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We've used antibiotics cranberry, herbs etc. She was hospitalized in April of this year due to confusion, nightmares & erratic behavior. She had a UTI. Looking back, I can see that she had quite a few of these episodes over the past 5 years she's been living with me. The worst are the night terrors.
The second hospitalization was a week after the first She was given a flouriquinoline antibiotic and she completely went demented. (one of the side effects of the drug, in the elderly, that they don't mention unless you go digging for the information) She is allergic to penicillin. She has been given Batrin, a sulfa drug, for 10 days at a stretch. That seems to help, but the infection comes back within a week to ten days and we're back to square 1. This time the crazy behavior started at the end of her round of drugs. Last night when I called her to dinner, rather than go to the table, she came behind the kitchen counter. I told her that we were eating at the table (we don't have a place to eat in the kitchen area) she went and stood at the counter. She was so confused she couldn't find the table. She's drinking cranberry juice 2 X daily. She's taking the herbal mix "Kidney Blend" She's drinking lots of water, but she has to wear "depends". Any suggestions would be appreciated.
My husband told me that when his X wife had this, they would hospitalize her and catheterize her and "flush" her bladder with an antibiotic wash.

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She needs to be seen by a urologist who specializes in elderly women. Shemay have an underlying bladder infection. Or she may need to be on prophylactic antibiotics. Or she way have a structural issue that could be improved by surgery.
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Try D-Mannose, you can purchase it at most health food stores, and on Amazon. You may want to look it up on Amazon and read the reviews of folks who have used it for UTI's. It is suppose to be great. Also, you can do a google search of "D-Mannose". Good Luck
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I took her to the ER today and they announced that the UTI is now cleared up (at last!) But the erratic behavior continues. She is at the end of a 10 day antibiotic program and is again acting like she's demented, but it comes and goes. Her doctor thought it was the UTI making her act so strangely. Could it have residual effects after the infection is cleared up? She was restless last night, crying in her sleep but finally settled down. This morning she couldn't figure out how to put her pants on and kept on putting her PJ bottoms back on. She seemed pretty O.K. after I got her dressed, she was a little dippy, but ate a pretty good breakfast (1 egg, 1 slice of toast and a slice of tomato) She didn't take her AM supplements or Rx's and she started whimpering and moaning. She said nothing hurt when I asked her. I told her that I was going to put on clothes and take her to the ER since she seemed to be sort of fading in and out. When I left the room, she started screaming. Again, she said nothing hurt and she didn't remember doing it after it was all over. I took her to the ER anyway. They could find nothing wrong. Any thoughts from anybody on this? And BTW Whitney, I did use D-Mannose. Thanks for all the help. I don't know whether to take her to a urologist or a neurologist at this point. She has seen a neurologist for a different problem, but was given a clean bill of health.
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When elderly people have UTI's, one of the side effects is confusion, which younger people don't have. Alot of times there were no other symptoms like burning, frequent urinating and pain. Just the confusion. UTI's are very hard to clear up. Alot of times they tell you to drink cranberry juice, which is worthless, unless it's from an herbal store and contains at least 30% actual cranberry juice. Cranberry juice in stores contains about 5% juice from cranberries and the other 95% is just sugar water. I heard of some people who tried garlic tea that had good results. Four cloves of fresh garlic steeped in 1 c water for 20 minutes. It's best to drink at night. You want to urinate first, drink the tea and go to bed. The longer it's in the bladder before being urinated out, the more effective it is. But not everyone can take garlic as it can interact with various meds, so anyone wanting to try this would want to Google garlic to see what it interacts with. Also when taking an antibiotic, don't ingest any citrus fruits as they render the antibiotic useless.
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I agree a complete workup with a good Urologist. Has her OB ever mentioned structural issues? If she has to be catheterized, insist on a catheter with a silver tip to prevent infection. MD's can also instill silver nitrate weekly, but that is something of a last resort.
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Took my mom to a urogynocologist because of frequent infections, seven last year. Doc did a test to look at inside of bladder, it was very inflamed. Also did an input/output test by pumping water into the bladder to see if she was emptying completely. Then had her on a course of drugs including prophylatic antibiotics. She has not had a UTI this year. And her symptoms when she had them ran the gamut, everything from a backache to stroke symptoms not being able to talk or walk.
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Urogynecologist! That's the specialty I was trying to think of yesterday. Did they do a culture or just a test strip? Blood work up to check for elevated white count or electrolytes? Yes, I would have them check her bladder.
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Mom has had both test strip and culture, not blood work ever. When we go to the UG I ask them to get the sample by catheter to avoid the contamination problem, direct from the bladder. Women especially have many false positives from test strips due to cleanliness issues. One of the infections last year that her geriatrician cultured I was told that something was growing. Checked back each day, still something growing. Until finally 10 days later, it was a contaminated sample. FRUSTRATING! So I guess Mom must have been a little unclean.

