Urinary tract infection and delirium. Anyone experienced this?

I take care of a woman with dementia. Every time she gets a UTI, she get very confused. Last time she told me the house was under attack. There was a big cannon outside and we were surrounded with men with guns

Sometimes the symptoms of a stroke are simular to the symtoms of a UTI. This happened to my 89 yr old Mother. She was calling for a taxi and couldn't get her words out. We went to the ER and after many tests found out it was an UTI.
She now has cranberry juice every morning and the occurances of an UTI have diminished.

My mil is doing better, she knows I am not the cat anymore, ha ha, but she is going to have to receive a lot of physical, speech and occupational therapy. When released from the hospital, she will need to be in a rehabilitation facility until she gets her strength back. Hopefully after that she can come home, or so I hope. Thank you everyone for your support while we are going through this ordeal.

People will likely tire of my promoting this, but .. do some research on something called D-Mannose. It's a simple-sugar, most often derived from cranberries (and other fruits). It's still not tested by the medical community, but is reportedly effective in treating UTIs diagnosed as resulting from (most types of) e-coli bacteria.

The lady I caregive for has had recurrent, persistent UTIs (most often caused by e-coli, due to incontinence and a prolapsed, leaky rectum). In the last 4 years, she's been hospitalized so many times, we've literally lost count. I started her on the d-mannose after her last bout, and ... 3 months later, no sign of a new one. This is a record for her. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hope this helps someone!!

I hope that things turn out well. You should know something in the next day or two. Please let us know.

My mil was admitted for at least one night. She had an ekg, cat scan among many urine and blood tests. She is a very chaste and modest lady, she won't even let me help her bathe, but she seemed to want to keep lifting up her hospital gown and exposing herself. When we left for the night, the nurse was giving her a mild sedative to help her sleep. She refused to settle down and relax. Thanks everyone for your helpful advise on this uti.

FYI, I battled a vicious cycle of UTI with antibiotics, even infusions, with my mom. Then she would be hydrated and everything was lovely. Then she would slowly get dehydrated again, the UTI popped up and away we'd go.......

Try to make sure that your elder is drinking fluids......very important.....even eating will get fluids in them.....this may be easier for you than it was for me, as mom didn't like water, couldn't drink carbonated beverages, no caffeine or tea. I gave her Kool-Aid, tang, crystal lite.....now those little squirt bottles can flavor their water right away.....and try to keep track of how much they drink.

How was she when you left her? Did they admit her into the hospital or release her?

I am new to this site.. and YES a UTI does strange,strange things in the elderly. They seem to affect them worse if there is an already existing dementia.
My Dad is 81 with dementia that fluctuates from his usual mild to severe with delirium and delusions when there is a UTI present.
We have been battling this vicious pattern for 2 years.
Yesterday we just went through our 2nd cystoscopy in 3 months to try to get to the cause of them :(

Thank you, I feel better about her changed behavior.

UTI changes an elderly person's personality. I learned this first hand with father this past June. He could no longer tell if it was morning or night. He didn't want the TV or radio on. He became more angry and more verbally abusive - evening threatening to hit me. What was worse, he started to accuse me of trying to kill him. Every day, I was trying to kill him. When we finally got him to the ER, he was so buddy-buddy with the "hateful, selfish" son of his. He wanted him to get part of the land, etc.... After he got antibiotics and he became well, he actually have NO memories of what happened. He refused to believe me when I told him that he verbally gave the upper land to bro-of-next-door.....About 2 weeks ago, he started again with the signs and accusing me of trying to kill him. Sure enough, the home care nurse came and took urine sample. He has UTI Again. No surprise there since I saw the signs.

If MIL is diagnosed with UTI, try to remember her symptoms leading up to it. This way you have an idea of it's baaaaack....

A UTI can make an elderly person act very strangely for sure. I always knew something was wrong when my mom started acting like you describe, and I just called 911. Sure enough, UTI. UTI's seem to sneak up out of nowhere and in my experience can get dangerously bad in no time flat. I'd get your mom checked out soon just to be on the safe side. If your mom is acting weird, or totally out of character enough to scare you, I'd take that as a sign that she needs to be seen. It could be something else, but UTI seem to be pretty common in the elderly..