I know cat pee on furniture has been addressed several times here, but I’m still looking for suggestions on my specific situation.
A while ago I made a cover for my old twin-sized feather mattress, put it in a corner, and covered it with pillows, as a sort of a bed-couch. One of my cats pees on beds and knapsacks. Not very often, but occasionally, she’ll just decide to mark her territory, and her territory is everyone’s backpack or bed. Arrgh.
She’s never peed on a couch before, but I guess because it was low to the ground and soft, or something, she decided it was hers. We didn’t notice until at least the next day. We cleaned it, and then caught her doing it again. So we cleaned it again, but after a few days the smell came back.
Today I stripped the cover, sprayed and sponged the whole thing with a cat odour control product, and I’m about to wash the cover and all the pillows that were on it. I can’t wash the mattress- it weighs about twenty pounds, is a foot thick, and it’s November, so I can’t dry it out in the sunshine. Right now it’s awkwardly propped/draped against a radiator.
I’m not sure if there’s anything else I can do, and I’d really prefer not to have to ditch the matress, because it’s useful for our rather frequent houseguest. I know it’s important to get all the smell out or she’ll think it’s a secondary litterbox. I’m looking for any suggestions at all. Thanks.
About the only thing I can think of would be to douse it with Nature’s Miracle or KOE or some other enzymatic type cleaner and lean it up against the radiator to dry. That’s assuming your radiator works, of course. Other than that, you could try covering it with plastic till the spring and giving it a good wash then, maybe. More than likely, though, I think you’re going to have to get rid of it.
I had a feather comforter that I eventually had to chuck. There was just no way to get enough of the smell out of the feathers to keep them from coming back. And the comforter was just small enough to run through a large-sized washing machine. Took forever to dry, too.
I’ll second the suggestion of the enzymatic cleaners, but other than that I’m at a loss.
In my experience, when you’ve tried everything you can think of and it still smells like cat pee, you’re screwed. As an absolute last resort, I’d try tossing everything in the washer and dumping in a bottle of Everclear or rubbing alcohol in addition to detergent. Alcohol is miscible with water and is a hell of a great solvent, and might help remove some ammonia compounds. As an extra super special last resort, I’d add ammonia.
To remove all the residual pee & odor remove ALL of the feathers and place in batches in old pillow cases, or make something similar to hold the feathers while washing, drying, and deodorizing ("Frebreze’ {sp}). Wash,dry and deodorize the ticking. If all is well, reassemble and put it on a high closet shelf.
Hmm. Right now I’m leaning towards Nature’s Miracle plus cutting the mattress into three big cushions (having first made strong, very close seams down the dividing lines and readied the vacuum cleaner) and tossing those in the washer. That way, if I can get them clean (rubbing alcohol is a good idea) I can still assemble them into something bed-shaped. Most of my friends are in their early twenties. They can sleep on a big pile of cushions. And in my experience you can put feather pillows in the dryer.
Maybe vinegar and rubbing alcohol. I can’t get Everclear up here- have you forgotten my fabulous Saga of the Lost Everclear, Ex? How we went to the most dangerous city in America to get Driving Husband’s stupid Everclear, only to have it shatter on my front step? Very sad.
I’ve had excellent results getting cat pee out of my white wool rug (Fatcat was very sick and had an accident). I bought the smallest shop vac I could find, because the wet-dry vacs are perfect to get up the pee immediately.
If you can’t get it immediately it still allows you to rinse it thoroughly because you can keep pouring heaps of water and sucking it up (along with the freshly reliquified cat pee).
I use the following steps (based on recommendations for natural wool rugs):
Jug of water, then vaccuum it up to get “the worst of it” (repeat as necessary).
Dilute a clear dishwashing liquid (non of that coloured stuff) in water, soak the spot, vaccuum it up.
Jug of water, then vaccume to rinse (repeat as necessary).
Diluted white vinegar to help break down and eliminate any pee odors, vaccuum it up.
Lots more water and vaccuuming.
I love my wet-dry shop vac! I’m not sure about a mattress, but when this happens to my rug, it ends up being damp to the touch, but not soaked through. When I lift it to check underneath, the water hasn’t soaked through the bottom. You hjust have to be sure you vaccuum the water up right away so that it dries quickly and won’t mildew. I leave a fan blowing on it to help that out.
