When You Take A Black Light To Your Carpet And Are Horrified!

[guindle]

Cat lovers, I am just in shock over here. Has anyone every experienced or heard of a cat urinating all over the carpet and you didn't notice?

I bought a house a year ago. I thought I had taken my UV light to it but I am not sure. I found a little old urine on a plastic bag on the bottom of my closet and began the search. My entire carpet in every room has pale yellow and bright yellow spots under the lights. I smelled some of them smell cleaned and some do not. I have no idea how I missed this. Wouldn't I have stepped in it? I do not wear shoes in the house. My house should smell a lot worse.

There is not urine in the corners at all, it is puddles all over the carpet in the middle of the rooms, but like everywhere. I moved some furniture that went into the new home before the cats and found some evidence of stains but none like what is in all their accessible areas.

I don't know if one or both of them is doing this, or if these are old stains or not. If they had the carpet cleaned and then had more messes. I know they had pets when they were showing us the house, they had trouble taking them places so they were in the back yard for parts of the inspection, high strung dogs to be exact. The house has never smelled good to me and I planned on replacing the carpet when my 20 year old cat went to peace but now I am horrified.

My younger cat (16) has just been diagnosed with heart failure and has probably been sick for awhile. I have a feeling she doesn't like sharing the box with her Kidney failure sister because she doesn't cover her messes. I bought another box for her and will do what I can to make it safe for her. I already have comfort zone everywhere but I am buying more units. I hate that she may have been feeling this way and I didn't catch it at all. I don't know when it started or if it is because she is sick. I scoop a large litter box twice a day and change it every 10 days completely and all morning and night there is a lot in there so I had no idea someone was using the carpet. I am wondering if she has been feeling sick recently because her heart is weak and she was full of fluid and then decided to start peeing everywhere because she felt weak and afraid. I have no idea. I searched and searched but I could not find if anyone has ever missed this, if that is even possible.

 

[valentine319]

Here's another thread that might help.
HUNDREDS of glowing areas on carpet; can Black light detect more than urine?

 

[valentine319]

Petroleum jelly, body fluids, laundry detergent, tonic water, some white wines, vitamin a&b, Chlorophyl, antifreeze, other cleaners like mr clean, tooth whiteners and more. I've heard there's a moisture sensor/meter that would help you narrow it down. I've also heard some carpet fibers themselves light up. Bugs and scorpions also light up.

 

[artiemom]

YIKES!! I can only imagine what my carpets look like.... scary.. but it would be so pretty under a black light!!

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Wow.

 

[AbbysMom]

Do not go into your bathroom with the blacklight! I did that once. Toothpaste, soaps, etc will make it light up. My bathroom looked like a crime scene.

 

[valentine319]

Add in peroxide and bleach glows it would be very scary.

 

[guindle]

I have read hundreds of posts about what all lights up and what urine looks like and it looks like urine. Some are cleaned though so it means that could have been a hairball with some spot shot I cleaned up or a previous owners dogs spots but many are not cleaned at all. Hair balls I missed glow really neon because of their kind of food and have cracks in it where it dried.

I was concerned it was years of stains from various pets and kids but that is why I got down there and smelled some of the more yellow glowing ones and they smell strong like pee.

I just don't understand how I could have missed this. My sense of smell is heightened. I know people say you cannot smell your pets but I took a black light to the house we lived in before we moved and only found a couple of spots, more white and cleaned so all hairballs. No urine at all and this was last June that we moved out. I wanted to make sure the rental house owner didn't charge me for the cats.

My cats have never had any urinary problems except like I said Goat's kidneys are going but she goes in the box often and I scoop a lot out of it.

I just don't understand. I mean, I wish I had a picture it is like pee is everywhere. They all don't smell but many do so I started using the enzymatic soak method on a couple of smelly ones to see which cleaner works best and I do have a steam cleaner with pet specialty stuff. I peeled back the carpet in a corner and found a moisture protected carpet pad under there so I am hoping the subfloor isn't ruined.

If it is my cat(s) I suppose they could be mad about the previous owners messes and my neighbor has a cat that stays in my yard all the time because of a doberman they keep outside at all times (terrible) and I know my cats get mad because they are indoor only and she is on their turf. We are installing blinds to try and block the view a bit and I plan on going out there and scaring their cat away, because she is attracting another persons cat (collar on) and I just don't want my cats upset like this.

I really am flabbergasted. My boyfriend isn't a cat person but has lived with a previous girlfriend's before and they made messes in the house and for five years he has been with my girls he said he has never stepped in anything that wasn't a puke or a hairball and thought the house smelled the same funky way it has since we bought it. He thinks it is the previous tenants pets. The owners had a cat door to the garage so I took the black light in there, in there I found actual marking signs on a couple of corners where as in the house on the carpet it is all puddles. I know they rented the house to people for a year before they sold it and she was the "real estate agent" and explained her dogs are high strung, they had to fix a few things before we moved in due to the dogs.

 

[guindle]

Do not go into your bathroom with the blacklight! I did that once. Toothpaste, soaps, etc will make it light up. My bathroom looked like a crime scene.

I did go in there, other than some misses on the floor around the toilet I couldn't see much of anything but I sprayed what I did find right away. I took the UV light to the whole house and searched for 2 separate nights looking for messes, evidence, and trying to identify if it was my cats or the previous owners or tenants pets and I just am not convinced.

 

[missmimz]

Rips the carpets out. You can't save them and I can only imagine that smells is terrible and getting worse by the day. I had a tenant that's cats urinated all over the carpet in the upstairs of my rental. I had to rip out all the carpets, some baseboards, some drywall and almost had to pull out the subfloors. Cat urine that has been sitting left untreated is a complete nightmare.

 

[fodder]

I really am flabbergasted. My boyfriend isn't a cat person

NOT A CAT PERSON!!!
Let me stop you right there. There is something else that glows under blacklight. Il give you a hint, only your boyfriend can produce it. Maybe ask your boyfriend what he's been up to while you have been out

 

[guindle]

I would be sending him to the doctor if he had that size puddles of that glowing substance. I just don't get how this could have been like this and I never saw wet spots. I have blocked off two rooms so the area the cats have carpet is much smaller and have been checking for wet spots and haven't found anything. The areas I treated turned white under the black light instead of yellow which is what I expected to happen because like I said I could see some areas that looked clean. As far as ripping out the carpet, I would do that but if I have a cat that is peeing everywhere what is the point of paying thousands of new carpets.

I put in another litter box in a safe spot for the one cat. She lays by it but hasn't used it at all. She is in heart failure though, she is at the vet right now for triage care. She is basically starving herself to death. I had to "finger feed" her all weekend. I am miserable. The vet thought she would be ok on the lasix and heart meds but she just never turned the corner and perked up. She was really hot as well and sneezing so I thought maybe the stress caused a respiratory infection. I tried everything to get her to eat. Warming all kinds of junk foods FF and the like, baby food she gobbled at the vet Thursday night she wouldnt touch, even when warmed. Tuna, chicken broth, chicken pieces, all treats. She just will not budge. I know it is dangerous for them to not eat for long periods so I took to forcing her little tiny bits. My other kibbie is 20 years old and isn't doing that great either. Just heartbreaking.