How to Get Cat Urine Out of a Mattress

So your cat has decided your mattress is a better toilet than the litter box. It happens. And if you are searching for how to get cat urine out of a mattress, you have probably already realised that water and a cloth are not going to solve the problem. Cat urine is genuinely tough to remove. But it is absolutely possible to get it out completely if you use the right method.

Let us get straight into it.

What This Guide Covers

• The One Thing You Cannot Skip
• What You Need
• Step-by-Step for Fresh Cat Urine
• Step-by-Step for Dried Cat Urine
• When the Smell Will Not Go
• Protecting Your Mattress in the Future
• Frequently Asked Questions

The One Thing You Cannot Skip

Before anything else, let us get one thing straight. You need an enzyme cleaner. Not vinegar. Not baking soda on its own. Not washing up liquid. An enzyme cleaner.

Cat urine has a completely different chemical makeup from human urine. It contains uric acid crystals that bond hard into mattress fibres and pheromones that signal to your cat that this is an acceptable place to urinate. Regular cleaning products cannot break these down. Enzyme cleaners can, because they contain biological enzymes that literally eat through those compounds and destroy them.

Every other method you use is just supporting the enzyme cleaner. It is the star of the show here. Make sure you have one before you start.

What You NeedPet-specific

• c enzyme cleaner
• Plenty of clean, dry towels
• Baking soda
• Cold water
• Spray bottle
• Vacuum clean

Step-by-Step for Fresh Cat Urine

Caught it while it is still wet? Great. Do not waste a single minute.

Pile clean towels onto the wet patch and press down hard. Hold them there for 10 to 15 seconds, then lift and replace with fresh towels. Keep going until you genuinely cannot absorb any more liquid. This blotting stage matters a lot. The less urine that remains in the mattress, the easier everything else becomes.

Once you have blotted up as much as you can, pour or spray your enzyme cleaner generously over the entire affected area. Cover it properly. Use enough to match how deeply the urine is soaked. Do not hold back on it. Leave it for at least 15 minutes.

Blot up the excess with fresh towels. No, we pour a really thick layer of baking soda over the whole area. Leave it there for 8 to 24 hours. The longer the better. Vacuum it all up the next morning and check the stain and smell carefully.

For most fresh cat urine accidents, one round of this does the job. If there is still a faint smell, do one more round of enzyme cleaner and baking soda. It will go. 

Step-by-Step for Dried Cat Urine

Dried cat urine is tougher to clean up. The uric acid has had to crystallise within the mattress fibres fully, and the smell has usually intensified. But do not panic. It still comes out.

First, lightly mist the dried stain with cold water from a spray bottle. You are not trying to soak it. Just dampen it enough to start softening those hardened crystals. Leave it for a couple of minutes.

Then apply the enzyme cleaner over the whole stained area. Be very generous. Leave it for a full 30 minutes. If the stain has been there for more than a week, leave the enzyme cleaner on for a full hour. Blot it up, cover with thick baking soda, leave overnight, then vacuum.

Now here is the honest part. Old dried cat urine often needs two or three rounds of this before it is completely gone. That is completely normal. Do not get discouraged if one round does not finish it. Just do it again the next day. You will get there.

When the Smell Will Not Go

Sometimes the stain clears up,p but the smell lingers. This is very common with cat urine because the odour compounds soak deeper than the visible stain.

If this happens to you, apply the enzyme cleaner again directly to the smelly area, and this time leave it for a full hour before letting it air-dry completely. Then follow up with the baking soda treatment, which isn't left on for 24 hours. After that, get the mattress into direct sunlight if at all possible. A few hours of direct UV light on the treated area makes a real difference to any remaining odour.

If the smell is your main problem, our guide on how to get cat pee smell out of a mattress goes into even more detail on tackling that specifically.

Protecting Your Mattress in the Future

Once you have sorted the current situation, please do these two things straight away.

First, get a waterproof mattress protector. It goes between the mattress and your sheet, so any future accidents never reach the mattress. Future cleanup becomes a five-minute job of removing and washing the protector rather than a multi-round cleaning process.

Second, if your cat has been repeatedly urinating outside the litter box, speak to a vet. This is one of the most common signs of a urinary tract infection or other health issue in cats. According to the ASPCA, inappropriate elimination in cats is frequently caused by an underlying medical condition that is very treatable once diagnosed. A quick vet visit could solve the root problem entirely.

Related Guides

If you are dealing with cat pee generally rather than a specific dried stain, our guide on how to get cat pee out of a mattress covers the full picture.

And for everything you could need on this topic in one place, visit our complete guide: How to Get Urine Out of a Mattress: The Complete Guide.