Mom's hallucinating, Nursing home suspects UTI?

UTI is always the first thought. Then comes medication. I can't tell you how sorry I am your mother and you are going through this. I can only suggest that if the UTI is negative, to ask the suspect medication be removed just long enough to determine if she comes out of it. The way facilities respond to these incidents can be routine and casual which is infuriating. Comfort your mother, and yourself. I hope this is resolved soon. Let us know.

Dlolo54, what you are going through is extremely difficult. I have no advice, just hugs for you and a wish for strength for you and peace for your mother.

My mom has been in bed since sept 2 no food only takes about 8-10 oz of water and half a can of 7up a day until the other day when she started hallucinating , hospice is coming in due to pancreatic cancer, I thought this was just a part of dying process so the nurse mentioned a UTI except my mom won't take any medications I can get the liquid in her via soda but now it's straight in the mouth . They have her on a hallucination med which isn't really helping she talks/ mumbles every few minutes she isn't sleeping very restless. Urine is strong smelling and orange which they told me is towards the end of life.. So I never would suspect a UTI causing hallucinations.. Because I know she won't take the meds I feel bad not treating the suspected UTI ..

It can cause lots of trouble... My Mom has frequent UTI and she gets very confused and really tired.... We have tried meds for frequency and also do real cranberry juice and a cranberry pill... I get her flavored water and also coconut water(she loves that) to try and get her to drink more. It is NOT easy, but you can only do what you can do. I often feel now like Mother and I have role reversal, I must say it is NOT comfortable.

nerie86 UTI is short for Urinary Tract Infection

Will somebody explain me what is UTI? I read and read and can not figure it out.....

My dad is 85 and has advanced dementia. He developed a UTI and we were quickly able to diagnose it because of friends that had gone through the same thing. Our biggest problem was that he wears depends all the time and was unable to understand giving a urine specimen. We had to extract urine from the depends to have it tested. We knew that even with the dementia his behavior was off from what it normally is, if you could call it normal. It definitely does cause strange behavior. Got him on antibiotics and everything was fine.

My Mom has frequent UTI and we have tried everything other than the Dr Oz remedy... Mother has dementia almost refuses to drink and is VERY stubborn... I can usually tell she is getting a UTI because she gets even more confused. Bless her heart it is rather sad. I keep trying but there is only so much I can do! I would say if she is confused that is a sure sign something is going on...

I just want to warn everyone who is thinking of giving your parent cranberry juice for their UTI's, if they are on coumadin/Warfarin, they cannot drink cranberry juice as it will mess up their INR blood test. If the blood is not thinned properly they could have a stroke.

Dr Oz recommends 1/4 tsp of baking soda in a small glass of water taken at the first sign of a UTI. In a dementia patient you would not know, so I do not know if they can drink a small glass daily or it that will hurt them. It changes the Ph balance I believe.

Dr Oz the TV doctor just addressed UTI's the other day and said if you will take a small glass of water and put 1/4 tsp of baking soda in it and stir then drink, it will help to keep UTI's from going full blown. I do not know that baking soda taken daily will cause a problem but maybe it is something that could be used.

Hello Raven1, What your mom has is called a vaginal prolapse. It's true that having had a hysterectomy can make the vag. prolapse slightly more likely to happen. As for causing the UTI, I don't know. The urethra is rather short in women, compared to men; and the logistics of needing to wipe with tissue can introduce bacteria into the urethral meatus. Together those factors explain why women get UTI's more than men. With the vag prolapse the urethra is likely pulled downward more, and shortening further the distance the bacteria need to travel to the bladder. Add in the urinary and fecal incontinence providing an abundance of bacteria to the area, and UTIs become inevitable. Prevention involves cleaning properly (front to back wiping), and a diet that acidifies the urine (ie: the cranberry juice that you spoke of) Cranberry comes in pill form too, for people who don't like to drink it. The other thing that really helps is drinking lots and lots of water everyday. Unfortunately woman who deal with incontinence often try to avoid fluids, adding to the problem. Vitamin C. can also help acidify the urine. Some other foods help acidify the urine too, but cranberry is especially good for this purpose. You might want to look up "acid ash diet" to find what those foods are.

