I have a somewhat similar problem. My nine year old female pooch (tho I love her dearly) will occsionally have an accident on my family room rug, also if it's thundering or she hears fioreworks. I come down in the morning to find a wet circle on the rug. First, I cover it with about 10 paper towels and a weight (I use a stack of books) to soak up as much as possible. You can skip that step as the urine is already dried and soaked in. Then apply a good coating of Resolve sprinkle-on rug cleaner. Really rub it in with a brush, then let it fully dry. Wait at least an hour (preferably 2 or 3) then vacuum, going over and over the same area. I'll count seven passes of my vacuum before I move to another spot. The smell "should" be gone. I hope this works for you. Oh, one more thing, be sure to empty your vacuum bag. The resolve creates nasty dust that will clog the vacuum. I'm interested if others have solutions to this "odious" problem.

Use lots and lots of vey hot water only in your steam cleaner. Do it as often as you can stand . Eventually the odor should go away after its completely dry. Do this several times per week.

If you decide to replace the carpet, you must do the following: Remove and discard the old carpet and padding, then seal the floor with paint or varnish (Kilz) then put in new padding and carpet. This will work but it's going the most expensive route. Good luck!

I don't know of any steam cleaners that say you can put additives in them. What brand of steamer do you have?

When you think about what true steam cleaning is, there is no reason to believe that an additive would make any difference.

The odor in the carpeting is probably from urine, and the urine has probably soaked into the padding. And then it may have soaked into the wood below. Maybe the truck mounted cleaning will work. Or you could rent a rug shampooer - just make sure you get as much of the water out as possible and place a fan in the room to help with drying.

It is not cost effective to hire people to pull up your carpet and padding and put it back down.

I read on-line that white vinegar helps neutralize urine odor. Maybe pour or spray some on the rug where the smell is. And I was warned that new carpet sometimes give off "gas" that's unhealthy. So if you do put in new carpeting, keep the windows open and even run a fan.

Find a carpet cleaner that uses an enzyme cleaning process. The enzymes will eat the urine.

Update:

I had used my Bissel steam cleaner several times in the dining room area where the smell is the worst, adding Odoban to the water and thought the smell was better.
Had the carpets steam cleaned with truck mounted powerful system and the smell was back a few days later and really noticable now that it is hot and humid.

I am not sure what type of cleaner they used but assured me they use hot water to steam clean and also "deodarize" but going in a few hours after they cleaned there was no clean smell, actually no smell, but could smell the urine when putting nose to the carpet.
So I agree that pulling up the carpet is not worth the cost and she will just keep using the shake on deordarizer in the meantime to mask the odor until the carpet can be replaced.

Tinker....I had a problem so bad that I had to remove all the HWF and subfloor on the first floor.

Trust me, if you can smell it, even faintly, the animals will continue to use that spot. My house had a virtual Noah's Ark living here..you couldn't be in the house more than a few minutes before needing to leave. I had to remove the HWF and subfloor, had the basement beams professionally sandblasted, soaked with Kennel Odor Eliminator (KOE) by Thornell, then sealed with polyeurthene...and it did the trick.

Not trying to scare the bejeezus out of you, but I learned that urine has ammonia salts that last long after the urine has dried...and every time it gets damp, the salts are reactivated. That's why it smells bad when it's humid. You might start with KOE in the carpet, but be prepared for it to also in the subfloor. So getting rid of the carpet and treating the floor is likely your long term solution.

And trust me, although KOE is more expensive than what you can get at Home Depot or Pets R Us, it's what professional kennels use...and it was worth its weight in gold.

Good luck!

Jen

We have a rescue dog with anxiety issues and, as a result, accidents in the house. We use something calle Ewww (by bissell, I think) that does a pretty good job - at least short term. Thinking of looking up that kennel product mentioned above, though . . . Good luck!

My mother in law had dog urine in her carpet. we pulled it up and the wood below had stains and the smell never went away.