Cdiff odor?

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.

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

It smells not delicious. Toxic.

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.

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.

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.

Is it terrible that I really want to smell it now? As a NICU nurse I've never actually smelled it, and I'm feeling a little left out. Recognizing *the smell* is like a nursing rite of passage.