people with lots of pets...

[poodlemama]

Those of you with several pets, how do you keep you house from smelling like an animal shelter. We have a cat and two dogs and an assortment of foster pets we take in for the animal shelter (that are too young to be adopted or have had surgery, respiratory illness etc.) and I've found that when we have foster pets it's so hard to keep the house from being smelly. I clean litter boxes and bedding daily, scrub the kitty cage a few times a week, shampoo the carpet between litters, use the plug in type air fresheners..... but it still doesn't smell great much of the time. Any advice.....

 

Lindsey

[hornblower]

I find unhealthy animals are much more likely to smell - so the guys with medical issues will usually have an issue.. Poor food also is a problem. Reduce (actually, eliminate is better) carbs in their diets, increase EFA's & things improve though it can take a bit of time.

 

Bathe them if you need to.

 

My own guys don't smell but some of the sicker fosters we've had occasionally have a bad smell. Sometimes I have had to use febreeze spray around the house a fair bit until we got their bo under control.

 

(currently living with 3 large dogs, 1 ancient cat & 1 fancy rat - a big stinky boy actually LOL)

[celticmom]

Try baking soda on the carpet since it could possibly be absorbing undesirable odors. We have five dogs and a cat and one of my top requirements when we built our house was no carpet.

[Caitilin]

We don't have carpet anymore. That was the biggest thing that helped us. Also, we change the rats' and guinea pigs' boxes frequently, and open the windows as often as we can. But the best thing we have ever done on the house front, for multiple reasons, was getting rid of the carpet.

[Julie in MO]

For Christmas I asked my husband to buy me an essential oil diffuser...

https://www.youngliving.org/rs_ord_item_detail_popup.asp?ITEM_CODE=3660&IS_GUEST_SHOPPING_MODE=1&CC=

Like this one. I plug it in often and enjoy both the scent, but also the benefits of breathing in the essential oils. I don't notice the pet odors now.

Blessings,

Julie

[Denisemomof4]

I believe carpet is your biggest issue. They absorb ordors. Febreeze helps a TON.

[StephanieZ]

Make sure they have healthy teeth. Many, if not most, if not all, adult dogs and cats have really nasty oral health unless they are receiving good vet care including dental care.

 

Dh is a vet, and does great dentistry, so our dogs and cats get great care as we can do them regularly. . . (He'll take one in and do a dentistry when he has a slow surgery day. . . They all get done once every year or two, as needed. . . Each pet varies in how quickly they accumulate dental issues.) But, honestly, we couldn't afford that level of dental care (say $400-$600 each pet each time) for 4 dogs and 4 cats if dh wasn't a vet. :)

 

If you have fosters, I'd imagine they might have poor oral health, as the vast majority of rescue/rehab adult pets do. Sometimes the shelter/rescue vet does a "dental" which is a total joke and leave the pet with a mouth full of rotting, pus-oozing, decaying, bacteria laden teeth and/or root fragments. (Note, dh has done his share of dental procedures on pets who supposedly just had a dental somewhere else. . . ) If your foster/rescue program has a budget for dentistry, I'd look into that.

 

Yucky mouths smell HOOOORRRRIIIIBBBBLLLLEEEE. There are dogs that walk into the room and you want to just vomit. My BIL and SIL once drove their 5 lb dog up to our place (8 hours) so dh could clean up his mouth. (They couldn't/wouldn't afford it and/or their vet said he was "too fragile") That dog smelled SO BAD that I literally wanted to vomit when he walked into the room. How they could tolerate 8 hours in a car with him just boggles my mind. He went home smelling and feeling MUCH better after having 22 teeth removed.

 

Anyway, that's my guess.

 

My house doesn't stink despite our zillions of pets. I think dental health is the reason. Bad teeth = smelly mouths = smelly saliva = smelly fur = smelly house = GROSS.

 

(Dental disease is also very painful and damaging to the pet's overall health, BTW)

 

Of course, we vacumm a LOT (almost every day) and have lots of hard flooring, and washable slip covers on the couches they are allowed to get on. . . and wash ALL linens (quilts, etc) very frequently. (Even the quilts get washed at least once a month.)

 

Oh, also, a good quality diet is also important. I like a dry "premium" brand such as science diet. I think wet dog food is a generally bad idea and makes them smelly. Wet food is good for cats, however.

 

HTH

[SonshineLearner]

Feeding a diet free from wheat and corn and other grains like that... I feed a bit of rice sometimes, and he cheats by stealing some food :) With teeth, if there is plaque, you can actually flick it off sometimes. You take your nail... and... scrape. :) Yay! I have to say that while my pups breath isn't beautiful, it's not horrible. Sometimes I wanna ask him if I could waterpik his mouth out :) I wash him pretty often.... and you can look in their ears. I think that the <gasp> raw food diet is the best... and with that many dogs... if you you didn't end up picking it up right away... on occasion... it melts much faster into the grass... when there's no grain...

:)

A maid would be nice to help, too!! My dream!!

