How do I clean hardwood floors?

[luv2trvl]

I had c diff over the weekend. I caught it early. My question is on clean up and spores.
No diarrhea ever left the toilet. However, when I flushed it in my condition, I wasn’t really thinking about putting the lid down, so technically spores from the diarrhea would have flown out of the toilet and onto the floor. Since then, I have walked all over my house with hardwood floors. Can just spores flying out of a toilet contaminate your home?
So, is it possible that I have c diff spores all over the floors of my home now?? If so, how do a clean hardwood floors because you can’t use bleach on hardwood floors?
This is vital to me because I have two dogs that I have not let back in my home yet for that reason. The dogs can get it on their paws and transfer it back to my clothes when they jump on me or worse yet lick their paws and possibly catch c diff themselves.
I can’t seem to get answers for any of this from anywhere!
Please help!!!! Thank you!!!

[Obop]

I am just a few days ahead of your story. I had recurrence Dec 16th. I am in the process of trying to create spore free zones in my home. My bathrooms are easy because they are tile. I let 10% bleach sit on floor , toilet etc for 5 min. I believe that is sporicidal. I did the same with a spray bottle with 10% bleach and a Swiffer mop over all the hardwood. I did it on my stone countertops which are sealed. What else can you do? Pretty much this has been my approach. Wash clothes, and put clean sheets over all furniture because spores are around up to 6 months.
I would ask your vet what to do with the dogs. This certainly adds another layer of concern. Good luck!

[roy]

Not sure what you mean by "over the weekend"
C.diff is normaly diagnosed several days after the onset of symptoms and it normaly takes 3 to 5 days for meds to resolve the D.

The cleaning you read about is the standard required in hospitals and care hones ( where theres vulnerable people on antibiotics).
At home, normal cleaning should be ok so dont go OTT.
Hard floors are best, they can be mopped and cleaned much easier than carpets!

[speg]

I did as Obop did - swiffer in bleach solution on my hardwood and laminate flooring, let sit for 5-10 minutes while I cleaned elswhere, then used plain water on swiffer to rinse, then a dust rag I didn't care about to dry and throw away. I also have dogs & like a billion cats. I tried not to be too OCD, but with my dogs frequenting all areas we do & some times snacking off the floors & cats occasionally hopping in the bathtub or bathroom sinks I did feel compelled to bleach multiple times daily during treatment. After treatment though I worked my way to 2-3 times a week in common areas and once daily in bathroom (exception the toilet I cleaned after each of my uses and still do with bleach wipes on the exterior). Do rinse the bleach off your hard wood though it will lessen the residue from the bleach (same goes for windows/walls/mirrors/laminate). We also always keep a blanket or couch cover on our couches which made cleaning easier during treatment and after.

As for the pets we have actually had to choose not to give one of our cats antibiotics at this point for a minor skin infection (opting instead for a daily rinse with an antiseptic and crossing our fingers it improves). After telling our vet of our situation and the fact that our cats roam freely on pretty much all of the surfaces in our home she agreed to keep a close eye on the skin issues and see if we can keep it at bay with better hygeine (kitty gets a bum shave now) and washing.

As for the carpet comment --- We used our pet rug doctor which we used a peroxide based enzyme cleanser (these don't kill cdiff sadly, but do mobilize debris and make it easier to suck up stuff off the floor). We vacuumed daily also. When done soaked all our vacuum hoses/tools/spinning rod on the bottom in bleach solution. At the very least we thought we might suck up some spores and kill them on the tools/throw them out in the trash. This was probably overboard for most, but we have to clean our floors often already due to pet dander/dirt/cat fur etc. so the only new step was cleaning the equipment with bleach and rinsing.


You could drive your self crazy with cleaning when you start thinking of spores/bacteria. As my hsuband put it "it's here now all we could do is burn it down and start over..." unless you're willing to do that, even then your pet could be carrying it now. Best to just do routine cleaning/hygiene in a specific way as to not contaminate shared surfaces (ie. kitchens/baths etc.)