Thank you all for educating me on the effects of some UTIs. No, I did not mean to imply a UTI could not be serious with serious side effects, only that I had not had anyone have those symptoms. Again, thanks to all who did their research and I stand corrected!

Scared - you can't keep them calm when they are delusional from a UTI. Medication is the only way to go so you did the right thing. As to Marie16, if they are incontinent and wearing adult diapers, they have to be changed immediately otherwise they will get a UTI. I have a sign on the wall in my mom's room reminding her to change her nitetime depends before she comes out for breakfast. If they are sitting in urine soaked depends, they are going to get a UTI. Then, when you throw in the accidental bowel movement, that's a definite as you get too much contamination. I also use the test strips as it is extremely difficult to get my mom to a drs apt, let alone give a urine sample.

UTIs cause havoc in the elderly. If they have dementia of any sort, it's even worse. My husband had UTI after UTI after UTI. They filled him with antibiotics each time making the next infection even more resistant thus requiring even stronger meds. Then he got oral thrush. After a couple of months, a urologist told me it's better to let it run its course unless they are feverish. Keeping them calm and comfortable is the best medicine. Wish I had known that before. By the time I learned that, my husband was too far gone, ended up in hospice and passed away. Maybe he would have had a better quality of life the last month or so if they hadn't rushed in with meds. Still. it is impossible to know. My husband was soooo sick with the first UTI, I don't believe there was any choice. Talk to urologists, not the PCP or GP. They may have a better answer for you.

The hard part of a UTI and dementia is that you don't know what the disorientation is due to and it could be other things like a stroke. From now on, I will ask them to check for UTI before she is hospitalized.

I know we are talking about UTI's but we just found out in the hospital that my mother's vagina has protruded outside of her for we do not know how many years. She had a hysterectomy many years ago, can this this cause infections as well? She has been very private about this and we never knew this had happened to her. No one in the hospital ever addressed the issue so is it not that unusual?

MY mom has had her 2nd or third UTI. I purchased UTI test strips to show the Dr as mom is not mobile, Her doctor (who also works in nursing homes) said that in the home they wait until the UTI gets bad in seniors before they treat.It with antibiotics. I think she is treating my mother the same way. I want to get a new doctor but mom is not mobile. I think they let seniors get sicker so they can make more money. does anyone have thoughts on how to prevent UTI's in seniors in addition to cranberry juice?

Ok, sorry, I had just updated this with a recent answer - guess it got missed! They took labs & preliminary report showed bacteria in urine but final said NO bacteria in urine AND we saw her Sat Oct 12 & she was back to normal - her nurse stated it was an isolated incident & hasn't had hallucinations since - so that means they're part of her dementia.

my husband has been having episodes of dementia so am wondering now if he might have a UTI and if so, wouldn't there be other symptoms related to urination?

I'm and RN. With 28 years experience, I can tell you that UTIs absolutely DO cause hallucinations, confusion and agitation in elderly patients whether or not they have any dementia.

UTI's are very common in nursing homes because the residents are wearing diapers and don't always get the best of care to get their diapers changed as often as they need to. Nursing home staff know that in elderly women, when they start acting extremely confused and delusion, then, they probably have a UTI. My mom was in a nursing home rehabbing a knee fracture and I knew immediately, by what she was saying, that she had a UTI. At the first nursing home, after several rounds of UTIs, I asked them once again to have her checked. They said they did and she was negative. I knew that was wrong. The doctor, without consulting me, ordered a psych eval and ordered psychiatric medication. My mom got worse, went to the ER and ended up with a systemic UTI that was positive for both MERSA and ecoli. I was livid. When she got out of the hospital, I had her moved to another nursing home. She lives with me and I know right away that she has a UTI by the way she is acting and what she is saying. She's only had one but the symptoms are always the same.

