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Mom is in an assisted living and loved it until 3 weeks ago. She thinks she is being sued, everyone against her, being bugged in the dining room etc... and gets agitated if I try to reason with her. The director suggested a UTI and that has been confirmed. So far the antibiotic is not helping this issue. So now she hates the assisted living and wants to move. She is very depressed and not acting at all like herself. She does not want to participate in activities or go to dining room. Any suggestions?

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As a registered nurse and caregiver for elderly mother in law, I have experienced the same situation. The symptoms your mom experienced are common in the elderly, and sometimes may be the first symptom seen with urinary tract infections. My mother in law (who has a diagnosis of dementia), had to have her psych meds adjusted following her UTI. Not only are we happier and better able to care for her; but she is happier also! Win - win situation! If your mom is not diagnosed with dementia, you may want to pursue this possibility with her doctor privately. We made an appointment with my mother in law's doctor without her being present (which her insurance paid for) to discuss this issue to provide the least embarrassment to her. Maybe this will give you some ideas. Blessings in a difficult situation!
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Yes a UTI can cause bizarre behavior. My sister had vascular dementia caused from three strokes. Each time she started acting strange we knew she had a UTI. Once she entered the nursing home I had to tell the nurses that she had a UTI. Strange they didn't make the connection between her change in personality with the UTI, as it's a very common symptom.
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Yes. My mom was ending up in the hospital a few time a year due to UTIs. She loses her muscle control and cannot fully wake up. When she does partially wake, she does not make sense. Mom was taking regular treatments of prednisone for a chronic illness, and since stopping the prednisone she has not had any more UTI issues so far.
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Yes, UTI will 100% make her that way. My aunt has had many, please speak to the nurse or her Dr and have them explaine to you what the UTI does to a person, and regarding her medication she may need a different antibiotic they need to do a culture to find out they type of bacteria they need to treat.
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Cyproflaxin - hygeine - canna.
My wife carried a constant low grade UTI for years.
In 2011, a severe UTI required ER visit. She was reduced to 5 year old mentality with psychosis. Low dose antibiotic was ordered for continuous use. It never worked.
She never regained mental function.
In 2012 another severe UTI. Now she is a 2 year old with autism and aggressive. Doctors say after the UTI clears, mental function will return to normal. It has not.

In 2014, a UTI prompted a doctor visit. Cyproflaxin cured the UTI overnight. Even the trace she had been carrying for years, disappeared.
In 2015, an ER visit for seizures, resulted in a catheter catch and subsequent UTI.
On return visit, the doctor paid attention and administered Cypro via IV.
Next day, no UTI and severe UTI has not happened to this day
. We monitor with test strips.
The Cypro removed whatever had been dormant. Then aggressive hygiene prevents recurrence.
Never underwear. Cotton washable bed pads for sitting and sleep.
Dementia makes hydrating difficult. We use a turkey baster. Toilet every 2 hours.
Detailed cleaning after any toileting. We installed automatic toilet seat bidet.
$500 and very worth it. Hand sprayers are $40. We use the shower sprayer if bed wet.
We administer Cannabis for seizures and mood.
Cyroflaxin has bad effects if used a lot, but 1 dose has cured severe UTI twice. When we see a change in mood, we test urine with test strips available on Amazon.
A slight positive will prompt natural effort for a couple days, hydration, natural antibiotics, garlic, honey..... No result will prompt 1/2 dose of Cypro 1 day and full dose next day, if needed. We have never needed more.

Now in 2018 she is the same 2 year old, autistic. But she is usually a joy.
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My mom is in assisted living and is prone to uti's, (she always have been). She has dementia and I have heard that they make the disease worse and I have noticed it to. There isn't even a smell, so I watch carefully. Hang in there and keep an eye on her it does change the mood.
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Did they take a urine culture and grow the bacteria (usually 3 days) to determine the most effective antibiotic for the UTI?
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If the behaviors you describe were not present prior to the UTI diagnosis, I suspect the antibiotic did not get rid of the UTI; it may have been caused by a resistant organism or she could have developed a secondary infection (UTI or other infection). Ask the physician to check for infection again. If no infection, then general physician should refer to Gynecourologist (specialist in female urology) to rule out other urologic problems. Pulse-ox (very simple finger clip reading) should be checked to be certain of adequate oxygenation. After physiologic problems ruled out (including CAT scan of brain) evaluation by a geriatric psychiatrist is indicated for
consideration of medication for delusional /paranoid thoughts. It’s unlikely your Mom’s behavior has changed so dramatically without some physiologic cause (provided she hadn’t experienced similar thoughts in the past). She is suffering, scared, & feeling helpless and vulnerable. Be gentle, supportive, & loving with her while this problem is investigated.
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I answered before, but want to again mention that if she is getting them all the time, you should definitely ask the doctor if he could put her on a "prophylactic" dose of Macrobid.  It works well if she is a candidate for it.
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Yes an it can cause hallucinations as well.
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My only suggestion would be to take her to an urologist. who would take care of her professionally, and take with you the antibiotic she is been taking for him to know.
And as far as her depression and hating the place goes -- couldn't you get her a 'caregiver' to stay with her during the day - haven't you thought that maybe she is not being cleaned properly? 'Asepsis' has to do with that the majority of the time in those places, as residents are only cleaned twice a day ...
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Lymie61 Oct 2018
I think you meant "It's a good possibility she isn't being cleaned properly, it happens a fair amount in some resident facilities..." something like that. This is obviously a new experience for the poster and I can't imagine why she should have considered this before hand if she hasn't had any experience with it. Even better would be "maybe she is no longer cleaning herself or wiping as well, it's not uncommon" since I believe mom is in assisted living not a nursing home.

