I have a zebra rug thats 6 years old and still smells like pee.is there any thing I can put on it to get rid of the smell?

Febreeze works wonders...followed by a good light dusting of Johnson's baby powder once the febreeze dries out. There are also products specifically designed to neutralize pet urine in carpet if the above doesn't quite cut it.

Dave,

Febreeze and baby powder will take care of surface odors but by your post I am assuming your pet urinated on this rug quite a while ago and you have tried to rid it of the odor already, maybe even several times.

Urine is acidic, in the tanning process animal skins are neutralized to remove the acidity from the tan and now a protien rich acid has soaked back into the leather. The protien will promote bacteria growth creating the odor and the acidity starts to break down and rot the leather.

When the pet urinated on the zebra, if not caught immediatly, the urine will soak into the leather fibers and down into the padding and backing materials. Especially if the pet repeatedly urinates in the same spot, as many will return to do, unbeknownst to the owner.

Surface cleaning does not penetrate into the leather fibers or into the padding inside or the backing materials. (I am assuming the rug is backed.) Although, when surface cleaned, it does dry, the urine remains trapped inside along with it's odor.

If indeed the zebra is lined and backed you will need to have it taken apart, discard the old urine stained fabric and padding material. Use a veterinary strength urinary acidifier with disinfectant to clean the urine spots on the zebra skin. This will neutralize the acid and kill the bacteria which in turn will take the odor away. Some severe urine soaked, leather stains may need to be cut out and the skin replaced with a matching skin patch. Even well cleaned older stains will smell again, especially in humid weather. New padding and backing will need to be put on. This would be your best course of action to remove the urine odor.

Mary

No my rug in mounted on the ceiling so there is no pet urine on it.

OK, so it has smelled like urine since you got it back from your taxidermist? Please give a little more information....or not...

YEP EVER SINCE I took it out of the crate and put it up it stinks.when its humid it gets real bad.

makes you wonder if it was really tanned or just dried out with a borax and powder laundry detergent mix.

Last year a cleint of mine sent my studio all his African trophies to mount BUT a zebra that he left over in Nam. to be tanned and rugged. All of his trophies that I did turned out great-of course but that zebra rug always smells to high heaven every time it get warm out in the northwest. My guess is that it was not tanned all the way and there is nothing that has worked on his for more than a period of time. Sorry....

www.african-montana-taxidermy.com

Dave,

Sure does sound like a bad tan. Possibly a dry preserve, which as Jerry stated simply was topical on the fleshy, raw leather. If this is the case the leather is by now dried but not chemicaly tanned and in humidity would rehydrate enough to give you the unpleasant odor.

Some taxidermists also do 'home tanning' on skins. This also is a very poor way to tan a skin for a rug and can have the same results of foul smelling leather when humid. Being a retail and wholesale rugmaker for the taxidermy industry I have seen every tan that is out there and that is why I only accept commercial professionaly tanned skins for rugmaking, as that is the only slate to start from to guarantee a quality end product.

Unfortunately, this many years since your zebra was rugged, there really isn't anything you can do for it. As tendrams advised, a little febreeze would help topically, but your problem lies within the leather and during humid months the smell will be noticable even if you febreeze it daily.

Mary