I am 56 years old and when I got back from Florida, I had pain in my pelvic area real bad, feelings of unreality, dizzy, unsure of what was real and what was a dream, It took 3 Doctor visits, one ER visit, and finally a Specialist in Gynecology to figure out I had a severe UTI !!!! This was the first one I had with these kind of symptoms. It did not hurt to urinate, as it did in the past with a UTI.,,,, why it puzzled so many doctor's is beyond me, I do not even think they took the time to read the results of my urine tests as the Specialist said it was logged positive in the Hospital computer..And soon we will probably paying more for this kind of treatment.......

ferris1, it is simply not true that none of those drugs help the patient. Some help some patients. Some help but the side effects out weigh the benefit. Some seem to do nothing. Aricept is very effective for most patient's with Lewy Body Dementia, for example -- more effective than in Alzheimer's even though that is what it was developed for.

According to the UK Alzheimer's Society's web page, "UTIs can cause a significant and distressing change in someone's behaviour which is commonly referred to as 'acute confusional state' or 'delirium'. Delirium is described as a change in someone's mental state or consciousness and usually develops over one or two days. There are different types of delirium and symptoms may include agitation or restlessness, increased difficulty with concentrating, hallucinations or delusions, or becoming unusually sleepy or withdrawn." http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/factsheet/528

A uti definitely caused my aunt (who did NOT have any form of dementia and was on no drugs) to hallucinate. The uti cleared up -- no more little people that only she could see.

It is not the Dementia, My Mom has Dementia but has her personality was out of the ordinary. By the way in that time period with the UTI, she looked for my Dad who had passed and never has done anything like that again. When you get older, the Doctor's in Clearwater, Fl who know a lot about elder care, our skin thins out even in our bladder. Toxins get into the blood stream and also make our memory worst.....That would be anybody elder. Google it I think it explains at Web MD. My Mom is currently in assisted living. Not too happy with them. We are back in Vermont, the health care is awful here compared to FLorida....

A UTI when you get elderly is SERIOUS!!!!!!!!!! My Mom got one when we went to Florida last March, I had gone to the store when I came back she was in the front of our rented condo in her nightgown looking for someone to turn off the HOT water in the shower,,, First of all Mom would never go out like that. Never turns on the shower without me helping her, I took her to an ER in Florida they admitted her and gave her antibiotics intensely and kept her 3 days. It is very toxic as the infection leaks out of the bladder and into the blood stream....They should be reported!!!!!!!!!!!!

First, Exelon will not prevent dementia nor will it help hallucinations. If it were my mother (and I did this for my husband), I took him off Aricept, Namenda and Exelon because all they do is cause side effects which are not going to help the patient. I can't understand (as a nurse) why your mom's nurse called you and not the doctor. That is the first thing I would do, alert him/her about the added side effects of increasing the Exelon, then when you visited I would mention it to you. It is not uncommon for dementia patients to "see" or talk to their deceased loved ones. A UTI rarely causes hallucinations in my experience, and I am pretty sure it is the Exelon. Read the side effects from the enclosed information from a box of Exelon which a pharmacist will just give you. Your mom is probably very sensitive to that drug. Best wishes to your mom!

This is true a uti urinary tract infection cause seeing people and weird behavior. When my mom was alive she started seeing people in the house. We took her to ER they said she had a uti and started dementia. She was wild wouldnt be still said cuss words which wasnt my mom. They treated her antibiotics she stopped seeing people and calmed down. She came home but soon kept getting uti becsuse she was on diapers she was 89 and it caused her to keep relapsing. But she still never seen people again . Hope this helps.

Elderly women get UTI's that make them act wacko. Just the facts. I would think that the nursing home would have suspected a UTI and sent a UA and called the doc right away but the previous poster is correct - they are overworked, underpaid, and undereducated at their jobs. So I guess you do have to stay on top of it more.

I just spent the weekend in the hospital with my mother who had an undiagnosed UTI- those things are sneaky and difficult especially with dementia. Next time I will definitely check into it before checking her in.

Actually, now the floor nurse stated it was an isolated incident & hasn't happened again. So it's probaby part of her dementing illness. I just really wish that stupid nursing home would CALL me since I AM her daughter & would like to be kept informed about any changes in mom's meds - I would never disagree with them or anything but I just wantt to KNOW that's all!!!