Not everyone has the means to hire a "caregiver" all day every day or even one day a week, at home or in assisted living so while offering the idea is great "couldn't you" sounds a little presumptive to me and frankly much of your approach I might take as shaming if I were the OP already feeling guilty and helpless about how to help my mom and maybe about having to put her in assisted living either because I wasn't able to do it/afford it at home or because she wanted it. Caring for our LO's is already so riddled with emotions can't we try to think about how we are offering assistance and support each other weather we can totally relate or not. I remember when I didn't know anything about UTI's for instance and while it's instinct for me now to think about them I was no less caring or intelligent when I didn't know, I just didn't have any exposure/experience with them, I didn't have this site then (didn't know about it) and it makes me happy to try and help others in the place I was back then by sharing my experience. That's what this site is all about and each of us has something to offer just as each of us has something to learn and we all need a little support as we have more than enough work, emotions and crap to deal with elsewhere.
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I can only share what worked for my mom. She would get worse mentally and very aggressive when she had a UTI.She was having chronic UTIs and I took her too a Naturopath Dr. She treated her for the UTI and then We keep her on a half dose of the natural UTI supplement for maintenance. Works great and Regular physician commended me on that. I also learned 2 other issues about UTIs. One I'm pretty certain was the cause of my mothers. Faucet water high in calcium. The Doctor verified this is true. For Seniors it becomes a cause for UTIs.
Mom would always get them when she went back home to her apartment but when she came for 4 mos to my place they cleared up. We have a whole house filter.
Another issue I learned is to much chicken. The UTI not responding to the antibiotic because the bacteria is resistant to it.
Might sound hokey to some but I rarely give her chicken. I have to say moms not had one UTI since she has been under my care.
Hope this might help.
One more thing. A good pure cranberry juice ( no fructose or sugar) or Cranberry supplement works great!!
For Hydration I keep mom on Coconut water. Replenishes electrolytes and she loves it so drinks more!
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I suffered from what I thought was chronic recurrent UTI for many years. For the last two years my pain has progressively worsen. I had all the test necessary. My culture would return with minimal bacteria, however, I would be in excruciating pain, fatigue and many sleepless nights.

I recently went to the Urgent care and as usual they would be annoyed with me, because the culture would come back with minimal growth.

I finally went to a Urogynecologist I told her I think, as I suspected long ago it is Interstitial Cystitis( Chronic Bladder Pain Syndrome).

She gave me Phenazopyridine for Bladder pain and Prelief ( I brought it from Amazon). Its like heaven sent. I feel like a different person and my constant bloated feeling is gone. Prelief removes the Acid from your food, so your Bladder does not irritated by the Acid.

