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I just got a call from my husband’s care facility that he has been acting out and so they think he should be checked for a UTI. He is uncooperative and incontinent. He won’t be able to just pee in a cup. Is there any other way they can test?

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If hubby won’t cooperate with sitting on the toilet, they may need to use an in and out catheter to get a sample, or a condom cathether with a leg bag. They had to use a catheter with my mom in the ER when she wouldn’t cooperate and sit on the toilet.
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I'm surprised they don't already know how to collect a sample from a client. I cared for Mom in her home, and her doc had a standing order for a urinalysis for a UTI.

The lab or Mom's home health nurse gave me "hats", plastic cups with wide edges. I'd place a hat under the toilet seat. I'd keep an eye on Mom and ensured she went to the bathroom, but didn't put toilet paper or feces in the hat. When Mom was finished, I'd pour out the urine into a lab's plastic jar, then take the jar to the lab.

For your husband, I would guess the facility should be able to get him to use the toilet, with the hat installed, at some point, but that would take some observation from the facility staff to make sure he made it to the toilet in time because of his incontinence, and the urinalysis is as "clean catch" as possible. I don't know if it's possible for you to assist in this. Good luck, BillsLiz.
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Those "plastic hats" that fit under the top toilet seat are disposable, so you can ask the Drs office if you can take it home to reuse it, along with a couple of sterile urine sample cups home, so you have them the next time you suspect a Urine Infection. If the Drs office has the white collection hat set up in the toilet Before the patient is directed into the lavatory to leave their specimen, he may not notice it is even there, and will pee right into it, just be sure that he does not flush the toilet!

If the patient is totally uncooperative, he may need to be catheterized, which is not all that difficult or all that uncomfortable in men.

Getting a catheter in both men and women is the cleanest collection possible, as outside debris and bacteria isn't collected in the sample, but not all Drs offices go to the trouble of doing it that way. Either way, a Urine Culture should be requested (and ordered by the Dr regardless), so the most appropriate Antibiotics are prescribed! Somme times they will start the patient on an interim Rx until the Culture is back in, usually about 3 days. It is said that Cranberry juice and increased fluid intake helps to flush bacteria, and lessen symptoms of a UTI, although I'm not sure about the "acting out and Mental side effects of Dementia patients.

I hope you get your Husband seen to, without too much difficulty!
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It is impossible to get a truthful uti reading in a bucket. The first urine that comes out will have bacteria. You first have to let some urine stream get lost into the toilet, THen you collect a sample of the mid stream,
ASsume it is either electrolyte imbalance, dehydration, and start to read up on giving either Mannose 4 g, every 4 hours, OR the easiest cheapest thing to do is give just 1/4 tsp baking soda in 8 oz of water and sip slowly. Swirl it around because the baking soda powder sinks to the bottom. Maybe add a liquid vitamin to it. Baking soda bakes the urine alkaline of whom the card belongs to, II assumed it was you, If you get the urine alkaline, the bacteria can not live, But that poses other problems if you do the baking soda too often,. So in the mean time try to learn why this is happening when baking soda enters the bladder..
I give my mom 1/4 tsp of Celtic Sea Salt in 4oz of water every morning to get my mom hydrated upon waking, If there is a refusal of the taste, add stevia with a splash of cranberry juice, Olive leaf liquid also works and is very potent if you get it from Barleans. Oregano oil is a choking hazard but behaves like antibiotic so do not use it unless you must and with supervision, as it causes massve choking episodes as it burns when it goes down so you have to dilute it with some coconut oil or butter and mix it into food till it disperses. DO NOT put oregano oil directly in the mouth. YOU CAN DIE from a choking fit. It is best to spread it into a saucey garlicy ginger tasting stew to hide the stinging taste of Oregano oil. Silver colloidal is also good. I have had the most luck with baking soda and keeping the bowels moving. But they say the baking soda puts your body off balance. I believe that, but what else is there?
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angelaK Oct 2018
Seems complicated..
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He is in a Memory Care facility, not a nursing home. They do not have an on-call physician. (I’ll be writing a letter to them about that.) He will be taken to an urgent care facility this morning by my son. I’ve called ahead and they know he won’t be an easy patient and that he has dementia. It’s hard to tell when he needs to urinate anymore. He cannot verbalize it and doesn’t understand what is happening anymore. The last time I visited him he told me his knee was freezing. Eventually I figured out he had urinated. Since he wears diapers I didn’t know if they could test from that. It sounds like they will need to catheterize him. I’ll let my son know. Thanks.
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Ahmijoy Sep 2018
I hope it went ok. Come back and let us know.
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Yes the can catharize him and get a clean specimen- they should know this but it may take a doctors order
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They did a strait cath on my Mom to get a specimen.
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Why aren't they using the catch basin that fits over the toilet seat?
He sits; he urinates. Clean catch urine sample.
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truthbetold Sep 2018
It isn't a clean catch like that. It is only a clean catch when the first urine stream does NOT get collected in the basin. The first urine that comes out will have bacteria in it which is always in the urethra. The midstream urine will be the best sample to collect as the first urine that comes out will wash out what ever bacteria is in the urethra. So many urine cultures come out positive but it is from bacteria that was in the urethra and not in the bladder. Then antibiotics get prescribed which good bacteria and probiotic microbe balance in the gut which get destroyed. The neurotransmittors need the good bacteria in order to make the brain work properly. So use other defences and bladder support before using antibiotics. There is no need to anymore.
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Yes, a catherization is possible but just another way to introduce another infection if he doesn't have one to start with! Use to have a device that looked like a condom you can slip over the penis and has a tube attached. Otherwise I would suggest pushing fluids and giving him an antibiotic. Or sitting him on a bedside commode after he has consumed a large amount of fluids and sit with him and distract him with something. A lot of dementia patients enjoy just folding wash clothes, looking at a picture album with a relative, etc until he voids. With a bad bladder infection they can get delirious and very confused and agitated.
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If a bad smell isn't present and you suspect UTI then they may use a catheter to get urine to test. Many docs rely on smell and symptoms though.
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