Odor Eliminators Are Breath of Fresh Air

By Lynn M. Tiffany

A veterinary clinic can be an awfully smelly place.

The cause of the unpleasantness ranges from “accidents” by incontinent or unhousebroken animals to odors from relieving anal sacs and male cat spray to your everyday kennel and laundry room stench.
“A person working in an area contaminated with a malodor can become completely oblivious to it,” said Michael McGuire, president of Thornell Corp. of Smithville, Mo., which makes odor eliminators for veterinary clinics throughout the U.S. and Canada. “Yet the odor could be highly offensive to someone just entering the area.”

Clients are especially sensitive. They worry about germs and infectious disease, and their trust may falter if floors, walls, countertops and cages aren’t kept sparkling clean and fresh-smelling.

“Ideally, it is best to control the odor at its source before it becomes airborne,” McGuire says. “This process is easier when you can simply add an odor elimination product to your standard cleaning solution. However, it may become necessary to treat or freshen the air as well as eliminate the source.

“Humans especially don’t like odors containing sulfur or nitrogen molecules.”

Odor sources include:

• Mercaptans: skunk, second-level urine degradation, anal sacs.
• Amines: ammonia from first-level urine degradation and cadaverine from decaying flesh.
• Indoles and skatoles: fecal matter.
• Hormones: anal sacs, body odor, male cat spray.

Odor control products often use absorption, bonding (chemisorption) and counteraction to eliminate, not mask, odors of all kinds.  

Because pet owners trust their veterinarians for their animals’ health care, some vets sell odor removal products. Rather than relying on discount store products, many clients take their practitioner’s recommendations.

“It is important that the stain and odor eliminator the doctor recommends really works,” McGuire says.

Bio-Pro Research LLC of Sarasota, Fla., makes Urine-Off in dog, cat and equine formulas.

“Even if the area is cleaned regularly, urine odors and stains persist because of the complex nature of urine itself,” says William Hadley, Bio-Pro’s chief executive officer. 

“Most cheaning chemicals, including chlorine, will not remove the problem-causing components of urine,” he says. “You need a specifically designed bio-enzymatic product to deal with the uric acid salts left when urine dries.”

"Veterinary offices throughout the U.S. are using Urine-Off in clinics and selling it to clients.”