What else can we do about DF’s UTIs?

[AubergineParm]

DF is 82 and since January has had in dwelling catheters. Since then it has been UTI after UTI. He has been in hospital at least 5 times. He lives at home and has carers come in but resists washing daily and/or lies and says he has done it when he hasn’t.

He is too frail to have an op to deal with the underlying cause of needing the catheter. He did get but briefly put on a course of low dose ABs to take long term but then another doctor cancelled this and insisted he couldn’t have them. Doctors tell him to wash more and drink more and he promises he will but m even with caters hard to get compliance.

Is there anything else we could try and insist on? He has early dementia so won’t push to advocate for himself. Grateful for any ideas.

Bumping for you. Getting some people to drink water is a nightmare (see my late Gran 🙄).

I've recently started trying jelly drops for my DF www.jellydrops.com - I've only ordered the free trial for now to see if they help his water consumption.

It's early days for us but a friend recommended them as her DM had dementia and was very reluctant to drink she says they were brilliant.

If the catheter is going to be in place indefinitely, then id push for the GP to prescribe the low dose ABX again. He's at high risk due to the presence of a catheter, his behaviour and his dementia non of which you can change. So medication is the best option.

Yes these are great, I'd forgotten about them!

My mother had dementia and had ongoing UTIs which were sorted with long term low dose antibiotics. I think you'll have to insist and if a doctor refuses, get a second opinion or take him to a consultant urologist.

Thanks everyone , will need to have a go again at reinstating the anti biotics. So frustrating. Difficult as neither I nor Dsis live close so hard to manage remotely. So frustrating that they don’t seem interested in keeping him out of hospital!

Are they definitely UTIs?

Not just a nurse doing a dip and saying it's a UTI which is meaningless for catheters as they are always positive. It's poor practice to do this but I suspect will take decades to eradicate.

But hard signs such as a temperature, shaking, flu like illness, blood in urine.

If definitely UTIs then he may benefit from a supra-pubic catheter. If not definitely UTIs then his nurses need deterring from checking urine dips, he needs an assessment of him and any changes to make proper diagnoses of what is happen to him.

Continuous antibiotics is controversial and Microbiology will almost always tell you not to do it as you just create more resistant infections.

I guess it is possible some haven’t been but it has been being very unwell (flu like symptoms, blood in catheter, so tired can’t get up) that has led to going into hospital as opposed to dips. And at least one time it led to sepsis.

He has carers come out but they aren’t nurses, there are a lot of different people who come and quality varies.

Interesting point on dips, I didn’t know that.

Continuous low dose antibiotics is probably the only long term solution.

Also he should be taking D Mannose- this is a type of sugar that has been proven to discourage bacteria from sticking in the urinary tract and was recommended to my DF by a urologist. It doesn’t seem widely known about but I now take if I get a UTI. You can get powder or capsules