Question about feliway and cleaning areas

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I think I will continue to use the biological washing powder/simple solution/surgical spirit combo and then just add the feliway when it's all dry (not necessarily the same day) as a long term deterrent.  That's if I need to continue with anything.  I live in hope that I won't have to do much more cleaning up.  It will be interesting to see how Jaffa copes with the fact that the upstairs flat has had new carpets and stuff put in this morning so there was 3 hours of banging on the ceiling.

[Mark]

I can't understand why the enzymes in bio powder would destroy the proteins in feliway as each enzyme is specific to a certain molecule. I would guess it is more likely the bleaching agents that are denaturing it - therefore if you use a bio powder for coloured fabrics or a bio liquid, (they don't contain bleach) it should be OK.

When I bought the last lot of urine remover from xeria, I spoke to the owner. He told me that their urine remover contained a mix of enzymes which includes ones that would "eat" the proteins in cat, dog, mouse and rat urine, as well as blood and some other stuff.

[Fire Fox]

My inclination would be to clean the area with biological washing powder as that is the only way to oust the smells for Jaffa's sensitive nose. Rinse super thoroughly and then clean the area with something that will denature (= cook egg white) the enzymes  - which are a form of protein themselves - in the bio washing powder. Anything alcohol based would do the trick (as would strong acid or alkali but they might not do your furnishings any good!); if it left to evaporate off before adding Feliway it shouldn't affect the proteins in Feliway. Rigmarole I am afraid, but hopefully worthwhile ...

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

That makes sense.  I haven't had to do any cleaning up recently and fingers crossed I won't have to do any more (but I know I eventually will!) but I don't know if I'm brave enough to just clean the area with water and spirit.  I don't know what's the best thign to do really.  I have a plug in in the living room and I use the spray to spray in the other rooms.  If I have to clean up, I thought I was doing the right thing by adding some feliway to help deter marking there again, but it seems I may be wasting my time (and money) doing that.  So if it happens again, I don't know whether to clean up thoroughly and not spray feliway or to do a less thorough clean (and risk there still being wee smell there) and trust the feliway.  would the feliway deter him from using the same space again if he could still smell the wee from last time?  I've also been spraying feliway in the hall which smells of damp and mildew, plus the smell of bleach from the other side of the door (from cleaning of the corridor). 

[Fire Fox]

I'm with Paddypaws natural hormones are largely composed of fat plus protein, the latter would be digested by the enzymes in biological washing powder! Could you perhaps use a Feliway plug in or spray on a tissue or rag and leave that in the area?

[Millys Mum]

Or its an excuse for the product not working?  just a thought! i do use feliway

[paddypaws]

I suppose the biological action of the washing powder will work to break down the hormone element of the Feliway so that it will not be effective.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I read the instructions for the feliway spray last night (better late than never!) and noticed that it said not to clean up where they spray with bilogical detergent.  It said to use only water and/or surgical spirit and that using anything else would interfere with the feliway working.  Now when Jaffa has sprayed, I go a bit overboard with the cleaing using bilogical washing powder first and when that is as good as dry I drench the area with simple solution stain and odour remover (don't trust that on it's own) and blot it with a paper towel to get up as much as I can.  When it's dry, I spritz the area with a little surgical spirit.  Then when it's all dry and I can no longer smell the spirit, I spray with feliway.  Now seems that that is wrong.  I'm not sure why the bilogical detergent would interfere with the feliway whereas surgical spirit doesn't (if it's a smell thing I'd expect the spirit to affect it).  I'm not sure I'd feel ok just cleaing up cat wee with water and a spritz of spirit, but it sounds like there's no point in using the feliway if I'm using the biological detergent too?  What do