These repetitive UTI's were one of the most frustrating and irritating issues that has occurred in threenyears of caring for Mom!
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My mom kept getting utis and I took her to urologist. He put her on macrobid low dose daily for one month, something about lining of the bladder. I give her a cranberry tablet daily and juice. I also try and watch the way she wipes which is not the best because sometimes reaches too far back then comes forward. I also make sure dhe washes her hands. You csnt watch them every minute,but the month of macrobid and or me supervising her toile ting and forcing fluids has helped.
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Nice, how in the heck are you successful at forcing fluids?! I try and try and try to end up with the deer in the headlights look, how dare I try to get her to drrink something. Or if she does drink, just little bitty sips, probably not even a teaspoon full. And there is no reasoning with her to explain why it is so important!
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Try ice cream or jello considered liquids. I make her cream of wheat with cup of milk . Forgot to mention, my mom took bactrim or septra ,no problem first round , but second round she got crazy about 3 rd day and it was the septra .
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Edie bars have frozen fruit bars made with real juice and are great especially if one is running a fever. I let them melt down in a glass and they're easy to swallow then. One way to get fluids down! Elderly can get dehydrated very easily as they don't have the best sense of thirst like younger people do. Their sense of thirst diminishes with age, so they don't even know they're close to being dehydrated. Canada Dry ginger ale is good too, provided one likes ginger ale, lol.
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Thanks for all of the suggestions. It is now clear. I took her to the ER yesterday due to erratic behavior (screaming, giggling, crying all within a half hour) They checked using a sterile catheter & she's clear. (at least for now) If she has any smidgen of problem, I will follow the advice of urologist. Thanks everybody.
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I'm glad she's clear! For future reference, does she eat chicken? It can be infected with e coli that is resistant to treatment. Here's an article about it: nutritionfacts/2014/01/28/how-avoiding-chicken-could-prevent-bladder-infections/
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Definitely need to take a look further up in the bladder and look at getting it flushed..
One thing, my mum got confused and night terrors when she was dehydrated... she had major incontinence issues but also oedema, and when they put her on water tablets she behaved la-la.
Even with the oedema I noticed her arms and chest showed signs of dehydration, so docs checked her bloods and sure enough, totally dehydrated... potassium and sodium all over the place.
Worth checking. If she was avoiding fluids (to avoid accidents' it could also contribute to UTIs!)
Good article on this...
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A friend told me that the grocery store cranberry juice not only doesn't have much cranberry in it, but indeed it is full of sugar or corn syrup. She said that the bacteria feed on the sugar, so that juice makes the infection even worse. For what it's worth. I have a UTI right now with various complications. Thanks, all, for sharing.
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YOS, I think part of my Mom's problem with UTI recurrence was her habit/practice and constant use of wads of TP in her pants, that she would use over and over and over. GROSS! She still does that but the reuse has decreased substantially! Cannot accompany her to the bathroom every time.
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Cranberry juice full of sweeteners, etc. Look on the top shelf at the store for unsweetened 100% ocean spray cranberry juice. There is another make by Knudsen that will be with organic juices in your market.
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The ones with low sugar are sweetened with "sweeteners" for diabetics which are chemicals, I understand. Didn't know about Knudsen and will look into it. Also, there's a health food store nearby I will check out asap. Thanks for your comments.
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Ok, been through all the stuff I read in the previous answers. I'm sorry it is crap. The antibiotics stay in her system for 30 days and will cause confusion and irritability the whole time. A new drug came into prominence in the spring of 2013. It is a type of methenamine. It is used daily to prevent UTI's by making the urinary tract too acidic for their growth. I took my mother to 5 Urologists before reading about it and asking for it myself. She has not had a single uti in a year of taking it. My mom is sensitive to drugs and can take this as it is not absorbed into the body to stay as antibiotics are. It just passes through and keeps the urinary tract acidic with no harm. 4 other ladies on my mom's floor of the nursing home have switched over to it and now have similar great results.
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My mom has frequent UTIs which then throw all her other conditions off and she ended up in the hospital twice in one month due to them. One of the things she was doing was wearing a pad to control leakage. She was told to stop that as it contains bacteria from the urine and can cause an infection. Cranberry juice is useless. There are herbal rememdies with cranberry in them and can be taken as a pill. sorry I don't know the name. I agree with either a gerentologist or a urogynecologist appointment. It is worth the workup and dr. visit to prevent this issue.
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Mom, 96 with dementia, recently completed a successful course of antibiotics for a UTI. A home health nurse, visiting as follow-up to Mom's stay at residential rehab, spotted the symptoms and got the lab work done. I have two theories on how the infection started. First, Mom refused to wipe from front to back, doing the opposite. (Now I use baby wipes and do it for her.) And also her *briefs* sometimes weren't changed often enough at rehab and/or she wasn't cleaned thoroughly.

