According to the American Pet Association, people in the United States provide homes to more than 130,000,000 pets. When left alone, pet urine can seep through carpet, into the padding and down to the floor beneath. Pet urine can delaminate a carpet and can cause rotting of jute backing. Even after a thorough cleaning, pet urine stains and odors often remain.

Pet urine is an amber-colored liquid waste fluid excreted by the kidneys and is composed of waste products of protein metabolism. The color of pet urine and its staining potential will often depend on dietary habits, age and sex of the pet, whether the pet is on medication, and the health of the pet. Typically, because cat diets are richer in protein than dog diets, their urine will produce harsher odors and are more likely to cause stains.

Unlike dogs, cats do not urinate for territorialism. This behavioral pattern in male cats is accomplished by spraying primarily on vertical surfaces. Although spraying is typically done on a vertical surface (such as a couch and the walls), it could also conceivably come in contact with a carpet.

Another consideration is the age of the pet. The older the pet, the more renal function diminishes, thus producing urine that contains more plasma proteins. Because less uric acephalia is secreted in this urine, it is less likely to stain a carpet; however, it will produce an even stronger odor. In almost all cases, cat urine is the worst perpetrator for pet urine stains and pet urine odors.

Enzyme Pet Urine Deodorizers

What exactly is happening when we use an enzyme treatment? We spray Molecular Modifier on the carpet and after a few hours or days we clean it out and it takes care of pet odors. But what are we really doing?

Enzymes are part of our daily lives. Metabolic enzymes run our bodies, digestive enzymes break down the food we eat into a chemical structure our bodies can absorb and specific enzymes are found in our saliva that actually start the digestive process. Without them we simply could not survive.

But how does that relate to treating pet urine?

Simply put the enzymes we use to remove pet odors from carpet are effective because something else looks at the urine contamination as food.

When you hear someone talk about "bug count" or about the amount of "bugs" that are in their product they aren't talking about the enzymes themselves. They are talking about the bacteria that produce the enzymes.

Here's the deal. When the bacteria in are put into an environment where they sense food (i.e. when we spray it on urine) they begin to react. These bacteria can't process the contamination into food by themselves, so they produces the enzymes to break the contamination down into a form that the bacteria can metabolize. Once this process is complete the bacteria reproduces and in turn creates more enzymes to break down even more of the contamination to consume. This cycle continues until either there is no contamination left or the environment becomes inhospitable to the bacteria.

A question that is often asked is can the enzyme treatment be left in the carpet or does it have to be cleaned out? Well, the answer to that is both yes and no. Yes, the product can be left in the carpet. Once the food source (urine contamination) is gone or the area dries out completely (becomes inhospitable) the bacteria dies off and becomes inactive.

But there is a catch. You see, in order to keep all the enzyme producing bacteria from settling at the bottom of the bottle while it's sitting on the shelf waiting to be used, manufacturers will add a surfactant to keep everything suspended. This surfactant will attract soil to the treated area. While the urine contamination may be gone a dirty area will appear in the shape of the area treated.

Can we make the enzyme treatments more effective? Yes we can. When you heat up your bacteria to 110 degrees Fahrenheit it will "stimulate" the bacteria, increasing it's ability to create enzyme drastically. But don't overdo it. Heating up your enzyme product to 110 will stimulate the bacteria to create more enzyme but heating it up to 120 will kill off your bacteria leaving you with only the enzyme that has already been produced.

Now ask yourself this: How hot does it get in your van? In the winter time it may be no big deal but how hot does in get next to your big truck mount in the middle of summer? Some products are susceptible to extreme temperatures. Storing your Molecular Modifier on a shelf next to your truck mount may shorten the life of the product during the summer months from a year to just a few months. A secondary container like an ice chest will prolong the life of your product considerably. You don't necessarily need ice in the chest to keep the product cool just a barrier from the external heat sources.