# What did people do about UTIs before antibiotics? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 8, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-do-about-utis-before-antibiotics/615181 "2012-03-08T18:17:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-do-about-utis-before-antibiotics/615181/1 "2012-03-08T18:17:42Z")
There’ve been a couple of threads about UTIs recently, and the takeaways I’ve been getting have been a) untreated UTIs can do really bad crap to you, and b) UTIs are really common. Now, antibiotics haven’t been available to treat UTIs for that long! (And neither have cranberries been widely available, I imagine.) And yet presumably there have been bacteria around the urinary tract, women having sex with all the associated bacteria, etc. for all the hundreds of thousands of years prior to being able to treat UTIs. So… my question is, what did they do? Have a large percentage of women in history been in excruciating pain most of the time? Did a lot of people die of things that turned out later to have been UTI complications? Heck, what do _animals_ do about UTIs? Do other female mammals get UTIs on a regular basis? If not, why not? What makes humans special? ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-do-about-utis-before-antibiotics/615181/2 "2012-03-08T18:33:43Z")
> [@raspberry\_hunter](#): > > Do other female mammals get UTIs on a regular basis? If not, why not? What makes humans special? I’ve heard that the direction in which you wipe after you poop makes a big difference in how likely you are to get UTIs. That makes me think that wiping back to front might cause a significant number of UTIs. Other female mammals don’t do that. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-do-about-utis-before-antibiotics/615181/3 "2012-03-08T19:08:05Z")
Many mammals get bladder infections. Without modern medical intervention, (warning, WAG numbers follow) 95% resolve uneventfully thanks to the immune system, 4.9% mostly resolve but leave some damage behind setting the creature up for increased risk of future infections/complications, and 0.1% sicken and die from the acute infection. ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-do-about-utis-before-antibiotics/615181/4 "2012-03-08T21:16:00Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Many mammals get bladder infections. Without modern medical intervention, (warning, WAG numbers follow) 95% resolve uneventfully thanks to the immune system, 4.9% mostly resolve but leave some damage behind setting the creature up for increased risk of future infections/complications, and 0.1% sicken and die from the acute infection. Ah, I see, thanks! So the majority of most human UTIs would presumably do the same, eventually. Are other mammals’ bladder infections as painful as humans’? Because it sounds from everything I’ve heard that the pain is so excruciating, most of the time, that you really _want_ to have that medical intervention. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-do-about-utis-before-antibiotics/615181/5 "2012-03-08T21:18:26Z")
Dogs definitely get UTIs. I only have experience with female dogs, tho - not sure if males get them. We’ve been discussing the possibility of my brother’s dog having a UTI since she has been “walking funny” and has had her leg buckle a couple times. I guess other than peeing more than usual and/or peeing in the house, this is a symptom of a UTI in dogs. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Violaceous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Miss\_Violaceous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Violaceous)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2012, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-people-do-about-utis-before-antibiotics/615181/6 "2012-03-08T22:02:45Z")
There is speculation that chronic cystitis was to blame or partially to blame for the death of Virginia Rappe, the young actress who died in the Fatty Arbuckle scandal. The cause of death was ruptured bladder and peritonitis.