Chronic Bladder Pain makes you very irritable.
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jennys Oct 2018
My daughter struggles with I.C. also.  I am going to look into Prelief.  Thanks!!!
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my mom had a UTI n it took over 2 wks for her mind to get right after the antibiotics. Did she get checked again to make sure the UTI is clear?
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Navymoml Oct 2018
The very night I took her to the ER and they gave me a prescription, which I had filled immediately, she started acting crazy and thought I was trying to kill her 15 minutes after getting home from hospital. I called 911 and she’s screaming I’m trying to kill her and HELP. Ambulance was sent to my house along with the police. I showed them release papers from hospital n the said this happens a lot. It’s very sad!
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Dikenn, we somehow have the SAME mom!! Mine went from a loving, best buddy... to enemy. She is defiant, hateful, explosive, negative, paranoid ... fill in the blanks, she is it. She lives in a lovely IL resort-style complex, and refuses to leave her apartment. Won't even check her mail. I finally tricked her into going to a nurse practitioner. Indeed, she had a UTI. After a week's worth of antibiotics, my sweet mom emerged. Now its wearing off. Hair trigger. Paranoia. She believes folks break into her apartment and steal her Kraft cheese slices (again). Possibly a UTI has reappeared in this short time? I'm hoping they will just refill her prescription, but I don't know if it will continue to be effective. This site has been extremely helpful to me.
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Ahmijoy Oct 2018
Lightning, just wanted to put this out there. My mom had awful UTIs. She actually wound up hospitalized for one. She became combative and physically fought with everyone with whom she came in contact, including me. The nurse in the ER told me her hygiene “down there” wasn’t so great and that is the leading cause of UTIs in the elderly. Short of daily power-washing, there wasn’t much we could do because she didn’t understand much about personal care anymore.

We decided that, for our own safety and protection, we would have Mom tested monthly for UTIs. They did a simple urine dip stick test and if it looked odd, they’d do a culture. It was better than a daily antibiotic because people develop resistance to them. But, if she seemed to be developing one, they were prepared and could treat her before things got out of hand.
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Yes, my grandmother died of sepsis from UTI. 😢
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Wendufer2 Oct 2018
So sorry to hear of your Grandmoms passing ,my father also passed from sepsis ,he had a kidney stone that caused a blockage, so sad !
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Ask doc for different antibiotic
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It's amazing how common this is, and how few of us had ever heard of it until we had an elderly relative with personality changes merely due to UTI. Apparently part of the problem -- in addition to lots of good info posted by others already -- is that they no longer have that awful burning sensation that drives younger folks immediately to the doctor (or at least the pharmacy) ... so the infection gets much more well-established in the elderly. Leading to paranoia, delusions, agitation and a host of other mental-status symptoms.

Culturing to identify the bacteria is good, but if the patient is having repeat UTI's it's often because they have become 'colonized' and no treatment actually gets rid of all the bacteria any more. In those cases, the right thing is 'treat as soon as symptoms show up'.

The most important thing is, Don't Wait. Catching the UTI early is the key to good quality of life and avoiding complications.
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Dikenn Oct 2018
I feel like I should have guessed this but had no clue. Mom is diabetic gets bladder infections all the time. This is the first wth these symptoms. Definately gonna stay tuned on this .
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Changer antibiotics...my Dad had this..doc said it is deadly if not treated. They gave him antibiotics...checked his other med levels..he spent a week in hospital but it got cured.
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I agree, the antibiotic is not working. They need to change it. Mom took cranberry and a probiotic when she was on the antibiotic and off of it. They need to do something because a UTI can become septic.
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I work for gynecologists and a lot of the answers below are really good-some I have not heard before and will make note of.  I also have personal experience with multiple UTIs, so I have gotten input from doctors about how to help ward them off.  My father also got them a lot in his 80s and had the same type of reaction your mother experience.  Cranberry supplements help a lot of people.  Lots of water-using straws and covered cups help--maybe adding water flavoring.  You could also ask her doctor if it would help to use "prophylactic" meds.  Macrobid is used to treat UTIs and can be taken once daily to help prevent them--check with your doctor to see if he/she is willing to try that.  It works great in many patients.  One reason elderly get them so often is that the patient is not active, and the bacteria sit in the bladder and isn't flushed out, so lots of water is important!  In women, post-menopausal changes that cause increased UTIs.  Water also helps to ward off dehydration which causes all sorts of problems.  I put a sign up in the room that my mom and dad spend most of their time in that stated "Remember to drink lots of water!"  I also like the idea of adding EmergenC to her water.  The berry flavored kind tastes better than the orange, I think.  If it is too tart for her taste, just use more water.  Best of luck!
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My mom just had the same issue. Coming home from 5 weeks in rehab after her UTI caused her to fall 4 times. The nursing director at the rehab told me they give their patients a packet of EmergenC in a glass of water every day and they have seen a 70% drop in UTI’s. Something about keeping the urine a bit acidic helps prevent the UTI’s. I’m drinking it every day and making sure my mom gets it every day, too. If it works, that will be great.
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I took care of a 97 y/o for 9 months & this was a constant issue. Along with the UTI she was dehydrated & THAT caused the delirium. After a bag of IV fluids in the ER she immediately bounced back. It was amazing. This happened numerous times. Sometimes it required a hospitalization.

One of the thngs we did was have her drink Smart Water or Gatorade for the electrolytes. We flavored the water. If your LO is on antibiotics & feeling so poopy they’re not going to be inclined to drink more. Use a straw. Studies have shown people drink more with a straw. Constant encouragement to drink. Watermelon is nothing but water. High protein diet.

