I know I might sound slightly paranoid, and when I think about it, it shouldn’t be a big deal, but I still got to ask. I have a nine week old puppy. The odd accident happens at home and I don’t want him to go back and pee or poo in the same place. An effective way to get rid of smell is to use bleach. So in the bucket of hot water, I pour maybe an oz. of bleach and then use the mop on the spot where he peed. It also keeps him away from the mop, since it was starting to be his favorite to chase it around the room, when I was cleaning up.
However, urine contains some, if only very little, ammonia. And mixing bleach and ammonia is a bad idea. Of course, when doing laundry, there will be traces of urine in underwear and we’re onviously not doing left and right here around the washers.
But am I slowly poisoning my little baby by leaving some bleach, and surely som urine on the floor?
You, and your puppy, ought to be fine. Don’t try this with cats. Also don’t use bleach if the urine smells strongly of ammoinia - take your pup to the vet in that case.
Ditto on the vinegar - It really gets rid of “urine” smells. My mom uses it to clean up my dad’s bathroom (long story) and the vinegar really does the trick.
I hate to add on to such a nicely “finnished” thread, but I had the same question on a slightly larger scale, though my version sounded too bad for me to start a thread for it.
Ahem, I have a friend who (for reasons unimportant) ended up scurrying into a small rural hotel laundry room while desperately searching for someplace to relieve himself out of sight of passers by. No sink meant an empty container had to suffice, and the only one there was 1/2 full of bleach. Upon “topping the conatiner up” a bit he noticed a whitish fizzy foam building up and the bottle getting a little warm. He then put the cap on and beat a hasty retreat and on the way out saw the bottle start to bulge… true story.
So was the reaction here the deadly bleach/ammonia-to-chlorine-gas one or something else? Would it have been dangerous (moreso than just the risk of splashing bleach) to stick around for the possible bottle rupturing?
Well, depending on the amount of urine and the amount of bleach… But the warmth and gas build up was a chemical reaction. Stale urine has more ammonia than fresh - and if the urine was diluted… Was there enough to cause problems? dunno.
But it was a stupid thing to do. DUDE! Never put your Mr Happy in a bottle of bleach!!! Try explaining the chemical burns to the emergency room doc as he’s laughing his butt off. Not a pretty picture!