I have a patient that had a major seizure a few months ago. She was rushed to the hospital. All kinds of tests were conducted to see what could have caused the seizure since she was taking her prescribed medications. When it was all said and done the only thing they could find was that she had a UTI. The doctors were convinced that it was the source of the seizure. Anything that causes the neurological system to become off balance can trigger a seizure in some patients.
Yes...Yes…Yea…UTI can mimic seizures, dementia and TIA…My Mom’s UTI caused by a bacterial infection, went to kidney causing sepsis. Doctor diagnosis in beginning 1st it was dementia, then Tia, and grand mal seizure, yet my mom never had any of these issues in past. I research and argued with doctors who gave up on my Mom. She went though this for almost a year in and out of emergency and hospital, I never gave up. Finally one doctor listen, pull her cultures that I requested in Emergency after her fourth seizure. Mom had used numerous new type of antibiotic in past year, mostly Levaquin and Cipro, but never the older penicillin base. She had a problem years ago with being allergic to penicillin. They gave her the penicillin and a standby shot incase she had an allergic reaction. The doctor explained the old penicillin was different than the new base penicillin that is why she was able to use penicillin. After a day in the hospital she was released and 14 day twice a day a nurse came to my home and gave her a shot in the hip, (remember those shots in the past?) Her dementia, seizures, tia, uti, sepsis, and all other symptoms went away. I had 10 great years with my Mom until she past from cancer. Never give up and research like you are doing now…Char
My mom was also over-medicated even the second time when I warned them about her tendency toward delirium. She only weighed 95 lbs and they gave her dosages for a 200+ lb person...insane!
Meds this person was on were the first thing that came to my mind.
My mother had more adverse reactions to meds than for any real ailments. UTI's can even be precipitated by the use of antibiotics! The AL facility's nursing staff , where she lived, along with Mother's doctors, were responsible for recommending more meds than my mother could tolerate. A Z-pack, followed by Tamiflu, made her totally out of her head! Others were ready to declare "dementia" or "incapacitated". I knew her history and just wanted her to survive until these medications were out of her system! I took her into my home, and found new doctors for her, ones who would listen and understand her sensitivities. THEY acknowledged that older folks can not take doses as large as younger adults can. As the medications left her system, she returned to normal and lived a happy, healthy life. She died just short of her 100th birthday! She never had dementia, and we got to share much. I'm glad I was able to take her home.
A UTI may have caused my mom to have a mild heart attack and fall and break her left hip. When she was admitted to the hospital for the broken hip, she showed markers for a heart attack and definitely had a UTI. She was in the hospital for 7 days. The UTI came back in rehab. She was combative and confused in both places, so I would not be surprised if it can also cause seizures if left unchecked long enough.
Cared, you bet it does! UTI's send my mom over the edge. Sibs thought I was lying about that until they decided to move her to a memory care facility. Then ber behaviors became off the charts! So what does sis do? Takes her to the ER thinks it must be a UTI. I was fairly certain it wasn't because mom is on meds to try to prevent them. It wasn't a UTI, but they admitted her for a psych eval to get her meds straightened out. UTI's do absolutely crazy things to our elderly, especially those with dementia.
Please help to me understand...I 'm overwhelmed to find out that urinary tract infection's has such an effects for a person that has Dementia. This may explain for some of my 88 year old Mother...behavior .
As said above UTI's in the elderly cause different symptoms than in younger adults many mimic stroke or seizures, this happened once years ago with my mom thought for sure she had another stroke...ER doctor said she has a UTI, sure enough when the test came back that was it! Now I can usually tell, mood, actions, smell. They have been basically cut down to zero after taking over her care but she was in the hospital where they gave her a bunch of laxative and didn't clean her up in a timely manner so she just went through a bad one there! The biggest thing is make sure they are kept clean!!!!! Make sure whoever is doing the care giving KNOWS how to correctly clean the patient...I have seen people involved in elder care for 18 years clean patients incorrectly and every time they get a UTI.
One addendum: whether you can do much about a stroke is dependent on whether it is an occlusion or a hemorrhage of course, no matter how early you catch it.
