As industry professionals, you do everything you can to keep your clinic sparkling clean. However, there is one particular situation that poses a unique challenge... dealing with those notorious little leg lifters! Everybody knows accidents happen, but whether the patient is large or small, urine of any kind is still extremely damaging to certain materials, interacting negatively with your floors, walls, and other areas. This article provides tips, tricks, and methods on how you can protect your clinic against the damages of pet urine... because let's face it, when you've got to go, you've got to go!

A smelly situation

Dog urine poses a significant threat to surfaces due to its chemical makeup. While all urine is primarily water (with inorganic salts and nitrogen-rich by-products, such as uric acid and creatine), dog urine is highly concentrated, and therefore, much more destructive. (Did you know dog urine can even etch stone?). To make things worse, pee can soak through wall and floor materials, and get trapped out of reach of your cleaning efforts. Through absorption, it penetrates the core of porous surfaces, and that is where the real problem begins.

As urine breaks down and dries, it becomes more challenging to see, let alone clean. As the remaining water evaporates, a high concentration of ammonia is left behind, and a sulfur-containing chemical is formed, producing unpleasant smells. This high concentration of ammonia is a key reason to never use cleaning products containing ammonia on affected areas. The scent is familiar to Fido and leads him to believe it is a "safe" place for him to leave his mark. The uric acid within dog urine also poses issues. It has a crystal-like structure that does not dissolve well in water. The crystals remaining after the liquid dries are why cleaning with soap and water alone will not resolve the issue. Traces of urine will be left behind.

To avoid damage to walls, clinics can incorporate a "pee line," an imaginary boundary indicating the worst-case scenario height for leg lifters. It takes into consideration where urine can reach for any size of dog, from Chihuahua to Great Dane. In general, the pee line occurs 107 cm (42 in.) above the floor, and all finishes below it need to be selected, installed, and maintained to be durable and washable enough to withstand urine damage.