Terrified Feral Cat Pooped On My Carpet: The Stench Is Beyond Awful. Help!

[book him danno]

A feral cat came in through my living room window yesterday and when I tried to steer it back out again, it hid behind the furniture and just became more and more terrified of me until it lost control of its bowels and pooped on the carpet. It took me an hour of dragging furniture around and building a sort of corral out of chairs and books before I managed to corner the cat, scruff it (wearing huge thick leather gloves) and drop it back out through the window. But holy mackerel, the smell of the poop was like nothing on Earth - and although I've sprayed the carpet (and skirting board and central heating pipes) with disinfectant, then washed it with hot soapy water, then sprayed it over with water-vinegar solution, then let it dry, then sprayed it with Febreze, then let it dry again, then sprinkled it with Shake 'n' Vac, the smell continues to be so infernally dreadful that eating a meal in the room is quite unthinkable, just like eating a meal in a filthy public toilet would be.

Can anyone advise me on what I'm dealing with here and how to tackle it? When a cat is utterly terrified, do its anal scent glands go into overdrive and create some especially noxious Scent of Death? See, I figure that I've long since tried everything that'd get rid of the smell of regular poop, so it must follow that the unbelievably awful stench which I'm still smelling isn't poop at all but something specific to high levels of adrenalin in an unneutered tomcat. Whatever it is, it's so unbearably dreadful that I can't let any visitors enter my living room and I feel like vomiting when I go in there myself.

Surely there has to be a proven solution to this problem. Anyone?

Thanks.

 

[rubysmama]

So sorry that happened. I'm glad, though, that you didn't get bit or scratched in the process is getting him back outside.

As for the odor, maybe try an Enzyme cleaner?

 

[Willowy]

Have you taken the garbage bag out? Sounds silly, I know, but sometimes we don't think of the obvious, lol.

Run a fan in the room with the window open (with a screen to prevent a repeat cat appearance!). You have to get the old smelly air out. Anal gland fluid is very much like skunk stink, so try one of the skunk recipes available online (one involves hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap). Perhaps a Spot Bot or other extraction carpet cleaner would work.

I hope you can get rid of the smell! Ugh!

 

[maggiedemi]

An enzyme cleaner like Nature's Miracle should work. What is going to happen to the feral cat? Can you help him?

 

[1 bruce 1]

Have you taken the garbage bag out? Sounds silly, I know, but sometimes we don't think of the obvious, lol.

Run a fan in the room with the window open (with a screen to prevent a repeat cat appearance!). You have to get the old smelly air out. Anal gland fluid is very much like skunk stink, so try one of the skunk recipes available online (one involves hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap). Perhaps a Spot Bot or other extraction carpet cleaner would work.

I hope you can get rid of the smell! Ugh!

Queen Bee let her anal glands go on my shirt a month or two ago.
The smell is like a rotting dead fish left in the sun for 3 months then doused with skunk stink. It's awful. And when a cat or dog panics to the point of being sure their life is over, those glands release so this is probably the smell.
Yep, air the house out.
And join me in being glad I've now found a friend in the world that knows what it's like to have a feral cat running around your house. (To compare, anything rodeo related is borderline sissy stuff. )

 

[susanm9006]

I would wet the spot down, dump a full box of baking soda on it, rub it in and let it sit a couple days until the baking soda and floor is fully dried out. Then vacuum.

As a country kid the remedy for getting sprayed by a skunk was to soak in tomato juice. If it works for skunk, it might work for poop, but never tried it,

 

[crackers!]

You might have to remove the carpet, or at least that section of it. The urine has doubtless soaked into the floor.

 

[Jcatbird]

You are right about it smelling like death. I am so sorry. The cat did think it was about to die and that is why you got such a terrible odor. Also a starving feral could have eaten whatever was available to it. That could have contributed to that special scent. You have gotten great advice on de scenting. If all else fails there is one other thing I know of to try. Plain old table salt. Pour it on the spot in a huge pile! Let it sit a couple of days. Any of the products you used that added moisture to the spot probably re energized the smell rather than covering it. The salt will draw out all the moisture as well as the scent. The salt will harden as it draws out the moisture, the smell and also absorb color so be careful your carpet is colorfast. You can test a small corner first. It’s an old remedy but often works well. Once hardened you can break the salt up to sweep and vacuum it up. Make sure to dump the salt out right away when you are finished.
Maybe you could offer the cat some nice smelling food in case of future accidents. (Away from your windows) I sympathize and hope you get the smell out. Good luck.

