Laurie's Blogs.

Here's a response I got to the guest blog on treating cats...

Totally agree with Dani on the Blog: Letting a cat sniff around your head and hair is a must. I tend to use my nose a lot with dogs and my own cats. Don't know if it's because I have allergies to both dogs and cats, but there are definitely different smells as to how the animal is feeling and also what medical treatments they are on e.g. chemo.

Just thought I'd pass along.

Thanks for everything

Pat Leneck

It made me think about other times when I smell a patient…

Have you ever gotten your nose close to an infection… or open wound… or weeping incision to see if there is an infection, or better yet to determine the KIND of infection there is (if there is one)?  I was taught this skill as a student while doing a burns & wounds placement in a large hospital.  My supervising therapist would smell all of her patients wounds and when I questioned her on it,  I was enlightened about how different bacteria have different smells.  So from there on, I started to smell wounds and incisions (and leaky bladder 'back ends') to determine the same.  I should clarify… the leaky back-ends I smelled were only of dogs (not humans… that's just weird!)

So I thought I'd pass along this unique 'skill set' to all of you… and I did a wee google search to help me out - so you weren't just reliant on MY thoughts (and nose).

• People can smell that the immune system has gone into overdrive within just a few hours of exposure to bacteria, the researchers claim
• Scrofula, an infection of the lymph nodes, is reported to smell like stale beer, and a person who suffers from diabetes is known to sometimes have breath that smells of acetone.
• The association between immune activation and smell was accounted for, at least in part, by the level of cytokines present in the LPS-exposed blood. 
• That is, the greater a participant's immune response, the more unpleasant their sweat smelled.

_{Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2545347/Humans-SMELL-disease-Nose-detect-persons-immune-fighting-illness.html#ixzz3VmzIm6Qv} 

• The presence of putrid smell is the most specific clue to an anaerobic infection. The odour is caused by metabolic end-products of the anaerobic organisms, which are mostly organic acids.

Read more:  http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/495997_2

• Yeast infections may smell like bread or beer (like yeast essentially!)
• Fungal infections may also smell like 'dirty socks.
• A bacterial bladder infection may produce a pungent urine smell that hits your nose quickly and lingers in the air.
• Diabetes may produce a sweet or fruity smell to the urine

http://www.everydayhealth.com/ear-nose-throat/fungal-sinusitis.aspx

https://www.msu.edu/user/eisthen/yeast/symptoms.html

http://www.lifescript.com/health/centers/diabetes/articles/bad_body_odor_what_it_says_about_your_health.aspx

Oh… and finally a website (not science based… but anecdotal with many medical professionals waging in):

• E.Coli: smells somewhere between vomit and melting styrofoam - kind of tart, sweet, pungent & chemical.  Pretty much incites a gag reflex.
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa: grape-y, dirty socks/tortillas + rotting flesh combo
• C. Difficile:  horse-stable odour / smells like poop!
• Trichomonas: Fishy & foul
• Staph. Aureas: yeasty pus smell, also described as a strong skin smell with a secondary smell of bread
• Campylobacter jejuni:  rotting tomatoes with rotting flesh

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-358891.html

So I hope you were just as entertained reading these as I was by finding them… and hopefully you will be inspired to go smell your patients as well as treating them!!  Have fun with this!  Until next time… Cheers!  - Laurie