How long does clostridium-difficile last?

ok, try this again...just tried to send a message and it got lost....
My mom had cdif while in rehab in Nov. they gave her one round (10 days) of vancomyacin and within 4 days she was asymptomatic. test at end of 12 days showed she was clear. that was over a month ago. last Sat. she started amoxiciliin for UTI. on Monday I started giving her probiotics (luckily she has not taken them at same time as amox.!) last night and today she has had loose bowels. always holding it till she is on toilet but very loose. do I need to worry that this is a reoccurence of cdif or should I watch it for a few days..... (the nurse at rehab said she would always be a cdif carrier after having it) it is friday night before holiday weekend... doc will probably be in office on Monday. should she take a med for diarrhea or not?

@LGVeal - yes you need to worry, especially if she is having more than 4 loose stool/diarrhea movements per day. The amoxicillin can trigger c-diff to return, so keep giving her the probiotics and amox., but be sure & call her doctor as soon as you can so he can order a stool sample. My mother was told DO NOT take immodium or the like, but I can't remember why...I will see if I can remember. I'm thinking it has something to do with the swollen membranes in the colon, and causing blockages, but i am not 100% sure.

My brother just finished with the Vanco and now has another 30 pills of flagyll. I HOPE this will really put an end to this episode of C-diff. But.. he has been having frequent bowel movements but they are not like before at all. Is this something coming on again?? We have him here at home and needless to say it makes for a lot of changing diapers and looks like rash developing too. I am very worried that we keep on top of this. And also what about the products like culturelle and such Do they really help??

Yes, Culturelle (probiotics) help immensely! The antibiotics kill all bacteria in the intestines - good or bad - and the probiotics help to reestablish the good, which helps in digestion. I am willing to bet the diarrhea he is currently experiencing is the result of the combination of antibiotics and the bacteria imbalance. Get probiotics (there are several brands available) and have him take one WITH A MEAL, but NOT at the same time he takes an antibiotic, or the antibiotic will just kill off the good stuff.

I forgot to add that yogurt helps also....if he likes it.

Is yogurt enough, I wouldnt know what to give my Mom for probiotics as she cannot swallow pills. Also, can a healthy person who used to work in a nursing home, carry c-diff to my Mom? Thank you for any advice.RR

If you get probiotic capsules, I believe you can break them open & stir the contents into yogurt or applesauce. It is also available in liquid form, which might be easier.

C-diff being carried to your mom isn't the issue - she's already got the spores in her system - it lays dormant until the intestinal balance is thrown off (usually by the use of antibiotics) and then it becomes active until it is brought under control again by either vancomycin or flagyll. She will never be rid of it completely in other words - it will just be controlled.

purple- thanks for all your advice on this! obviously several of us are not knowledgeable abut this subject. I spoke with my mom's doc yesterday and he said to continue the probiotics (Reverse, I am giving her culterelle and you can open the capsule and it dissolves well into juice/ water. I have found a product called MIO that dissolves in water but changes the flavor in case your brother wont drink water well. I am not letting her drink tea as it dehydrates and with diarrhea she certainly doesnt need any help being MORE dehydrated!) who ever is changing your brother's clothes needs to wear gloves, close the toilet seat when you flush the toilet...anything to keep the spores from traveling thru the air!

If anyone would've asked me about this a year ago I'd have been clueless - amazing the things you learn with experience! haha! ;)

Thanks everyone for your answers. I never knew about about any of this until Sept 29,2012 when my brother was in the hospital. I will certainly heed purples advice and get the probiotics and yogurt. I am still looking for the best adult diapers for fecal incontinence. He has a perm catheter so urine is not the issue.
Just the other!! It really does help to know how others handle these issues in their own families. Thanks again for all the good advice!

so far, for my mom, depends is the best...of course, she doesnt normally have diarrhea and she is semi incontinent...she will occasionally tell me she needs to go to the bathroom... thats one of the little excitements of life...she broke her leg in oct. and was bedridden for severasl weeks and even after therapistss were getting her up I couldn't so she had to go in the depends for about 2 months - with her dementia, I was afraid she would lose that skill but she still seems to be able to tell when she needs to go - nighttime she doesnt tho....

The information about a fecal transplant may have been on one of those 'medical' TV programs but it is also done by 'real' doctors and, when successful can cure resistant C. dif infections within a matter of 2-3 days. When done properly, it works by repopulating the healthy bowel flora by transplanting the normal, healthy flora bacterial population from the donor to the recipient infected with C. dif. I know that it may sound like a gross treatment, but it has been done by respected medical facilities like the Mayo Clinic with a very high success rate. It can be life saving when conventional treatment has failed. After reading all of the other answers to this question posted here on this blog, I feel so sorry for all of the people suffering and sometimes even dying of this infection when this treatment might have helped them. Anyone who is dealing with this serious infection should be able to access information about this new treatment on the Mayo Clinic website, among others, and I urge you to talk seriously to your doctor about it since it might save your life.

