Kidney infections often cause severe pain along the urinary tract, and several symptoms may accompany a urinary tract infection (UTI), bladder infection, or kidney infection. Life-threatening complications may result from a kidney infection, and it’s essential to seek immediate medical attention if you suspect this deadly condition. Additionally, returning to your doctor is important if you seek treatment for a kidney infection but notice your symptoms aren’t going away despite taking medication. When you seek timely medical attention, you reduce the likelihood of complications from a kidney infection. However, waiting to see if the infection subsides may result in hospitalization, as well as several days of antibiotic treatments.
Everyone is susceptible to urinary tract infections, and there are a few ways you may develop a kidney infection. Bacteria may enter your body via the tube that carries urine from your body, and that bacteria may grow and eventually reach your kidneys. Most kidney infections begin in this way. Another way that a kidney infection may develop is through the transport of bacteria somewhere else in the body that uses the bloodstream to reach the kidneys. If you have a heart valve or artificial joint, you may develop an infection at that site that could result in bacteria that travels through your body to the kidneys.
1. Back Pain
One of the confusing symptoms that you may experience with a kidney infection is back pain. Is your pain around the back a sign that you’ve been a little too active or that you slept in an odd position last night? Or, is your pain a sign of a kidney infection? The location of kidney pain will feel deeper than back pain, but the two sensations may occur at the same approximate level on your back. When paired with other signs of kidney infections, back pain is more easily diagnosed as kidney pain, but you shouldn’t ignore lingering pain around your back, even if that pain is your only symptom of a kidney infection.
2. Pain During Urination
The kidneys create urine when they remove waste and water from the bloodstream. Urine travels from the kidneys to the bladder through the ureters, which are tubes that connect the two. A kidney infection will change your urination schedule, and you may experience pain during urination where your urine appears much darker than usual. Pain during urination is also one of the signs of a bladder infection. An untreated bladder infection may spread to the kidneys without treatment, and the mild to severe symptoms of a bladder infection mimic several of those that you might exhibit during a kidney infection. Both conditions require medical attention.
3. Urinary Tract Infection
Developing a urinary tract infection (UTI) is significant for women, and almost half of all women will develop at least one UTI over the course of their lifetimes. Men may also develop UTIs, but with much less frequency. Women are also prone to repeat infections, particularly when they fail to treat UTIs before they become advanced and toxic to one’s health. When bacteria enters the bladder from the urethra, a bladder infection may develop. An untreated UTI that starts in the bladder may eventually spread to the kidneys, and the two conditions share several symptoms. When a UTI becomes a kidney infection, the symptoms often become much more severe and varied than with a bladder infection.
4. Cloudy Urine
The color and cloudiness of your urine may indicate a variety of ailments, and it may also indicate you’re perfectly healthy. Normal urine should appear clear and mildly yellow. When your urine changes appearance, it may be a sign of dehydration, a urinary tract infection, or a kidney infection. Cloudy urine may also appear pink with a UTI or kidney infection. The change in color and cloudiness may result directly from a kidney infection or from irritation in the ureters during a UTI or other infection. If cloudy urine is your only symptom, you may be experiencing dehydration. When accompanied by other symptoms, cloudy urine may indicate a UTI or kidney infection.
5. Chills
One of the symptoms you may experience when a UTI or bladder infection has spread to your kidneys is chills or shaking. Treatment for a bladder infection is best handled within a few days of experiencing the signs of a UTI, but an infection that has spread to the kidneys must be treated immediately. Feeling shaky, as well as feeling sick to the stomach and having a fever, indicate an infection has spread, migrated, or increased in severity. When left untreated, kidney infections may spread to the bloodstream and result in organ failure and death. Fortunately, a kidney infection may require nothing more complicated than a course of antibiotics, but it’s best to attend to it quickly if you begin to experience chills alongside other signs of a kidney infection.
6. Fever
Developing a fever may be a sign of an infection, but it’s not usually a condition that requires immediate medical attention unless it’s accompanied by other symptoms or the high temperature reaches more than 103 Fahrenheit. A fever may indicate your body is fighting a mild virus that will clear out on its own after a few days, or it may be a sign of a more severe condition. When an elevated temperature is accompanied by pain during urination, which is one of the most notable signs of a UTI and kidney infections, it’s important to make an immediate appointment with a doctor or visit an urgent care facility.
7. Fast Heart Rate
A fast heart rate that remains above 100 beats-per-minute even when you’re at rest may indicate tachycardia, which is the medical word for a fast heart rate. A fast heart rate may indicate several conditions like a reaction to a medication, consuming drugs or alcohol to excess, lung disease, or an overactive thyroid, as well as several other medical conditions. A fast heart rate is also one of the signs of a kidney infection, and it’s usually accompanied by other symptoms of a severe infection like chills, nausea, and vomiting. Severe symptoms mean your body is working overtime to fight the infection, and quick medical treatment is vital.
8. Nausea
Nausea is a common symptom for several issues that range from simple issues like motion sickness to severe illnesses like medication-induced throwing up and life-threatening problems like heart attacks, brain tumors, and kidney infections. If you feel nauseous, it’s possible that you recently ate some food that didn’t agree with you or have had a severe reaction to a smell. If you’re female, you could be pregnant, or you might be starting to experience the effects of gallbladder disease. However, like fever and vomiting, feeling sick to the stomach is a sign that a UTI has migrated to the kidneys and become a kidney infection, so it’s important to seek medical attention swiftly when you experience multiple signs of a kidney infection.
9. Vomiting
After experiencing a bout of nausea associated with a kidney infection, you may feel like vomiting. In many cases, remaining still and avoiding activity can reduce the likelihood of nausea turning into a bout of throwing up, but the presence of a severe kidney infection may make it impossible to avoid throwing up. If you start to feel sick to your stomach and you throw up without seeing any other symptoms, you probably don’t have a kidney infection. By the time you reach a point where you feel nauseous, it’s likely that you’ve already felt paint during urination, developed a high temperature, and experienced chills. Vomiting is not a condition to ignore, particularly when caused by a kidney infection, but it’s not always life-threatening when it occurs without other symptoms.
10. Fatigue
Fatigue is one of the signs of kidney infections, but it’s also a sign of kidney disease, as well as many other unrelated issues. Fatigue may indicate a thyroid condition, heart disease, anemia, or diabetes, or it may occur when your body is fighting an infection and must dedicate its resources to keeping the body functioning while the immune system fights the infection. When caused by kidney disease, fatigue is usually accompanied by dry, itchy skin, insomnia, and frequent urination. On the other hand, fatigue when caused by a kidney infection will usually appear alongside back pain and other common signs of kidney infections.
