We had a rat in our attic when we lived in Dallas. This was over a year ago. My husband put poison in the attic....HUGE mistake. The rat died in the attic and smelled sickeningly sweet yet like rotting flesh. But the sweet smell almost overwhelmed the rotting flesh smell. My husband went up in the attic and finally found the dead rat (it was huge, like the size of a small cat). He cleaned it up, took the surrounding insulation away and tossed the rat. It still smelled for a LONG time. There could have been one in the wall and that is why it smelled but the smell did get better after he got the rat out. It took about a month for the smell to finally go away. You really couldn't get away from the smell, it was overwhelming.
A few months ago after we moved to CA the dog was going crazy early in the morning (well before 5am). My husband went down stairs and guess what....it was a rat. Our dog caught and killed it. We couldn't figure out how the rat got into the house. At that time we did leave the back door open so the dogs could come in and out but you would have thought we would have seen it. We figured it could have gotten in through the fireplace but it could have gotten in some other way. Their aren't any holes in the walls except for one area behind our TV where the wires go through the wall for the cables. My husband has since done something with the hole.
ANYWAY, for the past week or so when I would walk through the doorway from our TV room to the living room I smelled a faint skanky smell. I drove everyone crazy making them walk by the same area and smell. No one smelled it but me. Yesterday it was strong. My daughter came home and asked what the fishy smell was. It is the strongest by the fireplace. It doesn't smell the same as the dead rat we had in our house in Dallas. The dead rat in Dallas smelled disgusting and sweet at the same time. This smells more like fish but sometimes I think it doesn't smell like fish but more like something rotten. It does not smell sweet. I googled the fish smell in the house and I kept coming up with something electrical. My husband smelled it too when he came home. He checked the outlets and the lights around the area but he didn't take any apart or anything. When we try to pinpoint the smell we can't. It also comes and goes. When he got up this morning he said it didn't smell but when I walked by the area about an hour ago smelled. I just went down stairs to check again and the smell is gone. Would a dead animal smell (like a mouse) come and go or would it be constant? We didn't plug anything in or turn on any of the lights after I found the info online about it possibly being electrical so if it was electrical what would make it come back if we don't have anything turned on or plugged in?
Do dead mice smell different than dead rats? Does a dead animal smell different if it is poisoned? Anyone ever have a smell in their house that ended up being an electrical problem? Does anyone have any ideas?
