In January 2017, I adopted a sweet, sassy cat named Agnes. After about two blissful months of cat motherhood, the unthinkable happened: she would not stop peeing on my bed.
Like a lot of shelter animals, Agnes was a bit skittish when I first brought her home. It was amazing to watch her slowly become more affectionate with me and my roommates, eventually cuddling up on our laps!
Unfortunately, I made one incredibly stupid mistake and suddenly found myself with a cat who apparently decided peeing on my bed was her new favorite daytime activity.
Since she had no issue with peeing in her litter box before I made the change to her environment, I was pretty sure the whole problem was behavioral. I also knew she wasn’t simply spraying or marking her territory by the sheer volume of liquid I would find time and time again.
Agnes is the first animal I’ve ever taken full responsibility for, not just acting as an “aunt” to one of my roommate or family member’s pets. I basically felt like a failure right out of the gate.
I spent weeks researching and trying every anti-peeing remedy I could find, but Agnes would always make her way back to my sheets to relieve herself — until I finally found the one trick that worked.
Why Is My Cat Peeing On My Bed?
I was so thrilled when Agnes started cuddling up to me in my bed. Seeing that she was finally feeling comfortable enough to not only snooze with me, but actually cozy up to my legs at night was a welcome improvement — and then she got a little too comfortable.
At first, finding her urine outside of the litter box wasn’t exclusive to my bedding. I had a bad habit of leaving piles of clothes around, so that was the initial area I noticed the offensive odor.
It didn’t take long for her to migrate to my bed when I made the (now obvious) error of leaving my PJ’s on the sheets one day.
Even when I made a point of actually moving my piles into their designated drawer, hanger, or laundry bag, she had clearly found a sweet spot and wasn’t giving it up easy.
My Big Mistake: Changing her litter box from an open one I had purchased at the shelter to the one pictured below with a dome on it.
The Small Silver Lining: My cat was only peeing on my bed instead of all over the house.
Is This Problem Medical Or Behavioral?
Medical issues such as bladder stones or infection can cause the unfortunate habit. If your cat is urinating pretty much everywhere, there’s a higher chance they have something wrong internally and should be taken to their veterinarian as soon as possible.
According to PetMD, there are also several behavioral factors that could cause your feline to feel the need to relieve themselves on your bed: not having enough boxes for multiple cats, them simply not liking the box or type of litter, the box isn’t cleaned frequently enough, or that the litter box is in a bad location, to name a few.
There have also been reports that show cats who have been declawed (and I was heartbroken to discover that Agnes’ former owners had done this) have paws that are more sensitive. This leaves them more prone to peeing outside their box.
Because of that and the fact that my cat was now peeing exclusively on my bed, I was fairly positive that it was a behavioral issue.
I had switched her to the new domed box about a month after bringing her home in an effort to try and keep her from flinging litter all around my bedroom. Unfortunately, after a couple of weeks, she made it very clear that she wasn’t a fan of the confined bathroom and decided to find other places in my room to more freely relieve her bladder.
Thankfully, she at least continued using the box for going #2.
Cat Peeing On Bed Remedies
After several late-night research sessions on remedies to get a cat to stop peeing on your bed and more than a few full-on tear-filled breakdowns upon finding a new puddle on my sheets, I decided to focus on a few behavioral modifications that would hopefully make life better for the both of us:
Using a calming pheromone diffuser in my room.
Changing her litter box back to one more like her original set up.
Spraying a natural citrus repellant all over my sheets before leaving for the day.
1. Pheromone Diffuser
I found an interview on PetMD with veterinarian Jacqui Neilson, DVM, DACVB, owner of the Animal Behavior Clinic in Portland, Oregon, who explained how these diffusers could assist with various anxiety-induced behaviors.
A friend had also told me about how a pheromone product helped calm her cat down when a new roommate arrived with a younger cat of their own and the felines’ personalities clashed. She told me that she could tell a difference in both of their behaviors, so I figured it was worth a shot.
I plugged it in right next to my bed in order to achieve the maximum calming effect. For roughly a week after installing it, the whole thing felt like a miracle: my bed was blissfully pee-free!
I hoped that this meant she was finally adjusting to the dome litter box and I wouldn’t have to deal with bedwetting or litter tossing.
2. Changing Her Litter Box Back
Sadly, no such luck with the pheromones solving two problems at once. After that week, I came home from work to find Agnes was back to her old tricks of peeing on my bed.
I finally relented and replaced the fancy litter box with one more like the type I had purchased from the shelter. It’s open, but thankfully also has a little extra fling-protection.
