Do you still need to treat E-coli at 100xE6 cfu/L ?

[mustang3]

Long story short...I had surgery on my urethra back in April and it's been one infection after another. I'm at a point now where I'm resistant to Cipro, I needed to do a round of IV genta two weeks ago to finally kill it off.

I felt great while I was on it everything cleared right up. My doc wanted cultures done once a week and the 1st one 6 days after the genta was fine, last Friday's came back showing the e-coli but I don't feel all that bad. Urine is a bit cloudy I fell a bit run down but nothing like I did 3 weeks ago when I needed the IV. I was feverish my urine looked like pea soup and felt like a bag.

I'm sick of being on meds for almost 2 months now I've increased the fluid intake and have continued on my usual 1500 cc's of vit C and cranberry supplements.

I'm allergic to Macrodantin so can't use that as a prophylactic, I'm on trymethroprime but the culture should resistance to Trymeth/Sulpha (I'm allergic to sulpha anyway) This cultures showed resistance to Cipro as well however sensitive to Clavulin/amoxi.

I'm I able to fight this thing off on my own or should I once again go on the meds? I have an appointment next week with my Urologist and I think I'm on a fast track to a SP cath. I cath myself 6 times a day at this point (been in a chair for 25yrs with a flacid bladder) it's the third surgery in 25 yrs on my urethra and there's a lot of scar tissue, doing caths is like a driving on a gravel road...not smooth at all. There are times that I can even fight through the strictures.

so much for the short story...thoughts, comments?

[thehipcrip]

The rule in the SCI/D population is that you only treat symptomatic infections, and never treat based on numbers alone. In the absence of a fever/chills, flank pain, leaking, elevated white blood cell count, malaise, or other symptoms, I'd say no thanks to more antibiotics.

[47+years]

Have you tried D-Mannose? It only works for E-Coli, though.

[mustang3]

Originally Posted by 47+years

Have you tried D-Mannose? It only works for E-Coli, though.

I have...started about 10 days ago, not really sure if it works at all. Anyone have the dosage of the D-Mannose?

[mustang3]

Originally Posted by thehipcrip

The rule in the SCI/D population is that you only treat symptomatic infections, and never treat based on numbers alone. In the absence of a fever/chills, flank pain, leaking, elevated white blood cell count, malaise, or other symptoms, I'd say no thanks to more antibiotics.

that's what I'm leaning towards

[Craig80]

From my experience 12-20 grams/day. Recently I had a 100,000/ml e-coli colonization. I used a combination of Vetericyn VF, d-mannose, and raw garlic. Took a few weeks but my test strips are now negative. My guess is Vetericyn and D-mannose work at the surface and garlic in the tissue. The downside of garlic it's hard on the digestive tract. I use 6-8 cloves for a few days and then start cutting back until 1-2 cloves/day. I soak the garlic in olive oil and eat with guacamole. At some point I stop the garlic.

[mustang3]

Is the regular Vetericyn just not worth it. I can find it easy enough and have been using it but it obviouly hasn't had much effect. VF formula is not as easy to find in Canada

[Craig80]

That's unfortunate, when it gets bad even the VF takes some time. No wonder the company is going broke, it should be available in Canada.

[gjnl]

Originally Posted by mustang3

Is the regular Vetericyn just not worth it. I can find it easy enough and have been using it but it obviouly hasn't had much effect. VF formula is not as easy to find in Canada

When I started using Vetericyn, Vetericyn VF (VVF) was not available. Vetericyn, Microcyn, and Puracyn, are all the very same formulation. VVF (VF stands for Veterinarian Formula and is intended to by used by and only available to licensed veterinarians.

I used Vetericyn for a number of months before I started using VVF and had good results. Results do depend on whether your bladder is infection free, colonized or in full blown infection at the time you start using it. From anecdotal accounts, I know of people who have been able to overcome a colonized bladder with Vetericyn. Overcoming colonization may take up to 60cc of Vetericyn 2 times a day. I don't recall every reading about someone being able to overcome a full on urinary tract infection. Generally, someone with an active infection will take the appropriate antibiotics and start Vetericyn as a maintenance regime about midway through the course of antibiotic treatment.

All the best,
GJ

[SCI-Nurse]

What are your symptoms of "UTI"?????
Colonization or true UTI? and Sptube is going to do what? evidence doesn't show it necessarily decreases UTI.(maybe in a female?)
You still have a direct route to your bladder.
CWO