How to absorb the smell of really bad cat farts
Adopted shelter cats and strays with gut issues can produce nuclear farts that are smelly enough to drive you out of the room. In the meantime, you need every trick in the book to absorb the extreme stink.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from November 2026.
- This comes up 9.2× more often in r/cats than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Switching to grain-free, wet, or limited-ingredient dietsDid this help you?
- 2Adding feline probiotics like FortiFlora to their foodDid this help you?
- 3Running a dehumidifier to dry out the air and waste fasterDid this help you?
- 4Switching from standard litter to wood pellet litterDid this help you?
- 5Using baking soda, Febreeze, sanitizing sprays, and keeping windows openDid this help you?
- 6Painting ceilings, walls, and concrete floors with heavy coats of latex primerDid this help you?
- 7Ripping out all carpets and bathroom fixturesDid this help you?
- 8Using specialized oxygenated or enzyme cleaners (KOE/AOE)Did this help you?
- 9Running an ozone machine while vacating the propertyDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I recently adopted a 1yr old boy cat from my local shelter. He’s a real sweetheart! But his farts are absolutely nuclear.”source ↗
“In the meantime I need every trick in the book for absorbing the stink.”source ↗
“No advice, but I definitely know what you're going through! I have a couple of stinky boys myself”source ↗
“We took in a stray with all sorts of gut issues, and he was smelly enough to drive us out of the room.”source ↗
“I'm looking at buying this house because it's a really good deal but the previous owner let there pet pee and poop everywhere and im not sure if good mopping and scrubbing will do it or if I need to replace drywall and sand a restain the floors.”source ↗
“I had bought a bank repo. It smeeled like an unclean dog kennal in August. *It was December!!*”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 24How to get pet urine smell out of artificial turf
- 6How to get skunk smell off a pet
- 6Why does cat diarrhea come back after finishing medication?
- 10Why does wood pellet cat litter smell like a stable?
- 9Why does my diaper pail still smell so bad?
- 9Why does a spoiled food smell linger even after cleaning?