I was cautiously optimistic that this combined with the pheromones, which I also refilled, was surely going to be enough to finally curb her bad habit.
The puddle of cat pee I found a few days later proved me very wrong.
3. Citrus Cat Repellent
I read several sources claiming citrus was a natural cat repellent for everything from scratching couches to peeing outside the box.
I was worried this would mean she’d stop cuddling with me at night, but one of my roommates kindly reminded me that the sacrifice would be worth it to never smell urine on my sheets again.
I followed a recipe I found on Instructables and sprayed my entire bed and sheets — really getting in there and all but soaking them — before leaving for work.
Apparently, Agnes isn’t like other cats. She had no problem trotting over the lemon-scented sheets to urinate while I was away.
How I Finally Got My Cat To Stop Peeing On My Bed
Although I still knew it was likely behavioral, I ultimately decided to take her to a veterinarian and make sure everything was OK with her health.
To be honest, I was starting to really worry that since she is a bit older at 5 years old, there might have actually been a lingering health problem hiding under all the smelly incidents.
1. Vet Confirmation Of Behavioral Issues
My vet immediately agreed that it likely was a behavior issue, but recommended getting tests done due to her age, just to be sure. I paid a pretty penny, but am at least glad to know without a doubt that her insides are totally fine.
In fact, I looked right at an X-ray of her bladder and saw just how clear and healthy it is, and heard good results from the tests they ran on her blood and urine. I knew this was all about cracking down and re-training her to only see the litter box as an acceptable potty option.
On top of the tests, my vet also gave me a “herbal litter magnet” product that he said should help, as well as some tips on how to make my bed less desirable to her.
2. Stripping My Bed Every Morning
My vet suggested things like using aluminum foil, which has a texture and crinkly sound that cats are known to hate, or covering the bed with a shower curtain to stop a cat from peeing on the bed.
I didn’t have any of those options handy, but I did have a waterproof mattress cover that I had been using underneath my sheets soon after this whole ordeal started. It has about the same feel as a shower curtain liner, so I figured I could just rip off all of my sheets, pillows, and stuffed animals every single morning, then toss them into my closet and shut the door.
It sounds like a pain, but really only takes about two seconds to roll it all up into one big ball. Plus, I have yet to come home to find any cat pee on my bed, so I’m not complaining.
There was an incident where I replaced my sheets before going to sleep one evening, then walked out of my room for no more than 15 minutes. When I returned, I found that Agnes had taken my absence as her time to shine, leaving a huge amount of pee on my sheets that she had obviously been saving up for just this occasion.
Obviously, I was very upset and had another crying fit where I questioned whether or not this was a sign from the universe I just shouldn’t own an animal. I called my mom and updated her on the whole sob story, but she just laughed and said “welcome to motherhood.”
That finally helped to calm me down — and I have become even more vigilant ever since. As of this week, it has been an entire month without a trace of urine in my bed. (Knock on wood!)
I have even heard her going #1 in the box in the middle of the night. I never thought I’d feel so happy at the sound of my cat peeing, but now my heart soars every time.
How To Clean Cat Urine From Your Bed
The biggest tip throughout my research was to really, really make sure you are cleaning the area where they’ve peed so that the scent doesn’t lure them back for another round.
Since her whole issue seemed to be tactile rather than sensing any lingering aroma, I was given plenty of opportunities to perfect the cleaning process for washing cat pee out of bedding and my mattress over and over (and over) again.
1. Act Fast
Whether it occurs in your bed or elsewhere in the house, you don’t want to lose track of the place they’ve marked once it’s dried and give them time to repeat their offense in the same spot again.
That means grabbing your cleaning supplies the moment you catch a whiff of the urine, even if that means rallying when you find a smelly situation in the middle of the night.
2. Use An Enzymatic Cleaner
You might be tempted to go for the same ammonia-based cleansers you use in your bathroom or kitchen, but because cat urine also contains elements of ammonia, you’ll actually just be making matters worse.
Instead, PetMD recommends grabbing a cleanser that is enzyme-based in order to break down the acid in their urine and thoroughly remove the cat urine smell out of the bedding at the same time.
They also suggest using vinegar and baking soda as ingredients you likely already have in your home to fully remove the icky scent.
And of course, after treating my sheets with a cleansing product, I also gave them all a good spin through the washer and dryer.
My next step will be to use a tarp to cover my bed rather than stripping it every morning. Hopefully with time, she’ll have fully learned her lesson without the need of a physical deterrent.
In the meantime, the most important lessons I’ve learned throughout this whole ordeal: never mess with your cat’s litter box if they’re using it properly. That, and even after all of this stress and frustration, I still love Agnes to the moon and back.
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