Katie222, Just a side note about the fact the medical people tend to jump to the thought that the confusion is caused by a stroke, instead of thinking UTI first. Well, likely in most facilties that have an entirely elderly population, they should be thinking UTI, but ALWAYS responding as if it may be a stroke. The stroke must be eliminated, fast. Because if discovered in the first hour or so, you can treat it and prevent permanent deficits. If treatment of a UTI is a few hours late, it can still be treated and cured. If treatment for a stroke is a few hours late, the patient is likely paralyzed, brain damaged or dead.
With the elderly, the "normal" symptoms of a UTI often do no manifest. (like: pain, burning, frequent strong urge to urinate, incontinence) meanwhile for them, the confusion is common. Even the foul odor may not be present with the UTI, and this last is not age specific.
Lifeexperiences: If your father is urinating in a jar, and it sits there for a while, the foul smell is to be expected, as bacteria will grow in the urine while it sits. Also it likely it has an ammonia like odor as well. This is due to the fact that normal urine of protein eating mammals has large amounts of urea, which breaksdown into nitrogen. Nitrogen (N) in water eventually combines to form ammonia. (NH3)
I always thought UTIs would just cause burning and urgency. In older people it causes behavioral issues. My Mom has had delirium several times in the last year from UTI's. She needs a catheter as she is 100% bedridden. I can always tell when a UTI is coming on from her restlessness at night...then confusion, seeing things and people not there and dark blood in the catheter. When she was hospitalized with delirium she would babble and grab at the air and try to get out of bed...not a good idea for some one that cannot walk of stand. When she recovered she was dismayed to hear that she did this. UTI's are so scary in old people...It seems a lot of medical people don't understand this and right away think it is a stroke. I suppose it is good to test for strokes...but in my Mom's case it was always the UTI causing the frightening delirium... .When people are dying they have "end of life" symptoms like seeing people in the room etc...so how can you tell if it is dying or a treatable UTI?? Very confusing.
No matter the current medical issues, dementia or not, ALL geriatric care centers run Urinary analysis first, and sometimes that's the only test until that's resolved. What we think of UTI is very different with elderly and chronically ill people. You would need a doctor to explain it in depth. However, UTI does cause many many behavoiral changes sometimes extreme, like what you stated in your question.
I had a UTI last week and I can tell you I thought I was going crazy (I'd never had one before and didn't have a clue..my daughter was here and she told me "Mom, you have a raging UTI!!") So, when my mother would get one, she would go nuts--babbling and delirious. Once I was at my brother's and she took me aside and said, "Come look at my pee"--she was peeing blood and thought it was caused by the beets she'd eaten the week before. I had her in the ER within 10 minutes. Drs saw the "urine" specimen and almost freaked out. She'd probably had it for a week or more. She also fell a lot and was very confused. She has struggled with UTIs regularly until they finally placed a pubic catheter and she seems to be doing a lot better. I, (age 59) had massive panic attacks until the antibiotic kicked in. Made me a lot more sympathetic!!
A UTI in a senior can cause all sorts of things. My mother, 93, was disoriented, developed a secondary infection they could not identify and brought in an infectious disease specialist. After 3 days on a bear of an antibiotic intravenously (vanco) her white blood cell count started to come down, no longer delirious, and eating normally. She had no symptoms; no pain or burning, no fever. The only reason we knew something was wrong was she was bonkers. Consult WebMD if you don't have a doctor to discuss this with but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if this would hPpen as a side effect since an unchecked UTI can wreck havoc on a seniors body and brain.
My husband had min strokes before his major one and I will say yes he had them too truns out he was on med for it for years before then abuth 6mo after he had a major attack after saying he felt sick the 911 took him to hospital they called said he was cold but not sick sending him home two min later they called and said he was going to better hosptail had 4 more attaces s they kept him three days to be sure he was not having a major stroke agine then sent him home on new meds that over time had to be upgraded to max dose do the doctors know what a relief strok is no but minn strcks are warnings of major ones had the second happens he would have passed so I am happy it was epolepcy and not a second big one he was told smoking did it and I believe it as I have seen many young people who have many bad effects from those things
wow...scary stuff! i read that there the urine has a horrible odor with a UTI...and my dad pees in a large jar next to his bed because its tooooo hard to get to the bathroom. wen i empty that in the morning...omg...i have to hold my breathe...it knocks me out..ugh!!! anyway went to the doctor...and he didn't have it.
