Odor from urinary catheter won't go away. Any suggestions?

My husband has a suprapubic catheter. He has had a proteus infection before and that makes the urine really stinky. He is feeling/acting MUCH better since they treated the infection. However, it that's not an option, try lemon water. That will change the pH of the urine and keep the proteus from making crystals. Also I have found that leaving him on a night bag all the time works better than changing bags and washing them out. He hasn't had an infection since I started keeping him on the night bag. I tried the vinegar bladder washout (talk to your urologist) but couldn't see that it helped and it introduces more bacteria to the bladder even if you're careful. You can get some urine pH strips and experiment to see if changing the pH of the urine has any effect.

My mom would make a cath bag last far past it's 'sell by' date. She also had problems cleaning them-one for daytime use and a larger one for overnight.

When I would clean her bathroom, I would always see one or the other bag hanging up to 'dry' and there was always a measure of dark brown urine in the bag. Not my place to clean it, and I never did. She simply didn't have the patience or the skills to clean them. I offered to buy her more, so she could have fresh ones and she always refused.

The smell got pretty awful at times. No amounts of vinegar in bowls would have helped--you have to remove the actual source.

Once the doc removed the supra-pubic cath and bag and mom went into adult diapers, the smell was not so bad. She wouldn't toss the used diapers but only once a week, so the smell was still there, but not nearly as bad.

Does she have home nursing or home hospice? A couple of visits by an RN or nurse practitioner or a physician could help sort this out. I have often been astonished at how quickly hospice can sort out problems like this, and I'm an RN who has worked in rehabilitation. They cope with and solve issues like this all the time and have developed lots of possible solutions customized to various situations.

I've heard the part about bacteria being common for those with catheters from my dad's docs. When any amount of urine sits in the bladder or anywhere, it will cultivate bacteria. Since the urine isn't flowing downward out of your mom's bladder but through the catheter, she will have more bacteria in her urine.

The only thing I can think of to address the smell at the catheter site is for your mom to shower more frequently and wash the area/catheter thoroughly with soap. You can use a vinegar solution to wash out the bags.

Lysol and Febreze sprays could improve the general house smell. I sympathize with how those odors get into soft surfaces and linger forever. I had a good result using upholstery cleaner and a Febreze spray. The generic ones are cheaper if you're using them often.

My late husband had a supra pubic catheter for the last 2 years of his life and never once had any odor coming from it.
I emptied the bag once in the morning and once in the evening, and the catheter itself including the bag was changed out every 4-6 weeks.
Is your moms catheter(including the bag)being changed(meaning taken out and a brand new once placed in)every 4-6 weeks(as recommended), as I never once had to "wash out the bag" in the 2 years my husband had his?
Something definitely sounds wrong here. It could be because she does have an UTI, and left untreated could turn into something much worse.
Can she not temporarily go off the medications that don't play well with the antibiotic so it can at least get it cleared up to see if that won't help?
My husband though did have several UTI's while he had his catheter and never once did I smell a bad odor coming from his urine.
I can't imagine having to live with that smell in my house. I hope you get things figured out soon.

The bag needs to be changed with frequency. You can look up catheter care online everywhere and even on youtube will find videos. So it is sterile change of the tubing and bag that needs to be done. Irrigation up the final tube into urethra and bladder should not be done unless by sterile syringe, sterile method, sterile saline solution, and unless it is ORDERED by the doctor. You mention infection, and will need more frequent bag changes with same.
Infections with indwelling catheter is almost inevitable because the catheter itself is moving up and down and in and out of the urethra, often contaminated by stool or incomplete cleansing. This carries bacteria into the urethra itself which in age has lost its plump tissue that clasps a catheter where it enters the body.

She has a UTI and they are not going to do anything! Your Mom could contract sepsis and that kills.

A nurse here on site recommends D-Mannose to help prevent UTIs and I read it may clear them up. Not sure if cranberry tablets would help clear up but you can try. Tablets not juice. Juice has sugar in it and that feeds things like yeast infections.

Try using bowls of vinegar around.