Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Stinky House
Back story:
My husband and I just moved into an awesome house -- it's actually my husbands grand-parents first house. Despite the musky smell that seems to be the norm with most older houses, we love it.
We recently adopted a dog from the Shelter. He is 8 years old, partially blind, and with a yeast problem. Unfortunately, his previous owner used to beat him. We have noticed that he has a problem with using the restroom in the house (presumably becausse he's too scared to wake us up to go potty outside).
We also have a kitten, although she doesn't really contribute to the overall stink.
We've tried everything -- mopping daily, candles, Glade pet odor eaters. We air out the house constantly while we are home. The stench is like a wall when we walk in, and I'm literally at wits end.
I'm wondering if anyone has any advice? We haven't tried oil burners, but I'm going out to get some tonight.
Re: Stinky House
If you have carpeting I would suggest getting them cleaned. when I had my first dog and I was potty training him I had my carpets cleaned because of the odder. good luck
First, for the musty old house smell. Make sure you dust thoroughly and remove any cardboard from the house as soon as you're done un-packing (dust and cardboard hold smells). You might want to consider using a Kilz primer and re-painting the walls and ceilings to eliminate some of the smell.
Now for the animals...
Clean the dog's accident spots with an enzyme cleaner (Nature's Miracle is one). It is one of the few things that will actually eliminate the dog's waste smell and not just cover it up or just remove the stain.
Contain your pets to one room if you can and sprinkle baking soda on all of the soft surfaces (carpets, furniture) in your house. Let it sit for a little while to absorb any smells and then vacuum to remove.
Make sure the kitteh's litter box is scooped daily and changed out completely once a month (empty the box completely, clean with water and dishsoap or vinegar, dry and re-fill with fresh litter).
You can get a blacklight bulb just about anywhere and use that to make sure all of the pet accidents are cleaned up. Urine glows like a nuclear accident under a blacklight. Hit any glowing spots with the enzyme cleaner and those should be eliminated.
http://pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi#general
Thank you so much, guys! These are awesome ideas, and I'm going to head to the store this evening and see if I can find some Nature's Miracle and some Essential Oils.
One of the problem areas that is really odd (to me at least) is the laundry room. It has no carpet at all, but it smells absolutely horrible. We put the puppy in there when we are vacuuming so he doesn't get scared, which is where I guess it got the scent from (I had never noticed it before, and we adopted him a month after moving in), but I don't know what to do with that!
Do you think the baking soda sprinkled on the floor, and then swepping it up before mopping would fix the scent in there?
Try mopping with vinegar and water (use distilled white vinegar). Vinegar will disperse smells on hard surfaces. 1 part vinegar to three parts water. I add a few drops of orange essential oil to my vinegar/water mix when I'm washing floors... it smells better than the straight vinegar.
You might want to move the washer and dryer out to clean under there and then move them back. If the pup had an accident in there, the pee could be trapped under one of the appliances.
http://pandce.proboards.com/index.cgi#general
Have you ever considered a water/mold problem in the walls of the home? A relative of mine owns an older home and when she went to renovate, she took of the wallpaper and, much to her horror, found black mold underneath it. (It was also inside her furniture and under carpets. It had always smelled musty, but she never suspected such a huge problem. I would recommend a dehumidifier, too, in case there is too much moisture in the air.
Also, I don't know much about yeast problems with dogs, but came across this website: http://www.pet-supplies-review.com/dog-yeast-infection.html. I would talk to your vet about how the yeast problem may be affecting your dog's bladder.... maybe the dog isn't afraid to wake you, but simply can't hold if for longer stretches of time? Again, I would confine the dog to a certain area and clean accidents promptly with an enzyme cleaner. This may work another way as well... in that the dog may be less prone to "dirty" his/her small sleeping space.
In the end, I never reccommend Glade type products.... it only really works as a mask to the odor and never really fixes the problem! I often find it smells worse. Good luck!
Sam (the puppy) is pretty good at holding his bladder during the day -- my husband is usually gone through the week, and on weekdays were I have class I'm gone anywhere between 6 to 8 hours. Since he's never had an accident while I was at school, I ruled out the bladder control problem.
I will definitly be talking to the Vet about the yeast infection -- when we brought him home, they gave us a bottle of ear drops to be used every other day. But he's still exhibiting all of the signs of yeast infection that you linked me to. Maybe they'll have another treatment in mind?
As for the Black mold, I'm not sure -- the walls are painted, but not wall-papered. Would that have an effect? There is only carpeting in the living room, and we're going to have that replaced shortly.
Regarding the laundry room - animals have a "fear" smell that is VERY strong, terrible, and totally different from a potty smell. Maybe enclosing the dog in the small space is very scary for him and he is emitting that smell. It's so awful, I can't even describe it. I know your dog is 8 and I've never tried to crate train an older dog, but perhaps he would be more comfortable in a larger room in a kennel that he can see through. They have big kennels that you can fit a whole dog bed in that are made out of see-through wire. He might be really scared in a closed-door room.
Have you posted this on the pets board? Good luck!!
for your home:
Repainting will help with any musty or old smells, and replacing the carpet will do wonders!
In your laundry room you may want to move out the washer and dryer and make sure there are no leaks and then sweep and mop very well before you replace them
For the dog:
Does he still have a wetting problem? If you crate your dog at night then they will be more likely to hold it until the morning, because they don't want to pee in the area they are sleeping in. My parents crate their dog every night and he doesn't mind at all but they also started doing it when he was just a puppy. So not sure if you could crate train an older dog. When they were crate training him they just put a treat in his crate every night. Another option if you have a back yard is to put in a doggy door. They aren't that pricey and fairly easy to install if you have the tools. Then he won't need to wake you up!
And if he does have an accident then clean it up with and spray vinegar lightly over the area. The vinegar is supposed to deter them from peeing there again