Also want to add that a friend had frequent bladder infections and they stopped when she followed her doctor's advice to NEVER interrupt the urine stream once it's started.

Regarding your mother's mental confusion, it will be interesting to see if the symptoms persist after you complete the antibiotic treatments. If so, then she could be evaluated for medication. Mom's behavior -- agitation, anxiety, paranoia, etc. -- became unmanageable and her doctor put her on generic Seroquel which is a big help.

Blessings for a successful result.
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Unfortunately, there is some evidence that antibiotics aren't working for some bladder infections. Some blame it on the antibiotics fed to animals. When we eat meat, we get small doses and the drugs become less efficient when we need them. I want to be clear - this is second hand information. And yes - I eat meat, though not huge amounts, so this isn't an anti-meat statement.

Stubborn UTIs do seem to be more frequent in elderly women than in the past, but then we get back to the fact that people live longer so they will have more problems.

It's disturbing, though, that so many of you have seen UTIs in your moms that won't go away. What misery for the person with the disease and also the caregiver.

Keep the information coming since someone may have a tip that can make all the difference for another reader.
Carol
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Have her bladder tested she may not be emptying completely I did my mom. She wasn't emptying it completely. Constantly causing uti s
Since they found the proper meds for her to take the utis have stopped
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Not emptying is fairly common in older women - especially those who've had babies. The bladder can be tipped a bit or another organ could have slipped out of place and be putting pressure on it. Whatever the cause, it's not unusual. So if there's a medication that can help prevent infections, that's wonderful!
Carol
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I would also look at the other medications she is taking, there are a lot of possible interactions that could decrease the effectiveness of the antibiotics. Exposure of bacteria to lower doses overtime has a greater probability of induction of resistance. Also see if she is on any antipsychotic or atypical antipsychotics like Risperdal (risperidone) you can look them up on line. I have seen many articles showing an increase in UTI's when the elderly receive this class of meds. Along with other negative reactions. Whether it is due to drug interaction or the effects the antipsychotics produce on behavior is not clear but certainly worth investigation. The CMS criteria for judging LTC facilities include %UTI infections and % of residents on antipsychotics. Although she is not a facility resident I think it is important. Hope this helps
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Stop drinking the cranberry juice! It is loaded with sugar. Take cranberry pills as Dr. Oz suggests. Switch to a good yogurt like Stonyfield, Mountain High, or Zoi instead of the sugary Yoplait or Dannon. Add some lemon or lemon juice to the water making it alkaline (this is the state you want your urine ph). Bactrin is a nasty antibiotic. I remember taking it in nursing school and in clinical I really screwed up some calculations of medications. (No patient was injured). Teacher told me to go home until I was well. You could also mix apple cider vinegar (only Bragg) and honey which has antibiotic properties. The object is to keep the kidneys flushed so the urethra does not have time to get infected. Wearing Depends will promote UTIs unless they are changed frequently, so do not let the urine press up against her urethra (that's the opening where the urine comes out). Keep the diet pretty alkaline and there are food suggestions Dr. Oz has online to help. Try to stay off the antibiotics until her natural flora has a chance to come back. The best way to do that is adding the largest amount (say 30 Billion - 100 Billion) good bacteria (acidophilus) in pill form preferably refrigerated. Good luck!
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My mom's doctor had her on Rephresh Pro B, a pro biotic that seemed to keep everything in good balance.
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Please understand that a "culture" takes 48 hours! Mom was recently in hospital for yet another/same recurring UTI at which time they took blood for a presumed "culture" to find out which antibacterial would best treat it. 36 hours later they were ready to release her before the results of said "culture" were known.
Bottom line: It is not profitable to actually cure UTIs in the elderly, that would be counterproductive to their Geriatric Medicare Puppy Mill income. Hence the "chronic" & "recurring" syndrome.
Trust issues? You bet I do!
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This happens often with someone who is incontinent, cipromicin, works well and within a day or two clesrs it up. Also cranberry juice
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