 

[Willowy]

As a country kid the remedy for getting sprayed by a skunk was to soak in tomato juice. If it works for skunk, it might work for poop, but never tried it,

I thought of that but it probably wouldn't be good for the carpet. Instead of the odor they'd have a big red stain! .

You might have to remove the carpet, or at least that section of it. The urine has doubtless soaked into the floor.

The OP didn't say the cat urinated so I'm not sure of that. But yeah, tomcat pee is STRONG so if he did urinate it might take some stronger measures. In that case I think the extraction cleaner would be best, or a professional cleaning.

 

[book him danno]

Folks, thank you so much for all your suggestions. It was very kind of y'all to take the time to share your wisdom. I now find that the smell is also all over my desk, my PC, my books and assorted paperwork, so sorting this mess out could take a while and require most of the methods you suggest. I'm guessing that the stink was sprayed out of the cat's rear end before, during and after the ejection of the poop itself, so most of the surfaces were struck invisibly with no poop to indicate where it hit. Sadly I own no stink-vision goggles, so will have to treat every surface in the area just in case.

I'd previously discovered the magical power of tomato juice after my own cat came indoors plastered in fox poop last year; I scoured the Web for advice and learned of its effectiveness against skunk stink, so tried it on the fox stink and it worked a treat. Now that you've reminded me of its powers, I'll try using it on my desk, books, PC etc. Thanks for that.

In the past, I'd always found that the 100% reliable method of neutralizing the smell of tomcat spray was to mix one part white vinegar with three parts water then apply it with a handspray - but it has no effect at all in this instance. I'll try the baking soda method on the carpet and maybe the enzyme cleaner too if it's not entirely successful on its own.

Thanks for giving me hope.

As for the cat himself, he's a major problem. He's torn our local cat community apart since his arrival in the neighborhood, by viciously attacking every single cat he sees - male, female, young, old - over and over again, so that he's effectively dispersed all the cats and claimed all their territories as his own. My own cat now only ventures out at night (very cautiously), likewise the cat from two doors down. Most of the other cats have never been seen again, so I guess they've been so traumatised that they now stay indoors. The feral tom is so very wary that I suspect he'd avoid a humane trap altogether; I was amazed he came into my home and can only imagine he was looking to attack my cat, having watched him coming in through the living room window. I'm sincerely hoping fate takes a hand somehow in sorting this situation out.

Thanks again for your help and advice.

 

[maggiedemi]

As for the cat himself, he's a major problem. He's torn our local cat community apart since his arrival in the neighborhood, by viciously attacking every single cat he sees

If there was some way to get him neutered, I bet that would solve things. It sounds like he peed or sprayed when he pooped, that would explain the God awful stench, I know that smell.

 

[book him danno]

Nine days on and I'm still battling the stink. Can anyone advise me on how best to apply baking soda to a carpet? Should I just sprinkle it generously like talc and then rub it in vigorously? Or do I need to apply a thick layer of soda, so it looks like it's snowed in my living room and the air is blocked from reaching the carpet?

I read that if you want to get a musty smell out of an old book, you need to shut it in an airtight box that's filled with baking soda. So is it important to block off the air from the carpet by applying a thick blanket of soda?

So far I've applied about 3 pounds (1.5 kilos) of soda to the carpet and rubbed it in. Should I actually buy a 10 kilo bucket of the stuff and simply bury the carpet and its stink underneath a half-inch layer of soda, then leave it for a fortnight?

Thanks.

 

[rubysmama]

So sorry you're still dealing with this. I hope it's warm enough where you live that you can still open windows.

Have you tried calling carpet cleaning companies? Or places that sell carpet? They might have suggestions. Or even sell cleaning products that might help.

 

[maggiedemi]

Have you tried Nature's Miracle? It always works for me to get nasty smells out.

 

[Willowy]

Do you think you might have missed a spot? I can't imagine that the treated areas would still smell that bad.

It might be time for a professional cleaning. Tell them to bring their pet odor remover products.