LGveal, I will look for the culturelle , do I do it daily? I didnt know it was in their system, she never got diareahea (knock on wood) and takes amox to prevent UTI's. I do however give her a full yogurt daily if that helps The Culturelle wont constipate her will it? Thanks all!

reverse... my mom is taking culterelle once a day...no sign of constipation... on Sat. I spoke to her doc and he discontinued the antibiotic..she had been on it for 7 days then. by Sunday, diarrhea was gone and has not returned. she takes a capful of miralax every day (except during the diarrhea time) and she has stayed very regular. I am going to continue giving her the culterelle until all 30 caps are gone - it wont hurt. my sister told me today that she takes one that is even stronger that she gets at whole foods and starts it when she feels a little sick (cold type sick) and it makes it go away very quickly! who would have thought!!!

we had never had a problem with cdif until this past hospital visit in OCt when she broke her leg and then in rehab they said she had gotten it from hospital but I think they were covering their rears....

For the record, a person can take Culturelle daily - not just when they are trying to kick c-diff - there's no need to worry about ever taking it for too long. It's good stuff!

Does a person who had C-diff always show a "positive" in following stool cultures or..after being treated can they show up with a negative result?? I have received 2 different answers and was wondering what anybody else has heard about this??

No, it won't show positive until it is an active infection - then it will multiply like crazy and move from the lining of the intestines (where it "hides" until antibiotics throw off the balance) and into the stool.

I was told that when it showed up in my mom's system but was not toxic...she did not have to be isolated. later, when it came back and she had the symptoms (very smelly diarrhea and a puffy stomach),the test showed that it had developed toxins- that is when they isolated her.

Please, please look into floregen3. This probiotic helps. You need to start out with larger amounts than shown on the bottle (at least 2 tabs 3 times a day in the beginning)., you can open the capsule and mix it with plain yogurt. It must be given at least an hr before or after the antibiotics so it can be effective. Only thing that helped us. One antibiotic after another killed all her good bacteria. She had to have it all replaced.

I am sorry to say I had cdiff from April last year until August last year..I was on heavy doses of Flagyl and Vancomycin...finally in August my infection control doc found a new drug that was approved from the FDA..its called Dificid..it cleared me up...it is very expensive but perhaps your moms insurance can cover it...if not go to the company that makes the drug..you can apply for financial aide...my heart goes out to you and your family..Bleach will kill the spores on surfaces...lots of handwashing with warm soapy water..do not use hand sanitizers ...they do not kill the cdiff spores......it must be so hard bc she is older...Blessings to all of you

My MIL was taken to hospital on October 13, 2012 and is expected to be in rehab until some time in Feb 2013. The C-diff cleared up and returned several times, putting her back into ICU from rehab. We learned that for her, sugar and ALL sugar substitutes cause a "flare up" of IBS and then the imbalance of good bacteria would start it's cycle over because even though it was weak, it was there.
I can tell you DO NOT try to clean anything that was in contact with diarrhea during C-diff. It was explained to us that even the furniture can hold the contamination and re infect her......and in her weakened state it would probably be deadly. Because of MIL hoarding and no cleaning in her room at her house, 99% clothes and furniture were discarded in biohazard style, even the whole bed. ICU Dr told us if we didn't comply a child or elderly person visiting the house would almost certainly pick up the bacteria. Chlorine bleach is the ONLY thing that will stifle the germ, not purell or alcohol.
Please be attentive to this horrible bacteria, many do not survive the imbalance of it in our system.

@treatmenttime - this is the first I have heard of sugar or sugar subs causing c-diff to flare. I am going to look into that, because my mother, being diabetic, uses the substitutes daily in her tea. Thanks for the heads up. :)

Heads up for those taking antibiotics to combat C dif. I just read this article and it does make sense. I experimented last year. Whenever I take antibiotics, I always get yeast infection. Always. I remember seeing the commercials on probiotics and yogurt. I don't care for pills, so I decided to take simultaneously the antibiotics and the yogurt. Sure enough, I did not have any flare ups of yeast infection. 2nd round of antibiotics - I ate yogurt also. No flare ups.

So, this is from the article I just read regarding C Dif:
If you want to avoid a “poop transplant” or RePOOPulation, there is a third option. Research shows regular use of probiotic supplements can help restore positive bacteria and crowd out the bad stuff, like C. diff. This may help protect you against getting infected in the first place.

Our advice: If you take an antibiotic, heartburn medication or need to go to the hospital, make sure you take a probiotic.

