When Cats Go…On The Bed

One of our cat pees on the bed every month or two. We wash the linen and duvet in the launderette which seems the only way to go about it. We read a book recently though that described reasons why a cat would do this, when they know full well they should do it outside. We tackled these things and it isn't happening any more (fingers crossed!) The book was written by a woman know as the cat detective but the name escapes me...hope this helps!

You might try spraying some vodka on it, as well as the sun. We've had that happen to us too - yuck. Vodka can be cheaper than rubbing alcohol. We put it in a spray bottle. The distillery smell evaporates fairly quickly too.

Cat pee smell is almost impossible to get rid of, particularly male cat pee. And I'll second Ivy's assertion that Nature's Miracle leaves its own funk behind. Sometimes white vinegar will take out that funk. I'll also agree with Jennifer that Febreze and cat pee don't mix....just don't do it. The solution of last resort I've found that gets the most gaggifying smells out of things is to put either an air conditioner "filter scent" pad on top of a piece of paper on top of the item (don't put it directly on the item as they can leave a mark), or put a Method scent disc on the item, and then put a plastic drape (a garbage bag or drop cloth) over the whole area, and leave it there until the smell is gone. For a bed, you'll probably want to remove this assembly at night and then put it back together in the morning. I think sleeping on it would be a bad idea.

The reason this method works is that both of these products contain a large amount of highly volatile oils that will get into fabrics and displace odors. The scents that seem to work best are the "grassy" ones and the "spicy" ones. This also works on any smaller enclosed area: I got mildew smell out of an antique cedar chest and its contents, cigarette smoke smell out of an older highboy, and vomit smell out of my car (plus the volatile oils left the dashboard miraculously rejuvenated!). Do try not to breathe any concentrated vapors from these products: volatile oils are not good for lungs.

Good luck, and consider using a waterproof mattress cover: it will hide any lingering smells and provide a clean surface, and will limit the extent of any future unfortunate occurrences to washable items.

Well, no one has mentioned it, and I know it works for people urine in mattresses...stick it in the sun for a day or so. I remember dragging a mattress out to our back yard to lean against the back fence for sunning as a kid. Just make sure you get it inside if it starts raining, mildew is harder to get rid of.

The big challenge I see here is getting whatever method you use to penetrate the mattress as deeply as the urine did. I love a product called Atmos-Klear which removes odor and does not use perfumes. But that product and others like it need to come in contact with all the urine to get rid of all the smell. With a pillow-top, I'd be concerned about how far down the urine went.

And, I think the real key here is not whether you can still smell it, but whether your cat can still smell it. I've never had cats but I've heard enough about people who had trouble with the cat reusing places because they could still smell the urine long after the people couldn't.

You might also think of ways you can keep the cat off the bed. Just so there's no temptation.

While double checking the correct spelling of Atmos-Klear, I came across this article testing 4 odor removing products including Atmos-Klear and Febreeze:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/msn5bg

What ever you do DO NOT use Febreze. I've found that it actually makes the urine odor stronger and its impossible to remove. If nothing else works, I have used Nature's Miracle and then let the object sit in direct sunlight to dry. Good luck!

First off, good for you for adopting cats! My wife and I adopted a dog a couple months back and had similar problems at the beginning. I have a pretty interesting job, we recently completed the cleaning of a house that once had 75 cats calling it home. The smell of urine and feces was overwhelming. The worst part was definitely the ammonia from the cat urine. This is obviously a very extreme situation, but I know well the smell that you are referring to. In our line of work we use high powered O-ZONE generators that basically take the oxygen out of the air, killing everything(odor) in its path. Unfortunately the urine is probably absorbed into the fabric in your mattress, so I doubt cleaning agents, even hospital grade chemicals like we use, most likely will only temporarily mask the problem. I think you probably need some sort of odor killing agent. There are several forms of odor killing"sprays" that can do a great job if all else fails. These are usually found at carpet and restoration supply stores. A couple names that come off the top of my head are Odorcyde and Hydrocide, both are pretty serious odor removers and both advertise the removal of pet odors. Good Luck!