A couple of days ago I discovered (in a most unpleasant way) that my little dog had some sort of bug.
She's on meds etc. and is doing fine but I just discovered a few accidents she had in a room we rarely use. They're a few days old (I think she picked a spare room because she's embarrassed, the poor thing).

Any advice on how to clean them off the carpet? I've sprayed and blotted etc. but can't really get them off. Now the carpet I sprayed seems to be fading, even though I followed instructions to the letter.

Not too be too vivid but it's basically diarrhea that's hardened...

Is the carpet kaput?

I kinda doubt that the diahrrea would have harmed the carpet, but I don't know for sure.

The first thing to do would be to remove as much as possible with a plastic spoon or plastic knife, which you can discard.

If you have a wet/dry vaccuum cleaner, you can then use a spray bottle to mist the spot(s) with water to soften up the stool and vaccuum it out of the carpet pile by applying the end of the vaccuum hose directly to the carpet pile. Repeat misting with water and vaccuuming the soiled water out of the carpet until you feel you've removed as much of the stain as you could.

The way a professional carpet cleaning contractor would deal with this would be to:

1. Go to the Janitorial Supply Store where he normally buys his cleaning chemicals and buy a "spotter" or "spotting solution" for removing feces from carpet.

2. Follow the directions on the bottle of spotting solution using his carpet shampoo'er to remove the soiled cleaner from the carpet.

3. Repeat as necessary and then follow up by spraying clean water on the affected areas and lifting the rinse water out using his carpet shampoo'er.

You can do exactly the same thing by opening your Yellow Pages phone directory to "Janitorial Equipment & Supplies" and phoning around to find out who in your area sells a spotting solution for animal feces on carpet. Most of the places listed in the yellow pages will. Then, just follow the directions on the bottle and use a wet/dry shop style vaccuum cleaner to lift the soiled cleaner and rinse water out of your carpet. All of the Janitorial Supply stores listed in your yellow pages WILL sell directly to you because there's no such thing as a cleaning supplies retailer that will bark at them for stealing their business. Grocery stores, hardware stores and home centers all sell different kinds of cleaning supplies from different suppliers.

How badly damaged the carpet is will depend on the kind of fiber the carpet is made of. Both nylon and polyester are dyed conventionally, which means that the dye molecules attach themselves to the exterior of the carpet fiber, making them susceptible to damage by such things as bleach.

Olefin fiber cannot be dyed by conventional means. So, to make coloured carpets out of Olefin fiber, they add tiny coloured particles (called "pigments") to the Olefin plastic before drawing it into a fiber. The result is a transluscent plastic fiber with coloured particles suspended inside it very much like the raisins in raisin bread. Those coloured pigments give the filament it's colour, and because they're encased in Olefin plastic, you can use bleach straight out of the jug on a 100% Olefin carpet to remove otherwise impossible stains WITHOUT harming the carpet. That is, the bleach will contact the molecules causing the stain on the surface of the fiber, but it won't actually come into contact with the pigments inside the fiber that give the carpet it's colour. So, you can remove stains without affecting the carpet's colour. Any kind of plastic carpet fiber that gets it's colour from pigments suspended inside it rather than from dying the outside of the fiber is called "solution dyed" carpet fiber.

However, Olefin is the weakest plastic fiber used to make carpets, and so Olefin carpets generally don't last very long and aren't a good choice for carpets meant for high traffic areas. So, many plastics manufacturers have started to solution dye the strongest fiber used to make carpet; nylon. And solution dyed level loop nylon carpet is becoming increasingly popular because it combines the durability and long life of nylon carpet pile with the natural resilience of a loop along with the ability to use bleach on the carpet to remove stains without harming the carpet.

I would just keep using clean water and a wet/dry vaccuum cleaner to remove those dog accidents. I've never known poop to stain a carpet, but diarrhea may be different cuz of the bacteria and stuff in it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Nestor,

It may be worth hiring a pro carpet cleaning company that guarantees it's work. (A local realtor will probably know the best ones in your town, and they are often not the Stanley Steemer folks) but others who have had years of service.

If you do it yourself, rent or borrow a hot water extraction cleaner like the Rug Doctor. LOTS and LOTS of hot water passes, and many hot water rinses afterward.
Use enzyme cleaners after to rid the carpet of odor and use them according to directions on the bottle.

Depending on the quality and age of the carpet and pad, I would really be thinking about replacing it however. If you have faded spots (make sure they are not just cleaner areas than the rest of the carpet) that will not change if it is finally cleaned.

No carpet cleaning contractor is going to guarantee getting a stain out of a carpet. That's because in most cases the homeowner has already tried getting it out him/herself, and would only be calling in a pro once they've given up. So, if the pro were to guarantee he'd get the stain out, most times he'd end up working for nothing.

Actually I have found that statement to be partly untrue. IF our carpet cleaner does not happen to get the carpet as clean as we expect (stain or traffic areas) they will come back and redo the area for free. We have only had to do this once...but they guarantee their work to customer satisfaction right on the contract. Of course if there are permanent issues or fading from bleach, they usually will find this in the pre-inspection trip. They are just that good.

quote:

Originally posted by Conrad:
It may be worth hiring a pro carpet cleaning gold coast company that guarantees it's work. (A local realtor will probably know the best ones in your town, and they are often not the Stanley Steemer folks) but others who have had years of service.

If you do it yourself, rent or borrow a hot water extraction cleaner like the Rug Doctor. LOTS and LOTS of hot water passes, and many hot water rinses afterward.
Use enzyme cleaners after to rid the carpet of odor and use them according to directions on the bottle.

Depending on the quality and age of the carpet and pad, I would really be thinking about replacing it however. If you have faded spots (make sure they are not just cleaner areas than the rest of the carpet) that will not change if it is finally cleaned.

You need to hire some expert company otherwise It could be dangerous.

Wow...you could be right! Cleaning in general, may be VERY dangerous! Perhaps I will rethink the "living in filth" lifestyle?