What Are the Symptoms of Urinary Tract Infections in Older Adults?
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) generally cause symptoms related to bladder irritation:
Burning sensation during urination
Blood in the urine
Fever (sometimes)
Abdominal pain (sometimes)
New or worsened incontinence (sometimes)
Older adults, especially those with dementia, can also develop delirium -- a new worsening of the mental state -- as a result of a urinary tract infection. In fact, sometimes new or worsened confusion can be the only outward sign of a UTI or other infection.
It's a good idea to suspect UTI whenever an older person is having uncomfortable urination or new incontinence. In these cases, make sure the person is seen within 24 hours by his or her doctor or by an urgent care facility.
Consider the case even more urgent if you notice new or worsened confusion or drowsiness and decreased responsiveness. This probably is delirium, a more critical situation: Bring the person in to get urgent medical care without delay.
UTIs are diagnosed by testing urine for blood, white blood cells, and other signs of infection. Doctors also sometimes order a urine culture in order to confirm the presence of bacteria. This allows the lab to test different antibiotics against the bacteria, since some bacteria have become resistant to certain antibiotics.
If a person is delirious or otherwise seems seriously ill, doctors will also check to make sure that there isn't another serious infection or other illness that needs to be addressed.
My mother has had 3 hospitalizations for UTIs. Literally her first symptom was confusion and hallucinations. Each one has resulted in 3-5 day hospitalizations then 4-6 wks of rehab b/c each time she gets so debilitated. She now takes a prophylactic dose of Bactrim every day, plus rigorous hydration and perineal cleaning.
My 89 yr old Aunt Mary lives with my husband and I, for the past month she has been hallucinating, due to I believe a bad UTI, she has taken 2 different anti-biotics, on her 3rd bottle now, still showing bacteria in her urine culture. I'm at the point where I need to find a geriatric doctor, her reg doctor just gave us Seroquel, which I hate to give her, but I finally gave in and she had taken it the last 2 nights, the visions are overwhelming her and me. She is just not getting anybetter, only worse. Makes me wonder if she should be in the hospital, which she would hate, but if it could help, Sop832 did your mom's hullucinations stop when she got back home from the hospital? Thanks, Steph :)
Within 2 days of hospitalization and IV antibiotics, her confusion cleared completely. She probably needs to be hospitalized.
Thanks Sop, She had a really rough night last night, even with the Seraquel, she just fights it, worrying about all the bugs etc falling on her, I am waiting for her doc to call me, I want to take her to the emergency room, but feel like her doc should have some imput, but not getting anywhere again, two days waiting for help, if I don't hear from doc today, I will to take her in after work tonight, thanks for listening, Steph
Yes, I would take her to the ER. It sounds to me like she needs to be admitted and IV antibiotics given. Because she has been on antibiotics, they probably knocked out the weaker bacteria, and now what are left are the resistant ones. They will need stronger antibiotics, and her doctor seems to be taking too long to get to the source of the UTI. By all means, call her GP when she's in the hospital, and let him/her know.
my dad had continual UTI's for several years, being hospitalized over and over. Finally they did a scope on his colon and found that he had a fistula (where his bladder was "stuck" to his colon and a hole had formed allowing feces and bacteria to leak into his bladder) and diverticulitis - he ended up having a coloetomy where they removed the diseased part of his colon, it took several months for him to recover, but since then he's not had a single UTI! You might want to consider having them check her for that......
thanks eviltwin :) My aunt is actually doing much better, when she was at her worst it was a big accumulation of things going wrong, the UTI, lack of sleep, her cateract which we are having removed in two weeks, lots of floaters in her eyes. We now have her on Trazadone, which helps her sleep and she doesn't seem worry about the little visions that she does still have ocasiionaly. Also makes sure to give her 8 oz cranberry juice everyday, it coats the bladder so infections can't adhere so easliy. She hasn't had a UTI since, but I still check it sometimes to stay on top of it.
I've been a caregiver for my Mom who suffered a significant stroke 7 years ago, and has been incontinent of both her bladder and bowels for the last 5 years. She is 87. UTI's have become an all too frequent part of our lives. Yes, changes in mental condition are a BIG warning sign of UTI, as well as (at least with my Mom) 'seeping' bowels. It always seems that these 2 conditions present before any change in color, clarity or odor of the urine. An antibiotic that seems to work very well for her is Cipro. I've asked our Dr. several times about a maintence antibiotic, in hopes of helping to prevent the UTI from occuring so frequently, but he's vetoed the request, as she does not get them often enough, so he says. I beg to differ. Some things I try to do for prevention are give cranberry supplement capsule, taken apart and stirred into applesauce, peppermint tea, as peppermint kills bacteria in the bladder (according to the good Dr. Oz) I make cranberry relish with fresh cranberries and oranges, and, of course, as much liquid as possible. In the morning I mix orange poweraide with water, as it's good for electrolyte balance, and not as much sugar as gatorade. Jello is also good for hydration. There are also several 'rehydration' drinks you can make at home. Anyway, I hope these suggestions can help someone, and if anyone has anything to add into our mix, I'd love to hear! Thanks much!
my mother is 81 and she gets alot of uti's her first sign is confusion and her eyes get infected and of course urine cloudy, with fever. i think when they have demetia really bad it is hard to keep up with this issue. i know all signs of infection but doctors do not want to give out antibotics. they have to do urine test amd by that time my mother is very ill. i still have not found the best solution yet!
Something the home Mom is in told me that they look for in their residents - unexplained falls. It seems that Alzheimer's patients are more likely to fall when they have a UTI. My mom has had a lot of UTIs over her lifetime and I have been looking back over the last few years. Seems like they are right - most of my mom's unexplained falls have occurred around the time we discovered another UTI.
Thank God I found this website. I did not know about UTI and delirium,or dizziness. Thank you for all the info. maryan I would get another doctor or at least a second opinion.
One thing that the resistant bacteria made me think of was the time my daughter kept getting ear infections. It seems that they were caused by staph and the only way we finally got rid of it was by treating everyone in the whole family, even our dog got medicine from the vet. Apparently one of us or more were carriers of the bacteria with out showing symptoms. And she had the least resistance so showed the symptoms. Could this be happening to some of the people in our care?
Hello 2many2care4,
That's a great question! If you'd like, you can ask it by creating a new Ask & Answer page, here.
Take care, Emily | Community Manager Caring.com
