  I usually let it dry in place and then go over the area
with my carpet steam cleaner.  Try to treat any new spots as quickly as 
possible and first use paper towels or something similar to blot up as much
liquid as possible.  Old stains/odors are very hard to remove.

I have a puppy so I know these work well.  When I treated the spots right
away, there was no odor left at all.

****

Go to a pet store and check out the various products that are intended for
this purpose.  I've used OdorMute, and have been very satisfied with it.

****

Try "Simple Solution." It's available at your local pet store. It works very
well on urine and feces. I don't know how well it would work on food stains
(my son was 3.5 when we got our puppy, so he was past the spilling stage).

****

I am not sure about the baby urine or the milk.  But I know you will never
get the cat smell out :-(

****

I second the recommendation for Outright Pet Odor Eliminator (and similar 
bacteria/enzyme products).  My cat had a few "breaking in" sessions with the 
carpet in my apartment when we first moved in.  After "explaining it" to my 
cat, I used the Outright on several well-marked areas of the carpet.  Got rid 
of 99% of the odor, and haven't had any trouble since.  Be sure to be generous 
and thorough when you apply it.  Apparently all it takes are a few molecules 
of cat pee to smell really bad!

****

I doubt if it works on milk, but "Outright!" is DYNAMITE
for urine smells.  You buy it at pet stores -- it's an enzyme
that you mix with warm water.  Then you SATURATE the carpet.
In my experience, it kills odors dead, it doesn't just
scent over them like so many commercial products.

****

There is a surefire way for these - it's called "Nature's Miracle" and you
can get it at most pet stores.  Depending on the smell it may take up to a
week to completely remove it, but it even works on vomit, and that's got to
be the worst.

****

Go to your vet -- they have strong liquids to use to take the odor out (it
works best, of course, if applied soon after the accident).  The stuff they
sell in the pet stores may also work, but the stuff from the vet tends to be
stronger and better (in my opinion).

****

My vet sells a product (Eliminoder), that works terrifically on cat
and catbox odor.

(The stuff is made by Beechum, and there are 5 or 6 odor specific
types -- sort of like chelating (sp) agents??  Anyhow, the specific one I
recommend is Feline Eliminoder

There'r also canine -- that attacks dog smell, not dog misteak [sic] odor
pet mistake -- generic oops odor, not as specific as feline, and a couple
of others.

These come in 10oz? spray bottles and cost on the order of 5-6 $$
These things do have a slight odor, but appear to be odor neutralizers,
not covers-up  (is that the correct plural?).

****

Sprinkle the carpet liberally with Borateem and let it sit for 15-20 min.
Then vacuum it up. Also gets rid of flea larvae. Also good as a baking soda
substitute in cat boxes.
-- 
Carlo Sgro  is  carlo@electro.com            "Yet another person who never has
and also uunet.ca!electro!carlo               had a relationship with Margaret 
System Administrator, Electrohome Ltd.        Trudeau..."
Kitchener, ON, (519)744-7111 x 7209