Cdiff odor?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

please describe the smell of cdiff

is comparable to?

Is it acid, sweet, spicy?

Sickingly sweet, similar to baby poop.

Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
Specializes in NICU, ICU, PICU, Academia.

You registered for this site to ask about what a certain kind of poop smells like? Really?

Troll much?

lets put it this way: Once you smell it, you won't forget it.

Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
jodispamodi said:
lets put it this way: Once you smell it, you won't forget it.

That sounds almost like an ad for a perfume or cologne, jodispamodi!

c-diff.jpg.d79aee83a96d28953f2d4acd845a2701.jpg

But the real question is... what does it taste like?

It smells not delicious. Toxic.

Specializes in Psych (25 years), Medical (15 years).
But the real question is... what does it taste like?

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It is foul. I got it due to taking the antibiotic Clindamycin. I was later prescribed Flagyl to get rid of the Cdiff. I haven't had it since it cleared up. It smells like a garbage can. It didn't get as bad as it can luckily because I knew what it was and sought help early on.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

It's a unique stench. The closest comparison I can think of is the smell of rotting, moldy fruit combined with baby poop. It's a sweet smell that sticks inside your nose, you can smell it for awhile after you leave the room it's in. Once you actually smell it, you'll forever more recognize it anywhere.

Specializes in Critical care, Trauma.

I have found out recently that C.Diff doesn't necessarily HAVE to have a smell.

30-something male patient with inflammation throughout entire GI tract -- esophogitis, gastritis, duodenitis, pancreatitis, colitis, etc... And this was not the main presenting problem, which was Etoh withdrawal (hence all the inflammation). Was intubated and sedated for several days and started having copious amounts of liquid stool that was somewhat dark, but what caught my attention was that it was viscous, almost oily in appearance, and it had literally no odor. There were times he'd have 600mL of stool every couple of hours, while his foley output was scant due to compounding renal issues, so you'd be emptying a fairly full bag of stool and still no odor. When the MD ordered a C.Diff test my initial thought was "okay, but it doesn't smell like C.Diff".

Wanna guess what it was?

I smelled it as soon as I saw this headline.

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