Confusion, delirium, weakness leading to falls all are common symptoms of UTIs in elderly patients. And anything that can cause a high fever can cause a seizure in anybody. .....(FWIW I'm an RN, retired after 28 years due to constraints of care giving for my parents.)
Whenever my mother gets an UTI her symptoms are always severe, she talks and makes no sense, falls, and is totally out of it. One time she had to be in rehab for a month to start functioning again. Her symptoms definitely mimicked a stroke.
UTI plus over the top medications causes my mom to get hospital delirium. Even though I warned them the last time, they still over medicated her and she had a high bacteria count though not enough to be a UTI. These in-patient rehabs do not seem to get it until it happens. Then they assume dementia.
I found my mom in the closet delirous. At the hospital they xrayed for a stroke but could not tell since she was shot in the head about 35 years ago. The only other thing found was a UTI infection. She was in terrible pain could not walk or sit and was delirous and confued. When they released her Hospice thought she was in the last phases of dying. The hospital had her on antibiotic for the infection. Now that i have learned the symptoms that the aged gets with a UTI i believe that is what was wrong with her . Possible she had a mini stroke along with the UTI. . It took her awhile to get back to normal.
Private in the elderly, especially those with dementia, because of natural physiological changes in the urinary tract UTI's do not exhibit the nomal symptoms.
From my own personal experience from my first and only UTI, I would definitely have to say no. I happen to have myoclonic seizures, and when I had the UTI, it had been brewing for a while before I had to turn for medical help because I didn't even realize I had it. Mine did not cause anything more than pain, so therefore it did not cause a seizure.
I will qualify this with I am not a medical professional, but one thing that happened with my mother relating to UTI was delirium. She was bonkers.
So it may not be related to the symptoms you saw. Is there a doctor or nurse you can pose that question to? I think you may be onto something, but can't be sure.
My mom had seven UTI's in a year. One of those she exhibited stroke symptoms, couldn't walk speech was garbled. Looked like a stroke. Only thing tyey found was the UTI?
Mom had used numerous new type of antibiotic in past year, mostly Levaquin and Cipro, but never the older penicillin base. She had a problem years ago with being allergic to penicillin. They gave her the penicillin and a standby shot incase she had an allergic reaction. The doctor explained the old penicillin was different than the new base penicillin that is why she was able to use penicillin. After a day in the hospital she was released and 14 day twice a day a nurse came to my home and gave her a shot in the hip, (remember those shots in the past?) Her dementia, seizures, tia, uti, sepsis, and all other symptoms went away. I had 10 great years with my Mom until she past from cancer. Never give up and research like you are doing now…Char
My mother had more adverse reactions to meds than for any real ailments. UTI's can even be precipitated by the use of antibiotics! The AL facility's nursing staff , where she lived, along with Mother's doctors, were responsible for recommending more meds than my mother could tolerate. A Z-pack, followed by Tamiflu, made her totally out of her head! Others were ready to declare "dementia" or "incapacitated". I knew her history and just wanted her to survive until these medications were out of her system! I took her into my home, and found new doctors for her, ones who would listen and understand her sensitivities. THEY acknowledged that older folks can not take doses as large as younger adults can. As the medications left her system, she returned to normal and lived a happy, healthy life. She died just short of her 100th birthday! She never had dementia, and we got to share much. I'm glad I was able to take her home.
This may explain for some of my 88 year old Mother...behavior .
Overwhelme
Lifeexperiences: If your father is urinating in a jar, and it sits there for a while, the foul smell is to be expected, as bacteria will grow in the urine while it sits. Also it likely it has an ammonia like odor as well. This is due to the fact that normal urine of protein eating mammals has large amounts of urea, which breaksdown into nitrogen. Nitrogen (N) in water eventually combines to form ammonia. (NH3)
.When people are dying they have "end of life" symptoms like seeing people in the room etc...so how can you tell if it is dying or a treatable UTI?? Very confusing.
So it may not be related to the symptoms you saw. Is there a doctor or nurse you can pose that question to? I think you may be onto something, but can't be sure.
Very high temperatures especially in young children can cause seizures
My mom had seven UTI's in a year. One of those she exhibited stroke symptoms, couldn't walk speech was garbled. Looked like a stroke. Only thing tyey found was the UTI?