Why can't I give long term antibiotics to an elderly dementia patient with Parkinson's?

Untreated UTIs eventually lead to kidney failure through sepsis. My mother's doctor said dying from kidney failure is the least painful way to go because you just fall asleep. I'm not saying you should allow this to happen, but if her overall medical condition(s), her overall quality of life isn't good, then maybe letting the next UTI take it's course is good for her - in the long run because her decline will continue. Some doctors, no, frankly, many doctors have no tact when it comes dealing with end-of-life care because medical schools don't train them to be compassionate about this type of care; they learn it on their own from patient experience. Maybe these doctors feels not treating the UTI is best for her based on her current quality of life. Instead of just treating the chronic UTIs, you need to find a doctor who will actually take the time to investigate why she's having them because it's not normal to have chronic UTIs at any age - especially 8 in 4 months. You didn't state what type of UTI? Fungal or bacterial? Both cause UTIs. Until you find this doctor, you need to put her on the highest dose possible of a probiotic to fight the bad bacteria that's taken over the good bacteria. If she has a Candida/fungal infection, then you should get something called D-Mannose. Look on Amazon. D-Mannose is the active ingredient in cranberry to fight UTIs. When people or doctors say to drink straight cranberry juice - they're flat-out wrong because juice has too much natural sugar and will worsen an existing Candida infection. You want only the D-Mannose. The body interprets all forms of sugar (fruit, table/white, honey, agave, dates, dried fruit, maltodextrin, high fructose corn syrup...the list of "sugar" in ingredients is very long, actually) - as sugar. Typically UTIs are caused by low stomach acid, thyroid imbalance/poorly managed thyroid medication, too much sugar (both table sugar and products with yeast, like bread, wine/beer) in the diet, holding the urine/refusing to pee, not changing diapers often, cather intolerance, feces in diaper that isn't changed often...and the such. Hopefully you can find a doctor who can actually tell you why she's having chronic UTIs.

Has she been seen by a urologist to determine why she keeps getting utis?

Once we got my mom on a regimen of a probiotic called re-Phresh (keeping the ph of her uro-genital are in balance) and on a vaginal estrogen suppository, the problem abated.

Thank you for your response rainmom, she has been in hospital 8 times in the last 4 months for delirium from uti's, we know the dementia will sadly end her life we just want to respect her wishes and give her at least more time at home so thought maybe prophylactic antibiotics might help? Clutching at straws really as the docs have suggested not treating and letting the infection kill her.

Long term use of antibiotics can kill all the bacteria in the body - good as well as bad bacteria. The body needs good bacteria to remain healthy. With out good bacteria the body can develop rampant yeast over growth resulting in infection. The body can also develop "C-diff" which is basically chronic diarrhea and it can eventually kill - it can be very difficult to cure. The body also can develop a resistance to antibiotics when on them continually- so that when you really need one to fight an infection it won't work. It's like building up a tolerance.

In some situations - like chronic UTIs a low dose antibiotic can be given on a daily basis.