My brother is now home again after 2 bouts of Cdiff in rehab facilities. He still is on Vancomycin until March 4th. This medicine is so EXPENSIVE but if he has to have it, then that is what we must do. I heard liquid costs less but our pharmacy said they do not have liquid and it would have to be ordered from somewhere else?? Is this true? I was told that only hospitals and rehabs get the liquid??? Also what can we expect as far as bowel movements now? He is totally on adult diapers because of MS and so this is always going to be an issue. Can he get on some sort of bowel schedule so family is not always worrying about being called to duty anytime of day or night?? This can be very stressful to say the least!!! Oh and yes 1 more question....does anybody know what adult diaper is the best for bowel incontinence? some just do not work for this type of problem! Thanks for any advice and also for having some contact with other caregivers in my position. It really does help to hear your stories.

Yes, vancomycin is ridiculously priced. The last time my mom was on that, the rehab place told me they have their pharmacist mix up the IV form into a solution to drink. Needless to say, it didn't taste good at all, but they said it was a lot cheaper than the pills. Ridiculous that they have to go through all of that just to make it more affordable...big pharm at it's finest. As for the diapers and fecal incontinence, my mother uses the tab-style (NOT the pull-up style), as it's near impossible to get the pull-on ones off when they need to be changed and are dirty without getting "stuff" everywhere. (Plus they have to undress from the waist down to change them...) The sad thing is that it seems all the "big name" companies that make these undergarments are now migrating to the underwear-style because they THINK that's what people want - obviously they haven't asked for opinions on the matter from their consumers.

Yes, when they have diarrhea-like problems - pull ups are so messy. Be careful when you buy the ones that show "tabs" in the pictures. I bought 2 bags and it was "bikini-style". In other words, it did not cover ALL the area. Think the regular diaper as granny-panties and that other version as bikini-style. Bikini style is no good for diarrhea. Not enough coverage when their poop is very liquidy and just flows. Unfortunately, when it's runny, and they sit, it spreads out the poop and leaks. I read somewhere here, several times, of a diaper that is much better than the regular brands. Sorry, I can't remember the name. Maybe someone here reading this will know the brand.

I agree that it's getting harder and harder to find the TAB diapers. Kmart here has mostly the pull-ups. And only bring in limited supplies of the TABS. So, when I see it, I buy 5. Come back a week later - it's all gone and only pullups are left. We live too far away to order our supplies. We're dependent on the stores here.

Believe it or not, I found my mom 2 cases of diapers on craigslist of all places! There are also a TON for sale on eBay for decent prices - if you get mail, you can order them. It never hurts to check all sources.

I live in an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We should qualify for US domestic mail cost but a lot of sellers/companies (including Amazon and Barnes & Noble) view us as International. They won't accept orders from here. And if they do, they charge us international cost despite my telling them to do the Priority domestic Flat rate. I do order gloves via Ebay. It's still a savings even if the shipping cost is $19.00 or $25.00. I have to order the gauzes in Ebay because the quality is sooooo much better than what I can find on island. Here, the quality is so poor, you need atleast 2 gauzes to clean mom's trache and stomach tube. Whereas, I order it off-island, and the gauze is thick and very good quality that it doesn't unravel when it's time to clean her open wounds. Quite gross when you use the poor quality gauze and it unraveled and some of the string went INSIDE mom's stomach tube. Eeww!!! Really really gross! So, I am willing to spend whatever cost to get the good quality gauzes. I just ordered recently in Amazon - 10 packs of 100 gauzes for only $35.00 with FREE shipping!! I even emailed the seller telling them that this is such a steal - that I'm willing to pay $15.00 to help with the shipping cost. Seller wrote back thanking me but said, "No, it's free shipping." Wish I could find a seller who would tell me that above disposable latex gloves!! I go through those fast with 2 bedridden parents.

mom is almost 95, her birthday is Nov 11th.
we have been on a horrible rollercoaster ride for the past two months.
uti c-diff, uti c-diff on and on. shes very weak pitted edema in her legs ankles and feet. Hospice has come in and told us infection is one of the best ways to die and the patient usually goes to sleep (coma). so as of today we have taken her off all medications. I dont know if this is the right thing to do or not, I just dont want her to suffer any longer. Feeling sad and praying alot

(((hugs for sadcindy))) It really is hard watching our parents suffer. When meds only prolong the suffering instead of curing the problem I believe, no matter how difficult, that sometimes it is best to let nature take it's course. It is very sad, but what kind of life are they really living? Sometimes I think antibiotics are a hindrance instead of a help - and doctors are so afraid of lawsuits that they don't dare "not" treat an infection, even if they know it will never be cured. The whole situation is sad. May you find peace with your decision, and may your Mom find peace as well.