Good luck.
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Lymie61 Oct 2018
Careful with the Gatorade, it is very high in sugar, I always suggest people at least cut it 50/50 with water which still leaves plenty of the taste. So many people get addicted to it and drink it like water thinking it's so much better for them than soda or juice and really what's happened is they get addicted to it like soda. I love the idea of electrolytes though just be careful to read the ingredients in the various options to see which gives you the electrolytes without all the sugar, Smart Water I think is one but of course it isn't flavored. Such a tangled web our food choices have become! Oh and straws, I had forgotten about straws, I need to get Mom some of those reusable ones for her water things. Thank you!
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Did they culture the urine to be sure they are using the right antibiotic? Some cultures take days to get results. UTI can mimic so many issues in the elderly too. Why is she susceptible to them? Women usually have them more. We watch my father and can sometimes catch an infection before he has to be taken to the hospital.
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Dikenn Oct 2018
Yes and changed meds after. I think we are on the road to recovery.
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My mom had sudden bizarre symptoms where she was just not herself after being hospitalized for a fall and being admitted to rehab at a NH. A couple of times she even went into delirium where she was hospitalized from the NH where she was for rehab. She tried to climb over the bedrails at the hospital and talked and thrashed at the air nonstop for 24 hours. Then she slept for 2 days and didn't remember a thing. The worst part is that no one really explained to me why my always rational mom was suddenly acting this way. I guess it is quite common in the elderly to have these symptoms with a UTI. Would have been nice to be warned about all this. Sometimes it takes a couple of rounds of antibiotics or a different antibiotic to stop the infection.
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How long has she been on the antibiotic? Usually Moms wild symptoms are noticeably better in 24 hours and completely back to normal in a few days. The one time she didn’t improve after the 5 day course of antibiotics were done, she was retested and found to have another different underlying bacteria, so then needed a different antibiotic. Do you know the strain of bacteria she has and what antibiotic she’s on? I keep track of those details and her reaction to them for future incidents.
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My mother had chronic UTIs and had to be hospitalized for one that was so severe she wound up so very delusional and had to be tied to the bedrails because she kept tearing out her IVs. She was combative and furious and actually smacked the nurse and gouged my arm with her nails. She was on 2 different antibiotics.

We had her checked monthly for UTIs after that. A. Rise st the ER said they weee caused due to poor hygiene.
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Levans2008 Oct 2018
Poor hygiene can be #1 Patients and my mom must be watched to wash hands with soap after toileting and before meals. Mom was in a senior living memory care for respite and the staff does not have time for this. When mom is home I have to reminde her then watch her actually wash her hands and put soap in her hands to wash them. It is time consuming. Also they did not bathe her.even though they stated they would 2x a week so i did while she was there for a month. And i even mentioned the bathing issue from the last time she was there. They did nothing to change it. So am looking fora new place to place her for respite when i need it.
Also cranberry gummies 2 per day i give mom. She was on a preventative antibiotic(Keflex 500 mg) for about 3 years by the gynecologist as she had frequent UTI's but her NP took her off. Also females must alwYs remember when toileting to wipe front to back. My mom has Aphasia & vascular dementia since her stroke so she will wipe back and forth... that has been a real problem... but the low dose prophylaxis antibiotic is good for that. Check with your dr. Some are ok with it some are not.But u must see what works for your Mom. Even getting a urine sample to check was hard but I being a nurse helped. Confusion is many times dehydration or UTI in the elderly it is common.You are doing a good job! Keep caring. Advocate for your Mom to the dr. Bri g to their attention the issue. Sometimes they have so many patients can't remember all their problems but if you tell them now shes had a UTI every so many weeks or months can we see if a prophylactic antibiotic will work for her the dr may decide to try it...
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Yes! As soon as the medication for the UTI kicks in, this will pass.
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Over the last year or so my mom has had several UTI’s that made her paranoid and delusional. Sometimes it takes more than one round of antibiotics to get rid of the infection and we did end up putting her on an antidepressant which helped.
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UTI's create a whole host of strange symptoms. Emotional imbalance being one of them. A drastic change in personality is the main indicator of UTI and is usually what gets people to the doctor.

Your post doesn't say how long your mom has been on antibiotics but antibiotics are the course of treatment for a UTI.

Trying to reason with her when she has these symptoms is a waste of time as she is unable to be reasonable. If her symptoms haven't improved at the end of the course of antibiotics don't waste time in contacting the doctor again. She may need a stronger antibiotic.
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