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

We have 3 dogs, 3 lizards, 4 guinea pigs, a salamander and a frog (lizards, salamanders and frogs dont stink:001_smile:) The petshop told us the 2 guinea pigs we bought were males :glare: and I can not tell a difference. So all 4 are now in 4 different cages just to be safe. My kids are FOREVER giving the dogs and guinea pigs baths. (Our bull mastiff has had 3 this week, the pug 4 and the golden retriever 3 and I think they bathe the guinea pigs daily:001_huh:) The kids are also forever brushing the dogs outside (I am NOT complaining about the bathing and brushing! Trust me!) We found bedding for the guinea pigs that leaves NO odor after months of looking (!!!!!) I vacuum 2 or so times a day and sweep a couple times (well, between me and the kids it is a few times a day) but that is also because we have a ton of dust because we live in the country I dont know, everybody tells me there is no odor. We never smell anything after being gone all day either. I guess the trick is keeping the animals clean. Oh, in the winter the kids bathe the dogs and guinea pigs in the bath tub but they scrub everything down with pinesol afterwards (tub, shower, walls, floor, everything to keep the odor away!)

[vettechmomof2]

We have many pets but clean often.

Keeping teeth and body healthy will do a lot to keep odor down.

Diet is important.

We clean litterboxes for the cats 2 times a day and for the rabbits once a day.

We do not use candles or any air freshners as we have birds and most of those are just toxic fumes and could kill them.

We use Vinegar to clean and/or Simple Green. The dogs have their own bedding, not allowed on the furniture and the cats are only allowed on their cat stands or the back of the sofa but we still vacuum the sofa often as well.

The bunnies are the worst contenders for smell but even with them the house odor is minimal (except at bunny litter changing time) (again we do this daily).

We vacuum daily in the house and clean lightly twice a week.

My fosters do smell worse then my own pets and do need baths on occassion but my own very seldom EVER need baths. Right now we have

2 ASD's and 1 foster ASD

1 terrier x

3 cats

3 rabbits(all seperate cages)

3 birds(2 cages)

10 gerbils(5 tanks)

1 fishtank

Edited August 7, 2010 by vettechmomof2

[6packofun]

(lizards, salamanders and frogs dont stink)

 

Oh, I beg to differ! LOL Our bearded dragon can lay down a stink worse than my 4yo's poopy diaper!! :tongue_smilie: Just gotta keep up with poop patrol!

[Whereneverever]

Lots and lots of cleaning. We do have some carpet and I shampoo it and spritz it with vinegar so it's not funky in here.

[elise1mds]

Keeping the animals clean is a big part of it for us. Animals with fleas tend to scratch and roll and get their smell spread around and stink. I buy litter from Sam's Club and have found that it is the best stuff ever. It's probably horrible to use, but it does work. I have six cats, three litter boxes, and only clean them out every other day, and there is NO smell. I have had people wander through my entire house and then ask me if I let the cats out to use the bathroom because they miss the litter boxes lined up along the utility room wall. The dogs do not come in if they're wet. Period. I do not care how much they whine. I change out the litter in the gerbil cage every other week or whenever it starts to smell. The lizard never stank. The fish tank gets scrubbed weekly.

 

Once in a while, I also use a spray I bought from www.dustmitex.com all over the furniture and carpet. I vacuum at least once a week.

 

Other than that, it doesn't seem hard, but then again, I'm not fostering. I think that would make my job 100 times harder. :)

[mom2jjka]

Boil cloves or cinnamon sticks in a pot of water - or my favorite - just bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies so your house will smell like those instead.

 

You can also absorb odors from your home by setting a a bowl of vinegar or a couple of charcoal briquettes in a hidden area in your home. Both will absorb bad odors.

[hornblower]

I forgot to say that I vacuum every day.

 

I think a good vac really helps with odors. I no longer have carpet in the living areas but I still vac there daily.

 

LOL about not letting wet dogs in. I live in rain city & when it's not raining, we go to the beach.....:lol: They're all indoor dogs & they have their own towels & get towelled off till dry. Easy peasy.

 

I'm still putting most of the blame on poor health & crappy food - raw or no carb commercial food will take care of a lot of it. Dental issues too - but with dogs, I like to treat it with raw bones. Cats are tougher as some refuse to switch. A good dental or a product like Plaque Off might help there.

 

 

AND :hurray::cheers2::thumbup::thumbup1::001_tt1: to the OP for fostering & helping out the homeless, abandoned critters !!!!! It's a thankless job (usually with tears at the end of it) --- so thank you!

[StephanieZ]

Oh, yes, I forgot about ears! Dh keeps our pets' ears so clean that they never smell, but I have smelled some real doozies at the hospital. Definitely give them a wiff and if the ears smell funky, get the vet's advice about fixing any infection and then keeping them clean! ICK.

 

BTW, the tartar that you can flick off with your nail or even an implement is just the tip of the iceberg. It's the stuff under the gumline that is super scary.

[Greta]

We ripped up all our carpet and replaced it with tile. We have Ikea chairs with cushions that are cheap enough to be replaced frequently, and a faux-leather couch that doesn't absorb odors (but also doesn't invite chewing). That pretty much does the trick, but we also burn lots of candles and incense. :D

 

We have four dogs and one lizard. The lizard doesn't smell, doesn't pee on the floor, and doesn't shed. He's really the ideal pet! :lol:

[poodlemama]

Thanks for all the advice. I think the health issue is definitely a big one. It's really the foster animals that cause the problem. And the wet food that the animal shelter has us feed them because a lot of them are supper skinny little things and sometimes the sick ones have to be syringe feed . I try to remove the food as soon as I see them stop eating. We usually take kittens so teeth are not so much an issue. I'll have to think about the carpet issue. We have almost wall to wall carpet here (even in the bathroom!! That defiantly needs to come out!). Sounds like mostly it's just clean, clean, clean. We do enjoy fostering and I think the kids get a lot out of helping and taking care of the animals so it's worth the inconvenience.

 

Lindsey